WATCH OUT FOR RAM PRICES!

Winuser · Feb 4, 2026

Scannerman said:
Back in April I was paying $85 Canadian for this set tax and shipping included. Now the same set costs over $250??

And to think that some people would actually pay this much to get fleeced. Masochism at its finest.

View attachment 154442

I have been thinking about upgrading my two desktops from 16GB to 32GB for a long time. It's something I've been wanting to do and not something I had to do. Two days ago I decided to go ahead and do the upgrade before the prices got any higher. I bought two 16 GBs of CORSAIR DDR4 memory from Amazon. I'm going to install them in my PowerSpec B76 desktop and put the two 8GB memory sticks in the older PowerSpec G156 desktop. I not really happy with the price but that's what I get for procrastinating. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07RW6Z692?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title

hader · Feb 4, 2026

Winuser said:
I think that it's possible the memory is out of stock so they over inflated the price so people wouldn't try to buy it. I've seen it done a few times on other products. My guess is that they do it in case the products ever became available again they would just need to change the price.

Possibly. PC retailers are thinking of the BYOR concept. They want to sell PC's and don't want to be bogged down by DDR5 RAM that is not available for a normal price or for a price that is ridicules. BYOR means; "Bring Your Own RAM" Order a PC; send them your RAM and they will place and test it and give back to whole new configuration. 1 Retailer called Maingear is already using this concept. I think if this will continue more retailers are adopting this concept.

It's this or sell PC's with an insane price that nobody want to pay for it. Alternative; Don't sell PC's anymore just the components for it. Some company's do both. They will then temporarily fase-out the complete PC part.

Bring your own RAM? This new strategy for buying a PC hurts

On the same day our staff imagined this as a possible trend for 2026, Maingear comes right out and proves that we’re not crazy. But also, this is crazy.

www.pcworld.com

Winuser · Feb 4, 2026

hader said:
Possibly. PC retailers are thinking of the BYOR concept. They want to sell PC's and don't want to be bogged down by DDR5 RAM that is not available for a normal price or for a price that is ridicules. BYOR means; "Bring Your Own RAM" Order a PC; send them your RAM and they will place and test it and give back to whole new configuration

I can see how that would save a buyer a few dollars provided they have the RAM to send to the company. If I was buying one of their computers I would save the time and money and install the RAM myself.

Scannerman · Feb 4, 2026

Winuser said:
I have been thinking about upgrading my two desktops from 16GB to 32GB for a long time. It's something I've been wanting to do and not something I had to do. Two days ago I decided to go ahead and do the upgrade before the prices got any higher. I bought two 16 GBs of CORSAIR DDR4 memory from Amazon. I'm going to install them in my PowerSpec B76 desktop and put the two 8GB memory sticks in the older PowerSpec G156 desktop. I not really happy with the price but that's what I get for procrastinating. Amazon.com

Just know that when you move from 16GB to 32GB you are likely to take a hit in latency and if you OC your RAM it's pretty much a sure deal that you won't get the higher speeds you used to. Everything is a trade off. If you game odds are 16GB is adequate. If you do a lot of video rendering, multi-tasking, and spend time every day moving large amounts of data around then the extra RAM will come in handy.

Scannerman · Feb 4, 2026

hader said:
Possibly. PC retailers are thinking of the BYOR concept. They want to sell PC's and don't want to be bogged down by DDR5 RAM that is not available for a normal price or for a price that is ridicules. BYOR means; "Bring Your Own RAM" Order a PC; send them your RAM and they will place and test it and give back to whole new configuration. 1 Retailer called Maingear is already using this concept. I think if this will continue more retailers are adopting this concept.

It's this or sell PC's with an insane price that nobody want to pay for it. Alternative; Don't sell PC's anymore just the components for it. Some company's do both. They will then temporarily fase-out the complete PC part.

Bring your own RAM? This new strategy for buying a PC hurts

On the same day our staff imagined this as a possible trend for 2026, Maingear comes right out and proves that we’re not crazy. But also, this is crazy.

www.pcworld.com

I first heard about this on Level One Techs. I'd say it's a good deal for the seller as they won't be liable for anything going wrong with the RAM. Takes a load off the retailer and puts it back on the buyer. My advice to anyone in the market these days is to buy used or refurbs. If you already have a PC that does what you want be content with what you have. The less people buy ANYTHING that includes silicon these days the more likely it is that prices will eventually drop for the domestic end user in the future.

Sure. Nice, shiny, and new is very appealing but the retailers know this and the racketeers are ready to have a hay day with it. The more folks continue to buy at these prices the more they will continue to increase. Silicon will never be near what it cost last year. Those days are long gone, but if you can get by with what you have then do yourself and the world a favour and learn to work with what you have. Triple and quadruple pricing is beyond sensibility —— especially during these hard economic times.

hader · Feb 9, 2026

And more bad news. This will affect more and more things and won't be solved in the near future. The PC market is now really broken.

PCUser · Feb 9, 2026

CarlSD said:
Same RAM at another place:

Kingston FURY BEAST RGB Black 128GB (4x32GB) 5600MHz DDR5

"Only" $2769 there (limited to 2 per household - I assume they mean 2 lots of 4 sticks, not 2 sticks).

Or USED on EBAY for $999 . Is it still good?

https://https://www.ebay.com/itm/127005424770?

www.ebay.com/itm/127005424770?

PCUser · Feb 9, 2026

hader said:
And more bad news. This will affect more and more things and won't be solved in the near future. The PC market is now really broken.

Clearly, that's an AI generated video complete with wrong NVIDIA logo spelling GVDDIA? and when he says the price, his AI generated voice starts breaking up. Careful, lots of misinformation and fake AI posts out there.

Scannerman · Feb 9, 2026

This old dinosaur has decided to draw the line on DDR5 system memory. I'll never use it. Glad to have secured my 128GB of DDR4 back in April for $350. The same RAM would cost me over $1400 to replace now. I currently own two work stations running 128GB of DDR4 system RAM and that's good enough for me. One of these will be backing up my backups of my backups because it's always good to have backups.

I'm just a spectator from a golden age when building PCs was a lot of fun and learning how to use them was exciting. Watching the drama and abuse pass by only serves as temporary entertainment as AI continues to devastate the market. This old codger could say, "See, I told you so" but this solves nothing. I am content to continue with my surgical techniques on Windows OS as I learn the ins and outs of Linux.

I kind of feel bad for all the young guys and gals out there trying to keep the dream alive, but methinks the directive is clear: Get everyone back on glorified word processors and have them all plug into the BORG. IMO the age of personal computers is dying. Privacy has become more of a myth and property is vast becoming the other tenth of the law. Anyway, that's my take on it. It's been a slice.

RazorKat83 · Feb 10, 2026

I've noticed SSD Prices have gone up, too

Scannerman · Feb 10, 2026

RazorKat83 said:
I've noticed SSD Prices have gone up, too

Yup. Anything silicon. CPUs will be next.

hader · Feb 11, 2026

PCUser said:
Clearly, that's an AI generated video complete with wrong NVIDIA logo spelling GVDDIA? and when he says the price, his AI generated voice starts breaking up. Careful, lots of misinformation and fake AI posts out there.

Don't know. Using AI picture inside a video is more common now. That's not important. Just listen what he says; the message. That's not fake or misinformation! Those company's that make products out of silicon wafers can't keep up with the demand. They are expanding yes but such a high tech factory isn't there on one day to the next. Even our Dutch cutting-edge tech company ASML (ASML at a glance) does feel the increase of demands of AI. Those high tech factory's are using the machines that ASML builds. ASML is world leader if we talking about producing chipmaking machines. Every big tech company's (TSMC, Intel, Samsung, and SK Hynix) are buying their machines. Sold 600 machines in 2024, 580 in 2025 and now? Demand will be higher that 600 in 2026. Their order stock is full. The demand for High NA (2nm), Low NA (7, 5, 3nm) EAV (Extreme UltraViolet) machines is on the rise. They have sold mainly DUV (Deep UltraViolet) machines. (For traditional chips) Even they can't keep up with the demands now. This will hit every major big tech company's that are building chips. Even Intel will feel that so we will feel it also in our wallets..... All because of the need of AI.

Don't take my word for it;

RazorKat83 · Feb 11, 2026

Scannerman said:
Yup. Anything silicon. CPUs will be next.

Good thing i'm good for a while. I do need a couple of extra SSDs just to have on hand. Trying to come up with a little money before they skyrocket

john1955 · Feb 11, 2026

If you watch Asianometry you would know why these shortages happen. Someone just misjudged future demand a while back. Sometimes the market misjudgement goes the other way and there's a huge surplus of one thing or another. It will take time for the industry to make the corrections. It's always a gamble that one thing or another will be in high demand and sometimes they get it wrong.

Scannerman · Feb 11, 2026

RazorKat83 said:
Good thing i'm good for a while. I do need a couple of extra SSDs just to have on hand. Trying to come up with a little money before they skyrocket

Too late. They already have. Most SSDs are practically double what they used to cost. Back in April it was easy to find a stick of NVMe with a capacity of 1TB sell for less than 80 bucks tax included. Sometimes you could get them on sale on Amazon for $69.95 but they were not the best quality. Try finding one for that price now.

john1955 said:
If you watch Asianometry you would know why these shortages happen. Someone just misjudged future demand a while back. Sometimes the market misjudgement goes the other way and there's a huge surplus of one thing or another. It will take time for the industry to make the corrections. It's always a gamble that one thing or another will be in high demand and sometimes they get it wrong.

More like sometimes someone gets greedy and buys up half the supply.

Scannerman · Feb 14, 2026

One can only hope.

PCUser · Feb 20, 2026

Ouch. The PLOT thickens . . .

More nightmare fuel . . .

The RAM shortage is coming for everything you care about

It’s not just desktops, it’s phones and laptops and consoles, and it’s getting worse.

RAMageddon: The RAM shortage is coming for everything you care about

Did you think you could escape?

www.theverge.com

www.theverge.com/tech/880812/ramageddon-ram-shortage-memory-crisis-price-2026-phones-laptops

Scannerman · Feb 20, 2026

Yup. I kinda stated that already.

Anything that uses silicon. You can count on CPUs going up in price too.

AK6DN · Feb 20, 2026

Not just RAM ... magnetic disk drives also are going to be in short supply ....

AI blamed again as hard drives are sold out for this year

: Oh snap! The hyperscalers bought all the HDDs

www.theregister.com

Ghot · Feb 20, 2026

WATCH OUT FOR RAM PRICES!

Too late. We've already been run over. LOL

WATCH OUT FOR RAM PRICES!

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