RAM costs are painfully uncontrolled: 4 methods to keep away from the gouging
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Do not pay the going value!
In case you hadn’t heard, there’s presently a RAM disaster affecting the PC market. The excessive demand by AI firms for RAM has led to a scarcity of provide and pushed costs sky excessive. It’s a giant trouble for these eager to improve or construct a brand new PC as they’re confronted with paying exorbitant costs for modules. However there are some things you are able to do to skirt across the scenario. Right here I counsel a couple of concepts.
Purchase bundles for RAM
Whereas the price of particular person RAM kits can depart one’s eyes watering, savvy buyers have managed to attain some nice offers on RAM bundles. Shopping for something in teams to avoid wasting a couple of {dollars} is mostly a good suggestion and the identical could be mentioned for RAM. Some bundle offers even embrace free RAM. For instance, Newegg had a bundle deal on a gaming motherboard and free RAM happening Black Friday: When you purchased this Asus TUF Gaming mATX motherboard you bought 16GB of free Group Group DDR5 RAM as effectively.
Think about a prebuilt PC
When you’re available in the market for a complete PC, you could as effectively purchase a prebuilt PC and get your RAM that method. Whereas shopping for particular person parts and constructing a rig could be extraordinarily costly in mild of the RAM disaster, most firms promoting prebuilt PCs nonetheless provide their merchandise inside an affordable value vary. For instance, whereas a pair of 16GB DDR5 RAM modules can value as a lot as $640 on Amazon, you may presently purchase a BeastCom Q3 Gaming PC with 16GB DDR5 RAM for as little as $522 — that’s with all the opposite parts added too — a motherboard, CPU, and the tower, included.
When you’re searching for a prebuilt PC make sure to try our greatest laptop offers article.
Pexels: Andrey Matveev
Select DDR4 RAM over DDR5 RAM
Wanting on the value of RAM on Amazon you’ll see an enormous value distinction between DDR5 RAM and DDR4 RAM, with DDR4 RAM being in some circumstances as much as $150 cheaper than DDR5 RAM. For instance, you may presently purchase 32GB of of G.Talent Trident DDR4 RAM for $230, whereas 32GB of G.Talent Trident DDR5 RAM prices $360.
That makes a compelling case for selecting DDR4 RAM for any RAM upgrades or new builds, maybe pairing the RAM with a Ryzen 5800X3D or Core i7-14700K should you’re constructing a brand new rig. DDR4 RAM remains to be thought of ok for many makes use of in 2025. It presents important worth for gaming and productiveness duties, with speeds of three,200MHz or larger being ample for many video games. Whereas DDR5 presents quicker speeds and better capacities, the efficiency distinction is commonly minimal for on a regular basis use. You’ll should be keen to make use of barely older platforms and components to go this route, however you may nonetheless discover wonderful efficiency out there.
Store the secondhand market
Good bargains could be discovered buying within the secondhand marketplace for PC components with RAM being one of many extra affordable purchases among the many completely different parts on the market. As a normal tip, don’t simply search for standalone RAM gross sales, should you’re a savvy shopper you also needs to goal outdated desktops or laptops with the intention to reap the RAM inside.
Wait it out
In fact, the opposite factor you may do should you don’t wish to pay exorbitant costs proper now’s wait till RAM costs come again right down to an affordable degree. Despite the fact that it looks as if the disaster gained’t finish, the day will come when suppliers will meet up with demand.
We noticed this occur with the GPU scarcity again in 2023 and 2024. GPU costs have since stabilized and returned to principally regular. So, in case your rig is doing swell and doesn’t want any massive efficiency boosts, maintain tight for a 12 months or longer and also you would possibly have the ability to avoid wasting money.
