Generative “AI” data centers are gobbling up trillions of dollars in capital, not to mention heating up the planet like a microwave. As a result there’s a capacity crunch on memory production, shooting the prices for RAM sky high, over 100 percent in the last few months alone. Multiple stores are tired of adjusting the prices day to day, and won’t even display them. You find out how much it costs at checkout.
For real. I’ve been building a completely brand new computer for my husband for a couple months now. Buying a new piece each paycheck, then I get paid this week and I discover I can’t buy the RAM… It’s fucking half way finished and the only 2 parts left to buy is GPU and RAM.
Unfortunately those are the most expensive parts right now because they both require memory chips. Perhaps consider buying used, might be tough to find DDR5 DIMMs but used GPUs are plentiful.
I’m definitely looking for used parts, especially in my local classifieds. I’m going to jump on the first affordable set of ddr5 ram I can find lol
It’s sweet how much effort you’re putting into it. When I was a kid I built my first computer one piece at a time with money I saved from mowing lawns, there’s something so satisfying about earning a computer through dozens of shrewd bargains and months of dedicated labor. It’s all worth it in the end, you’ve got this!