Tech wise, I think what bugs me the most is that we're paying more and more for normal parts.
Processors used to cost around a hundred bucks--half that if you were getting a budget chip (Celeron). Now, processors cost around 300-500 bucks or 200ish for a cheap proc.
Video cards used to cost around 30-50 bucks--half that if you were getting a cheapola (Virge). Now, an average video card costs around 300-500 or 150 if you aren't much of a gamer.
Hard drives around the 120GB mark used to cost about $100. They were nearly the largest available drives at the time. Now, an average drive somebody will purchase costs about $200. Half of that if they barely use any space.
It's getting harder to make an impressive machine, now that normal parts are costing 100, 200, even 300% more than they used to. That's what really bugs me. Five years ago, it wasn't terribly expensive to have a terrabyte of storage, two gigs of RAM, a fast processor, and a speedy video card. Try to be impressive now and you'll need about four or five terrabytes of storage, four gigs of memory, a dual core or two, and two dual GPU cards in SLI. Cost then: maybe a grand and a half. Cost now: three to five grand.
