WATCH OUT FOR RAM PRICES!

Scannerman · Mar 4, 2026

Anything silicon . . .

Data centers are now hoarding SSDs as hard drive supplies dry up

According to Taiwan tech publication DigiTimes, most AI firms are unwilling to wait two years for HDD supplies to stabilize and are shifting to SSDs instead. To...

www.techspot.com

Scannerman · Mar 7, 2026

A little history lesson (for those who are keen).

Winuser · Mar 7, 2026

We can add internal 5.25" Blue-Ray drives to the list. I think my drive is going bad so I checked Amazon for a new drive. The cheapest internal 5.25" drive I found so far is $244.95. They do have a external 5.25" drive but even that one is $179.95.

Scannerman · Mar 10, 2026

Winuser said:
We can add internal 5.25" Blue-Ray drives to the list. I think my drive is going bad so I checked Amazon for a new drive. The cheapest internal 5.25" drive I found so far is $244.95. They do have a external 5.25" drive but even that one is $179.95.

That's because Blue-Ray isn't a thing anymore. Might be better to get a used PC with one and rob it for parts.

Winuser · Mar 10, 2026

Scannerman said:
That's because Blue-Ray isn't a thing anymore. Might be better to get a used PC with one and rob it for parts.

If I do have to replace the drive on my G156 computer I'll go with a DVD drive. I have a very limited collection of Blue-Ray disk. Plus if needed I do have two external drives. One is a 5.25" external drive and the other one is what I call a external laptop drive. I use the laptop drive to install the inexpensive hidden objects games I buy from Walmart. The Walmart selection has gotten very slim though. It's gotten so slim that my local Walmart doesn't even sell them any more.

Wolfzz · Mar 13, 2026

RAM kits are now sold with one fake RAM stick alongside a real one to create a performance illusion

RAM kits are now sold with one fake RAM stick alongside a real one to create a performance illusion — 1+1 'value pack' offers desperate psychological relief as the memory shortage worsens

Filler RAM won't make your system run any better, but it'll at least make it look good.

www.tomshardware.com

Scannerman · Mar 13, 2026

Pathetic

gunrunnerjohn · Mar 13, 2026

Wolfzz said:
RAM kits are now sold with one fake RAM stick alongside a real one to create a performance illusion

RAM kits are now sold with one fake RAM stick alongside a real one to create a performance illusion — 1+1 'value pack' offers desperate psychological relief as the memory shortage worsens

Filler RAM won't make your system run any better, but it'll at least make it look good.

www.tomshardware.com

What a useless waste of money!

Who really give a hoot if the RAM slot is filled? I want the two sticks for performance, not for cosmetics!

pseymour · Mar 14, 2026

I wonder if you can download additional RAM to the fake stick.

DownloadMoreRAM.com - CloudRAM 3.0 | AI-Powered Memory

Scannerman · Mar 14, 2026

pseymour said:
I wonder if you can download additional RAM to the fake stick.

DownloadMoreRAM.com - CloudRAM 3.0 | AI-Powered Memory

OMGG. True colours coming to surface here. What a scam! :lmao:

pseymour · Mar 14, 2026

It's a joke, not a scam. That site's been around for over ten years probably.

glasskuter · Mar 14, 2026

Joke or not, I can't imagine how many people of my generation fall for it. Folks will click on anything and believe anything because they know no better. Once we're all gone, they might as well take that site down. The young 'uns know better.

Catnip · Mar 14, 2026

I have 32 GB of Teamgroup DDR5 in my PC. It's not the greatest RAM in the world, but it's working just great for me, and it's what came in my upgrade bundle. A few months ago, I thought of going to 64 GB and priced out the RAM: $119.00 CAD for 32 GB.

Sadly, I never did it, and when I was at the computer store yesterday I looked into how much it costs. I almost wet myself.

$989.00 CAD + tax

I am getting a little sick of these manufactured shortages. They have been doing this for raw components ever since COVID and it's purely corporate greed. These semiconductor manufacturers are as bad as the oil companies.

PerpetualCycle · Mar 14, 2026

Catnip said:
I have 32 GB of Teamgroup DDR5 in my PC. It's not the greatest RAM in the world, but it's working just great for me, and it's what came in my upgrade bundle. A few months ago, I thought of going to 64 GB and priced out the RAM: $119.00 CAD for 32 GB.

Sadly, I never did it, and when I was at the computer store yesterday I looked into how much it costs. I almost wet myself.

$989.00 CAD + tax

I am getting a little sick of these manufactured shortages. They have been doing this for raw components ever since COVID and it's purely corporate greed. These semiconductor manufacturers are as bad as the oil companies.

Yeah, I paid $390 US for 96GB now it is $1059.

I wish that the stock market was going up that much.

AK6DN · Mar 14, 2026

PerpetualCycle said:
Yeah, I paid $390 US for 96GB now it is $1059.

I wish that the stock market was going up that much.

Micron Technology stock was at $65 a share in April 2025. It just closed at $426 a share. That is a ~600% gain in less than a year.

gunrunnerjohn · Mar 14, 2026

I made a mistake early in 2025 when ordering the 32GB for my new build, and I got a single 32GB stick. Rather than live with the half-bandwidth memory, I just ordered another stick since it wasn't that painful.

I checked back, it's just a tiny bit more expensive now! A modest 6x increase in price in one year! And we thought inflation wasn't that bad!

glasskuter · Mar 14, 2026

All I can do is feel sorry for anyone buying or building new systems now. This old woman will never own another new system. One of my systems has 32gb of Crucial DDR4 2933, the other 32 gb of Micron DDR4-2933. Surely at least one of them will last as long as I do. Heck I can't even afford a new storage m.2 these days.

AK6DN · Mar 14, 2026

gunrunnerjohn said:
I made a mistake early in 2025 when ordering the 32GB for my new build, and I got a single 32GB stick. Rather than live with the half-bandwidth memory, I just ordered another stick since it wasn't that painful.

View attachment 165943

I checked back, it's just a tiny bit more expensive now! A modest 6x increase in price in one year! And we thought inflation wasn't that bad!

View attachment 165944

Not inflation per se. Supply and demand. The big AI server farm companies have bought out all the supply of DRAM available to build out all the 'AI server farms' they plan to build to replace all knowledge workers with AI. So when the big guys come in and buy everything on the store shelf and in the back stockroom and parts not even fabricated yet, the spot market price goes thru the roof. Welcome to the world of AI...

gunrunnerjohn · Mar 14, 2026

AK6DN said:
Not inflation per se. Supply and demand. The big AI server farm companies have bought out all the supply of DRAM available to build out all the 'AI server farms' they plan to build to replace all knowledge workers with AI. So when the big guys come in and buy everything on the store shelf and in the back stockroom and parts not even fabricated yet, the spot market price goes thru the roof. Welcome to the world of AI...

Surprise, I actually do know what is causing those prices to rise. However, whatever the cause, it's certainly resulting in inflated prices! :think:

After all, the inflated prices of all goods are actually almost universally supply and demand based.

AK6DN · Mar 15, 2026

gunrunnerjohn said:
Surprise, I actually do know what is causing those prices to rise. However, whatever the cause, it's certainly resulting in inflated prices! After all, the inflated prices of all goods are actually almost universally supply and demand based.

Inflation is not just supply and demand (which is what is now causing the RAM price spikes).
Tariffs, the cost of component parts/materials, labor cost, transportation costs all factor into cost inflation over time.
Inflation is not just driven by supply and demand.

WATCH OUT FOR RAM PRICES!

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RAM kits are now sold with one fake RAM stick alongside a real one to create a performance illusion​

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RAM kits are now sold with one fake RAM stick alongside a real one to create a performance illusion

RAM kits are now sold with one fake RAM stick alongside a real one to create a performance illusion