WATCH OUT FOR RAM PRICES!

pseymour · Apr 5, 2026

But it's 10 cents off, @Josey Wales!!
View attachment 167933

Scannerman · Apr 6, 2026

This is what some modest DDR4 RAM cost me last spring. 84 Canuckistan clams.

And below is what the same kit costs today:

OVER 4 TIMES the price. Glad I bought four kits when I did. (Less than 336 bux) It would have cost me $1,448.96 had I waited.
As for SSD's I think Steve here has a pretty good take on it:

People can blame AI for this all they wish but it is what it is: Price gouging. Someone got the brilliant idea, "Hey, we did it with graphics cards! Let's do it with RAM." Which led to: "Hey, we did it with RAM so why not SSDs?" Which led to... Well, you get the idea. Why did they do it? A: Because they can. But hey, it's only money right?

XxXxX · Apr 6, 2026

Scannerman said:
This is what some modest DDR4 RAM cost me last spring. 84 Canuckistan clams.

i have a bad habit of upgrading any computer i get to the max it can take
RAM .. Drives etc. i upgraded these two all in ones soon after i had got them
which cost less then £500 at the time upgrading both of them
upgrading them now would be about £1500 for both of them
luckily i dont really think the wife and i will need another computer for the foreseeable future
unless some mishap happens and the computers go FUBAR.

all these companies are doing is pricing users out of the normal market
people will find other ways and avenues which will bypass these companies
or try and keep what they have for a lot lot longer.

i wonder how long the big companies like Microsoft and others can keep losing billions.
best of luck Steve ..

Scannerman · Apr 6, 2026

XxXxX said:
i have a bad habit of upgrading any computer i get to the max it can take

I share your proclivity. TBH I don't regret it after watching how things have been trending over the years, price-wise and otherwise. I suppose there is something to be said for "future proofing" hardware after all. I make no apology for having more drives in my main than there are letters in the alphabet. I'm perfectly at ease with fully populated RAM slots. The whole TPM2 fiasco taught me a valuable lesson: My PC doesn't have to be obsolete just because MS suggests that it should be. I don't need Windows 11 and I sure don't need AI. Most of what I do can be done on Linux and the Windows apps I use work well enough, if not better, on Windows 7. None of them need me to be online when I use them.

The X299 is to be my backup to this X99 and I won't live long enough to need anything beyond that. I have my 1gbps net speed up and down now. I have my fibre optic running through my basement and I have my land line. That's good enough for this old curmudgeon. Those who worship AI can keep it. I'm not my personal computer's tool. I prefer to keep it the other way around. As far as I'm concerned the Consortium can go pound sand.

gunrunnerjohn · Apr 6, 2026

I made my computer move in a nick of time last March and April. I replaced both my main and backup machines, and also picked up a new 17" laptop to replace my 12 year old antique 13" laptop. When I look at today's prices, I shudder!

Scannerman · Apr 6, 2026

gunrunnerjohn said:
I made my computer move in a nick of time last March and April. I replaced both my main and backup machines, and also picked up a new 17" laptop to replace my 12 year old antique 13" laptop. When I look at today's prices, I shudder!

Yup. There seems to be a few of us who managed to beat the silly-con conspiracy before it came to fruition. Call it experience, call it intuition, call it what you will. I have a brand new laptop I haven't even bothered to set up yet but I shudder to think what it would cost today to replace it. The silly thing runs strictly on NVMe and I should have checked to see if it could use SATA before I bought it. I've just been too busy getting the new network up and running on fiber. Meh, I'm not really much of a laptop guy anyway. I just got it for emergencies and analytics.

People like to think prices will eventually go back to what they were. They're dreaming. Sure. Prices might drop a little over time but I highly doubt they will ever go back even close to what they used to be. Those days are gone.

gunrunnerjohn · Apr 7, 2026

Scannerman said:
Yup. There seems to be a few of us who managed to beat the silly-con conspiracy before it came to fruition. Call it experience, call it intuition, call it what you will. I have a brand new laptop I haven't even bothered to set up yet but I shudder to think what it would cost today to replace it. The silly thing runs strictly on NVMe and I should have checked to see if it could use SATA before I bought it. I've just been too busy getting the new network up and running on fiber. Meh, I'm not really much of a laptop guy anyway. I just got it for emergencies and analytics.

People like to think prices will eventually go back to what they were. They're dreaming. Sure. Prices might drop a little over time but I highly doubt they will ever go back even close to what they used to be. Those days are gone.

My new laptop came with 16GB RAM and 2TB of NVMe storage, I figured for the use it gets, that's sufficient. It's just for traveling or when I want to do some lite computing away from the main computer. I haven't gotten to the point that I am willing to live with the crappy keyboard that comes on virtually all laptops, or all the other limitations. It's OK for transient use, but not for everyday usage.

Scannerman · Apr 7, 2026

gunrunnerjohn said:
My new laptop came with 16GB NVMe storage, I figured for the use it gets, that's sufficient. It's just for traveling or when I want to do some lite computing away from the main computer. I haven't gotten to the point that I am willing to live with the crappy keyboard that comes on virtually all laptops, or all the other limitations. It's OK for transient use, but not for everyday usage.

Mine came with 1TB NVMe but that's all I can do with it. I had the same model before and opened it up to see what was in it. I couldn't add an extra stick if I wanted to. Can't complain. The price was right. Based on what NVMe costs now it would be like buying the NVMe and a replacement keyboard. Specs read as follows:

Laptop 16 inch, Windows 11 Pro, 12th-gen N95, Quad Core, Up to 3.4GHz, 16GB DDR5 RAM, 1TB PCIe NVME SSD, 16" FHD IPS 1920x1200, 2.0MP, 2.4G+5G WiFi, BT 5.0, HDMI, RJ45, Type C, Gray

Cost around $350 US. Not surprised to see it's no longer available for sale. I share the same sentiments as you with respect to laptops. I never really could adapt to those keyboards and I still use a mini mouse because touch pads are so impractical. Gave the fancy Dell with the touch screen to my daughter because I couldn't adapt to that either. lol Just not a laptop kinda guy. Ironically, it's the only PC I own that uses DDR5 RAM.

SIW2 · Apr 7, 2026

Prices still going up . The samsung 870 evo 1tb is now £188.99 at amazon and £270.99 at argos

gunrunnerjohn · Apr 7, 2026

Scannerman said:
Mine came with 1TB NVMe but that's all I can do with it. I had the same model before and opened it up to see what was in it. I couldn't add an extra stick if I wanted to. Can't complain. The price was right. Based on what NVMe costs now it would be like buying the NVMe and a replacement keyboard. Specs read as follows:

Laptop 16 inch, Windows 11 Pro, 12th-gen N95, Quad Core, Up to 3.4GHz, 16GB DDR5 RAM, 1TB PCIe NVME SSD, 16" FHD IPS 1920x1200, 2.0MP, 2.4G+5G WiFi, BT 5.0, HDMI, RJ45, Type C, Gray

Cost around $350 US. Not surprised to see it's no longer available for sale. I share the same sentiments as you with respect to laptops. I never really could adapt to those keyboards and I still use a mini mouse because touch pads are so impractical. Gave the fancy Dell with the touch screen to my daughter because I couldn't adapt to that either. lol Just not a laptop kinda guy. Ironically, it's the only PC I own that uses DDR5 RAM.

My laptop came with a 2TB NVMe, one of the reasons I picked it. My only complaint is that it doesn't have an Ethernet port, so I had to buy a $15 USB<->Ethernet adapter for fast file transfers when I'm getting ready for a trip.

Scannerman · Apr 8, 2026

gunrunnerjohn said:
My laptop came with a 2TB NVMe, one of the reasons I picked it. My only complaint is that it doesn't have an Ethernet port, so I had to buy a $15 USB<->Ethernet adapter for fast file transfers when I'm getting ready for a trip.

Just used one of those adapters this weekend on a laptop. It worked really well. I did notice that it got a little warm but it did the job. People keep bringing me laptops to fix and I hate working on the things. lol Yeah, that RJ45 in my case was a bit of a bonus even if the resolution is a little crude. No need to be fussy though. It's snappy enough for what I do with it. All laptops make me appreciate my desktop more.

I have to take a trip this weekend to repair this guy's ASUS gaming rig. Pretty sure he's having thermal issues with his GPU. He was going to ask me to build him a new PC and I told him this is the worst possible time to buy a new PC. He said he was checking prices and was wondering why they're all so expensive all of a sudden. He thought perhaps I could build one for him cheaper. I had to explain to him that those days are gone. Hopefully we'll get his i7 6700 unit back up and running. Yup. Big BizzNizz does it again.

gunrunnerjohn · Apr 8, 2026

I sure wouldn't want to be building my computer setup this year. Since I bought a total of four machines in their entirety, I'd be paying literally thousands of dollars more if I wanted to duplicate what I have today!

Fishmill · Apr 8, 2026

Bundles from the likes of Micro Center are becoming more attractive than they were maybe 8 months ago.

8 months ago, a particular Micro Center bundle (CPU, 32 GB DDR5 RAM, motherboard) I was looking at was no more than 50 cheaper than if I bought the parts separately at Amazon or Newegg. Not worth the savings unless your nearest Micro Center is quite close.

But by December, the bundle was over 200 cheaper than the individual parts at Amazon (low 600s versus mid 800s). So, I was willing to make a 50 mile round trip to save that much.

I just looked at the Micro Center web site. It appears their bundles are still at least 200 below the price of the individual parts elsewhere. Not sure how they manage that as you'd think it was cutting into their margins significantly.....maybe they have long-term relatively low priced contracts for RAM specifically?

Scannerman · Apr 8, 2026

Fishmill said:
.....maybe they have long-term relatively low priced contracts for RAM specifically?

If they do it won't last long.

andrew129260 · Apr 30, 2026

SIW2 said:
Prices still going up . The samsung 870 evo 1tb is now £188.99 at amazon and £270.99 at argos

Prices are not going to come back down. It is the new normal.

Once a price is accepted, it stays.

Scannerman · Apr 30, 2026

andrew129260 said:
Prices are not going to come back down. It is the new normal.

Once a price is accepted, it stays.

So I keep saying. There will be the usual price fluctuations and competitive reductions, but any real savings to be had will be absorbed by the distributors first before we see any price drops of significance. These will be as rare as hen's teeth. The whole "bubble" concept is just a spin to appease public concern. For as long as there will be a demand for silicon memory prices will remain around what they are or even higher. RAM is a commodity, like oil. The price might drop some but it will never go back to what it was because the economic demands won't allow it to be affordable to manufacture at those prices anymore.

gunrunnerjohn · Apr 30, 2026

Scannerman said:
So I keep saying. There will be the usual price fluctuations and competitive reductions, but any real savings to be had will be absorbed by the distributors first before we see any price drops of significance. These will be as rare as hen's teeth. The whole "bubble" concept is just a spin to appease public concern. For as long as there will be a demand for silicon memory prices will remain around what they are or even higher. RAM is a commodity, like oil. The price might drop some but it will never go back to what it was because the economic demands won't allow it to be affordable to manufacture at those prices anymore.

Returning to the previous price may not happen, but coming down to somewhere close is quite possible. These bubbles have happened many times in the past on a variety of commodity items, including memory.

RD Mercer · Apr 30, 2026

Seems like today, most every business is putting profit over volume. But if you sell less product for more profit, are you making more money? seems like it could be a wash, it doesn't seem like either is universally better, but I'm certainly no expert economist.

AK6DN · Apr 30, 2026

andrew129260 said:
Prices are not going to come back down. It is the new normal.

Once a price is accepted, it stays.

Not always. Price is dependent on demand. If the demand drops significantly because of the high price, the price will come down.
Manufacturers and distributors really really hate having stock on the shelves that is sunk cost and not selling it.

RD Mercer · Apr 30, 2026

AK6DN said:
Manufacturers and distributors really really hate having stock on the shelves that is sunk cost and not selling it.

Especially, if they're required to pay taxes on this at tax time.

WATCH OUT FOR RAM PRICES!

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