this post was submitted on 03 Jun 2026

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706

32GB of DDR5 now costs $375 minimum — AI shortage continues to squeeze PC building (www.tomshardware.com)

submitted 2 days ago by throws_lemy@reddthat.com to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[–] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 day ago (1 children)

On a side note: Who ever thought that those led lights on memory sticks was a good idea? I brought 128 GB right before memory prices went insane, lucky me, but the modules have led lights (the store was out of the normal ones)

My computer now looks like a tacky circus and I can't turn it off, I can't find bios options to disable it

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 4 points 23 hours ago

Whoever made your RAM probably has some crappy piece of software you need to get from their website to control the lights if you don't have a dedicated LED controller.

[–] llii@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 1 day ago

The people that are hyping AI are real quiet in this thread.

[–] OR3X@lemmy.world 2 points 21 hours ago

So happy I decided to go "overkill" and max out my old AM4 board with 64GB of DDR4. It was a whopping $130!

[–] terraquad@feddit.org 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

One thing we ~~can~~ do is hope that some apps (e.g. Discord, Spotify and Bitwarden) stop using Electron and starting up a fucking browser for each window

[–] pingveno@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Wish granted. Those apps are now all rewritten as Swing Java applets.

[–] epicshepich@programming.dev 11 points 1 day ago

I bought 96 gigs of DDR3 for my server in December 2022. It cost $118.76; less than $1.24 per gig.

[–] Badargel@thelemmy.club 15 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Purchased May 6, 2024

[–] __hetz@sh.itjust.works 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I paid $158.99 in November of 2024, building my TrueNAS server. Wish I'd doubled up back then.

[–] SupremeDonut@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I got four 16gb sticks with intent to take two for my nas setup. Now I feel like I want the 64 for my main rig exclusively, and then 32 for my nas on the side.

I did score on HDDs during Black Friday tho

[–] __hetz@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 day ago

HDDs are another regret of mine, along with trying to save a bunch by opting against a chassis with hot swap. I went with four 10TB Red Plus drives. That ended up being about 26TB actual in a RAIDZ1. I failed to consider just how quickly I would start filling it between archiving some YouTube videos and taking DVDs and BluRays out on loan from the local library.

If prices ever improve I'm tempted to get at least a 12 bay, switch to RAIDZ2, and up the number of drives to start with. After migration I'll probably repurpose the old chassis to be a dedicated NVR. Something lower power that hopefully won't have to shut off right away if there's a power outage. As it stands when the lights go out so does TrueNAS and 98% of what I host.

That's the dream, anyway. Time will tell if it pans out.

[–] TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 25 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Don't worry, China is about to flood the market. Don't buy RAM yet, wait for the prices to normalize first.

[–] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 2 points 22 hours ago

Any day now ™

[–] Johanno@feddit.org 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Don't be too hopeful. China will first fill their demand

[–] faerbit@sh.itjust.works 13 points 1 day ago

Which will impact the demand world-wide, because China's demand also takes from that either way.

[–] iglou@programming.dev 9 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Definitely, but they also won't miss the opportunity to become a major actor in the industry globally. Contrary to the US, they have in the past decade made a lot of moves to establish their influence globally.

[–] schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

What if they decide to just keep their rare earth metals for themselves and control the entire market?

[–] TigerAce@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They already announced they are mass producing RAM and are going to export. So the market is going to be flooded.

[–] schipelblorp@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I'm saying they could corner the market on components they can manufacture by banning export of the raw resources they control. Threatening rare earth metal exports was how they got Trump to heel.

[–] phx@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Sinking the market for all the hardware hoarders is a good counter too. I'm fairly convinced that this move isn't just about AI, but consolidation of resources into Cloud services that lets them squeeze out competitors and force consumers and businesses alike into a perpetual-rent model. AI is just a convenient way to allocate the money to corner the market

[–] umbrella@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

that'd be based

[–] djdarren@piefed.social 120 points 2 days ago (6 children)

I quite like the idea of people just not engaging with this.

Can't play the latest AAA because I can't afford the equipment for it? No worries, there's literally thousands of other games out there.

More realistically though, people will end up subbing to a streaming service, which is almost certainly what the companies would prefer.

[–] other_cat@piefed.zip 28 points 2 days ago

I'm mostly just concerned on what I'll do if a piece of hardware dies or corrupts at this point.

[–] boonhet@sopuli.xyz 42 points 2 days ago (6 children)

If you've got a PC built in the last few years you can play them anyway.

Mostly this affects people whose PCs are pretty old already :/ but like if you've got an AM4 build you can just upgrade your GPU and maybe CPU if necessary and keep your good ol' DDR4. AM4 truly the GOAT of CPU sockets in terms of longevity.

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[–] SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone 24 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (8 children)

Piracy and giving them nothing is the answer

RETURN TO THE OLD WAYS

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[–] JohnnyCanuck@lemmy.ca 125 points 2 days ago (9 children)

HDDs have doubled in price recently too. Not a good time to try building a computer.

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 81 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Building a computer like 5 years from now will be a weird experience because you will buy most parts from brands that you have never heard of. Very few of the manufacturers we know today will still be around by that time.

[–] UnspecificGravity@piefed.social 31 points 2 days ago (6 children)

They will have Chinese RAM by then, so yeah, its going to be the random made up Amazon/Temu Chinese brands.

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[–] BassTurd@lemmy.world 22 points 2 days ago (7 children)

Aug 2024, I purchased 32gb of RAM for $109. That same kit today would cost me $509. Sept 2025 I got a 250gb nvme for $33 that is now around $85. The inflation is real.

[–] adhdsergio@lemmy.world 27 points 2 days ago

Not inflation, just artificial shortage

[–] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

oh you kids...let me tell ya how much RAM was in the late 90s....

[–] Unstoppable_Flop@lemmy.zip 24 points 1 day ago (1 children)

[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I appreciate the fact that this is a still gif (good compression!), but it has several frames with differing compression artifacts for no good reason.

[–] hirihit640@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

still gifs have good compression? I recall that motion gifs are notorious for large file sizes, but are still gifs the opposite?

[–] Sylvartas@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

It's been a while since I learned this but yeah we were taught it significantly reduces images in size, though in quality too (mostly because of the 256 colors limit, otherwise it is technically lossless IIRC). PNG results in slightly smaller files with much better colors and alpha channels so yeah by comparison gif isn't that good, but to be fair, PNG was created as a direct improvement over gifs for single images compression/encoding, and quite some time later too.

Adding to that, video encoding and compression algorithms have gone so far now that encoding basically any video longer than a few frames as a gif is a waste, but that's because these hardly store any actual still frame IIRC, it's mostly codecs-based wizardry which, for a simple explanation, can cheaply encode several frames by basically saying "this whole area stays the same color for X frames" and even moving blobs of pixels across multiple frames, whereas gifs, by design, store each individual frame making up the video.

[–] hirihit640@sh.itjust.works 1 points 23 hours ago

Interesting, I didn't realize still gif was lossless, I was thinking in comparison to lossy formats like jpg.

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[–] shirro@aussie.zone 29 points 2 days ago (1 children)

RAM has always gone through huge price cycles as long as I can remember. You buy when it is good value then don't when it goes up. The industry always responded to high prices by building too much capacity so after a few years the prices all crashed.

This time it feels different. We don't have the huge diversity of producers we once did. The 3 big remaining players clearly operate as something like a cartel. I doubt they are responding to current shortages with huge new fab investments.

Lots of PC part manufacturers and retailers aren't going to make it through to the over side of this. I think it could lead to massive long term changes for the DIY market.

[–] AlteredEgo@lemmy.ml 16 points 2 days ago

At least China is pushing to expand production capacity.

[–] Dyskolos@lemmy.zip 35 points 2 days ago

Upgraded my homelab with 256GB right before the prices went nuts. Lucky me.

But before I bought the best GPU at the time for absolute peak-price, adamant it would rise further and never going back.

So...universe equalized for me. For now.

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