[duffyjp]

I browsed thru my comment history to make sure I wasn't hallucinating. Just over a year ago I had priced out a used Xeon and 256GB kit on eBay for my old X99 board (DDR4) for under $300.

I did not pull the trigger. I did thankfully get it up to 64gb for ~ $50.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41100502

[penultimatename]

I double checked my RAM purchase from early September. $450 for 128GB of DDR5. That same RAM is now $1400.

I know it’s a bit naive to extrapolate from that, but something doesn’t smell right, the PC hardware market is clearly going through something, probably caused by the AI boom. I wonder what else is shifting that isn’t so apparent.

[duffyjp]

Everybody says this is because OpenAI bought up 40% of the world's supply of DRAM. Certainly that has hugely tilted the supply and demand teeter-totter, but to me this just feels like another "because we can" by the market.

When beef is expensive, you buy chicken. There's no alternative to RAM. If you need it, you've gotta pony up.