I remember 64MB PC100 being USD$120 in December 1999. That's within the "give it more ram!!!" marketing era and definitely had a lawsuit about price gouging then. Things were a lot better by December 2000

cyclone3d wrote on 2026-08-18, 22:14:

Looking back at RAM prices, starting out in 1990 and 30-pin SiMMs, and we are still cheaper than around 2011 when adjusted for inflation. Go back to the earlier days and the prices were insane.

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Oh no doubt. Summer of 1992, i upgraded my 386sx20 with a pair of 4mb simms so I could run OS/2 2.0 for real instead of just as an essay in page file swapping. Cost more than 2 months rent. OK, I was only paying $125 a month for rent at the time but still, that was a significant outlay for me.

Are those prices for real? I remember upgrading my 386DX/40 to 16MB (4x4MB 30 pin SIMMs) and I don't think I paid over $200 for it (1993 I think).

Unknown_K wrote on 2026-08-19, 00:20:

Are those prices for real? I remember upgrading my 386DX/40 to 16MB (4x4MB 30 pin SIMMs) and I don't think I paid over $200 for it (1993 I think).

Price go up price go down

16mb was a LOT more than $200 sometime 95/96 due to yet another random shortage.

Same thing happened in the 80’s

There's always a good price dip in the market when the older tech is still plentiful and only the tech savvy have realised they need to upgrade ahead of the curve, because the supply is pinching off by the time the masses realise they have to get a last ditch upgrade for next OS, then prices soar.

Unknown_K wrote on 2026-08-19, 00:20:

Are those prices for real? I remember upgrading my 386DX/40 to 16MB (4x4MB 30 pin SIMMs) and I don't think I paid over $200 for it (1993 I think).

A quick review of old comouter shopper magazines had $150 for 4meg simms in the first 1/2 of the year, but in the autumn, the prices shot up to $250 a simm because of the explosion in japan. if you got $50 a simm, you got a really good deal or it was 1996.

Heh. All we need now is a shallow Taipai quake above 6 and people will have to go outside.

I hear the graphics are good

This thread is reminding me that people are absolutely gushing over a $388 onn 13.2” WiFi only tablet just because it has 8gb of ram.

I get that every overseas cellular appliance is getting force downgraded to 2gb or 4gb of ram as the new normal but good lord is that thing not a good deal for an brittle, unreliable off brand appliance that doesn’t even have cellular as an option.

Several years ago one of my relatives picked up an open box 256gb tablet for $99, sure the SOC was probably slow but it was also a while ago so I fail to see the appeal here, a generic tablet appliance even if 13.2” without cellular shouldn’t be an over $200 device, just because “8gb ram” isn’t a compelling reason above $250.

People are going on about how they can emulate 8/16bit games on it, which seems like a rather sad metric of performance.

I have a shite onn 8.1" tablet I grabbed for the single purpose of using google-authenticator on.

(I am IT at a healthcare provider, and MFA is strongly enforced. I need a 'blessed!' Device for getting OTPs on. It stays at my desk. My phone is a pixel 4A running lineageos, which the authenticator apps consider 'compromised!', so I needed a one purpose tool.)

I picked it up last fall (so before this madness), for 99$.

I just looked at what 'free' reports on it. 2.8gb physical ram. (I suspect 3gb total, with 300mb used by the gpu)

The current price for this tablet? 139$.

It's a sad day when 'trash tier low end tablet' becomes THE NEW NORMAL!

Seen the same madness with regards to Raspberry Pis. I would love to upgrade to Pi 5s, but cannot justify the cost with the baseline RAM being less than my current Pi4s....

This whole madness (and I use that word quite literally) is already and irreparably setting the (consumer) tech industry back 10-15 years. It's a ridiculous testament to greed, avarice, graft, and "pure" capitalism.

zyzzle wrote on 2026-08-19, 20:17:

This whole madness (and I use that word quite literally) is already and irreparably setting the (consumer) tech industry back 10-15 years. It's a ridiculous testament to greed, avarice, graft, and "pure" capitalism.

Yup their push will now be to get people comfortable with 4GB/8GB of memory at premium pricing after which itll become the "NEW" standard. Then when the ram shortage sorts itself out they can then once again drive ram prices up by offering 16GB/32GB again at premium pricing because its "BIGGER"

They think we are stupid and for the majority of the population, they are not wrong.

zyzzle wrote on 2026-08-19, 20:17:

This whole madness (and I use that word quite literally) is already and irreparably setting the (consumer) tech industry back 10-15 years. It's a ridiculous testament to greed, avarice, graft, and "pure" capitalism.

Sometimes there are market fluctuations. This one isn't pleasant, a price increased of 400% sounds bad, but it's partly because we had historically low ram prices leading up to this. Review the comment a few post back about how each 4MB simm used to set me back more than my share of the rent each month in 1992. And that wasn't even during a crisis. The price almost doubled in the next year. This speed bump? It increased the price of a new computer by the cost of two trips to chik-fil-a for my family. Kind of sucks, but setting things back 10 years? That sounds like a hyperbole. Maybe OS software developers will make an effort to get a little more efficient for the first time in years. Probably not. The client I'm working for is outfitting their new database server with 16TB of ram because it's still cheaper than re-writing code and restructuring the data. 16 TB on each server in the cluster. Price spike? It just gets lost as a rounding error on this project.

douglar wrote on 2026-08-20, 01:06:

zyzzle wrote on 2026-08-19, 20:17:

This whole madness (and I use that word quite literally) is already and irreparably setting the (consumer) tech industry back 10-15 years. It's a ridiculous testament to greed, avarice, graft, and "pure" capitalism.

Sometimes there are market fluctuations. This one isn't pleasant, a price increased of 400% sounds bad, but it's partly because we had historically low ram prices leading up to this. Review the comment a few post back about how each 4MB simm used to set me back more than my share of the rent each month in 1992. And that wasn't even during a crisis. The price almost doubled in the next year. This speed bump? It increased the price of a new computer by the cost of two trips to chik-fil-a for my family. Kind of sucks, but setting things back 10 years? That sounds like a hyperbole. Maybe OS software developers will make an effort to get a little more efficient for the first time in years. Probably not. The client I'm working for is outfitting their new database server with 16TB of ram because it's still cheaper than re-writing code and restructuring the data. 16 TB on each server in the cluster.

Its not just Memory, its storage, motherboards, CPUs, Power supplies and yes even Coolers, they have all jumped in price by significant amounts, is this a fluctuation of manipulation ...likely both.

Corporate clients shouldn't even be included in the equation . .they all have cash to burn on stupid market pricing and are likely just adding to the problem by doing so.

I dunno about motherboards and coolers or CPUs getting more expensive.

Remember the days when the top of the line consumer CPUs were $999+ ?

For motherboards, I usually buy used as well. The prices are going up but the components and boards have also gotten
More complicated.

For coolers, if you are taking new prices for Noctua coolers, those have always been way overpriced. Same for their fans.

Used prices are generally significantly cheaper.

Maybe power supplies, but I am a power supply snob for good reason so my power supply purchases has been on the more expensive side for years now. Then again, I very rarely buy new PSUs and have not spent more than $100 on even a 1000w Seasonic.

cyclone3d wrote on 2026-08-20, 01:53:

I dunno about motherboards and coolers or CPUs getting more expensive. […]
Show full quote

I dunno about motherboards and coolers or CPUs getting more expensive.

Remember the days when the top of the line consumer CPUs were $999+ ?

For motherboards, I usually buy used as well. The prices are going up but the components and boards have also gotten
More complicated.

For coolers, if you are taking new prices for Noctua coolers, those have always been way overpriced. Same for their fans.

Used prices are generally significantly cheaper.

Maybe power supplies, but I am a power supply snob for good reason so my power supply purchases has been on the more expensive side for years now. Then again, I very rarely buy new PSUs and have not spent more than $100 on even a 1000w Seasonic.

Come to Australia ...you'll quickly see why I listed those components .. they have all gone up across the board, we don't import parts from the US so Tarrifs are not the reason for it.

Its pure and simple corporate greed, they know that right now they can raise pricing and claim it as due to shortages, the US is less affected by it but the rest of the world is suffering from it.

A 1000watt Seasonic PSU here is 450 AUD for an 80 Plus version, this was 200 cheaper 6 months ago, I really do think people in the US are isolated from the pricing increases aside from Memory and SSDs.

Just did a quick look and a 32GB kits of Gskill 6000 CL36 DDR5 is 1000 AUD, which is .. absurd. RTX 5070Tis are 1700 AUD which is even more absurd.

Trashbytes wrote on 2026-08-20, 02:09:

Come to Australia ...you'll quickly see why I listed those components .. they have all gone up across the board, we don't import […]
Show full quote

Come to Australia ...you'll quickly see why I listed those components .. they have all gone up across the board, we don't import parts from the US so Tarrifs are not the reason for it.

Its pure and simple corporate greed, they know that right now they can raise pricing and claim it as due to shortages, the US is less affected by it but the rest of the world is suffering from it.

A 1000watt Seasonic PSU here is 450 AUD for an 80 Plus version, this was 200 cheaper 6 months ago, I really do think people in the US are isolated from the pricing increases aside from Memory and SSDs.

Just did a quick look and a 32GB kits of Gskill 6000 CL36 DDR5 is 1000 AUD, which is .. absurd. RTX 5070Tis are 1700 AUD which is even more absurd.

How about this as an alternate scenario--

1) Instead of IT getting set back 10 years by corporate greed, maybe IT consumption is running at an all time high because of the current euphoric AI tech bubble is consuming a large percentage of the available components.
2) And maybe the prices are running high because of a shortage in the market place means the low priced vendors have run out of supply only leaving the high priced vendors with stuff to sell?

Okay everyone, change of plan, we hyped vintage stuff so much that it went up in price and nobody can afford it. Now we hyped modern stuff that had a supply constriction also, and nobody can afford it. So, time to look in our closets, what do we have a bunch of? CD players? Old routers? Great! Let's hype those until nobody can afford them.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-20, 13:42:

Okay everyone, change of plan, we hyped vintage stuff so much that it went up in price and nobody can afford it. Now we hyped modern stuff that had a supply constriction also, and nobody can afford it. So, time to look in our closets, what do we have a bunch of? CD players? Old routers? Great! Let's hype those until nobody can afford them.

🤣

I like this idea. Let's all go to Goodwill (or yard sales, or whatever local thrift stores you have) and find whatever is in abundance. Buy them all, and then keep buying them all. While doing that, make sure to post about them online or even start making youtube videos about all of the virtues of said item. Eventually, you'll be sitting on a gold mine!

How about crappy home theater sound bars? Or, old pre-lithium power tools that are now dead and mostly worthless? Maybe OEM USB keyboards from Acer, HP or Dell? I see piles of those crammed with crud at Goodwill.

I am wondering when old smart phones are going to make a comeback and suddenly be worth a butt load of money. I honestly figured it would have happened by now, but unless you have something really specific (like a first gen iPhone) it seems like most are still not really worth much more than $20-$30, max.

BitWrangler wrote on 2026-08-20, 13:42:

Okay everyone, change of plan, we hyped vintage stuff so much that it went up in price and nobody can afford it. Now we hyped modern stuff that had a supply constriction also, and nobody can afford it. So, time to look in our closets, what do we have a bunch of? CD players? Old routers? Great! Let's hype those until nobody can afford them.

$Wrt54g to the moooooon!