Hey y’all! I’d love to build a PC for you but now is NOT the time to be building PCs. DRAM prices (the memory in your computer that allows it to multitask) have gone through the roof! As an example, here is a 32GB DDR5 kit of ram sold on Amazon today for $379.99 https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B0C1TKSDKR?tp=1y. As early as October of this year, this exact kit of RAM was under $150.00. What happened? AI.
There are only three manufacturers of RAM in the entire world (Micron, Samsung and SK Hynix) and Micron announced a few weeks ago that they were pulling out of the consumer market. (https://investors.micron.com/news-releases/news-release-details/micron-announces-exit-crucial-consumer-business ). They will no longer be manufacturing or selling Crucial branded products as of early 2026. There is a shortage of RAM for consumers as the manufacturers pursue more profits in the commercial side. As a result, consumers are left with paying markedly higher prices.
This shortage will also soon affect SSD prices as well, though as of this writing pricing hasn’t gotten too out of hand (ex 2TB Samsung NVME SSD pricing https://camelcamelcamel.com/product/B0DHLCRF91).
What can we do about it?
- If you have to build a new computer now, be aware that RAM prices are astronomical due to the shortage, so you will have to pay a premium. However, this is the time to buy a graphics card, as the DRAM shortage will soon affect those prices as well.
- Buy refurbished, older PCs. The only things I would recommend to NOT buy refurbished right now are SSDs and HDDs.
- Wait until the AI bubble pops. Based on what I’ve read and seen so far, it should pop sometime in 2026, at which point there may be a glut of PC components on the market that are priced more reasonably. However, this is me being super optimistic. It could be the case that this is actually a structural shift away from the consumer market by computer manufacturing companies.