Should I wait for RAM/NVMe price drop or just overspend on my new build?

Posted by incel_i9_13gen@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 46 comments

Hi, after a lot of thoughts and savings i gained enough courage to build a PC by end of this year. But the Inflated RAM and NVMe prices are making me have second thoughts about building a PC rn because it exceeds my budget by a good margin. So should I wait for another 3-4 months for the RAM/NVMe prices to go down or just get a 16gb RAM with only 1Tb of storage which will be underperforming in my case. The configuration I'm looking for is: •GPU - RTX 5060ti 16gb •Processor - Ryzen 5 9600x •Motherboard - B650 Gaming Wifi6 •PSU - 750W Gold 80+ •RAM - 32Gb DDR5 5600MHz •NVMe - 2Tb (over 6gbps read/write) Ps: I'm a ML engineer and I was thinking of training small LLMs on my own PC locally and fine tune also. I game sometimes and use video editing software for work.

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46 Comments

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-UserRemoved-@reddit

We can't see the future, we can't possibly offer any meaningful advice here on how you should spend your money.

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Cultural_Finding_298@reddit

I’m from the future, and you’re still an a$$hole.

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buildapc-ModTeam@reddit

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frenetic_alien@reddit

I can see the future

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Superb_Working7284@reddit

I can too it's just a endless void tho

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HockeyRules9186@reddit

They IMO are not coming down till Trump Taxes are removed from the system.

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Accomplished-Way8906@reddit

Some people are just retarded.

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psimwork@reddit

Prices are way up worldwide. As much as I despise the current administration, Trump has as much control over this as Biden did over gas prices. The issue here is simple supply and demand. AI datacenters are sucking up supply of DDR5 *AND* makers of RAM chips are switching from making DDR5 to making HMB because datacenters want it and it's absurdly more profitable, which lowers the supply drastically. Prices aren't going to come down until such time as supply has stabilized, and that not going to happen until datacenter demand drops.

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AutomaticChaad@reddit

Yep, that's literally it in a nutshell, with ai in such a boom, its highly unlikely to slow down for a few years, and even when it does, ram isn't going to come down significantly, the days of cheap ram are over, just like gpu prices that never came back down , it up up and away

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Agitated-Tourist9845@reddit

Oh cool. So living in a country without Trump taxes should make RAM affordable. Let's just check that out...... lol no. We're fucked as well.It's a global shortage due to demand from AI datacentres. This has nothing to do with taxes (and chips are exempt anyway doofus)

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-UserRemoved-@reddit

I'm failing to understand the correlation here, are you aware of the actual causes of this RAM pricing increase? Or is your default to make things political when they aren't... https://gizmodo.com/ram-prices-going-up-ddr5-shortage-2000690697 https://www.theverge.com/news/828337/ram-memory-shortage-crunch-market-prices-central-micro-center https://www.windowscentral.com/gaming/epic-games-ceo-ram-price-increases-will-be-a-real-problem-for-high-end-gaming https://www.pcworld.com/article/2984629/ram-is-so-expensive-that-stores-are-selling-it-at-market-prices.html https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ram/bewildered-enthusiasts-decry-memory-price-increases-of-100-percent-or-more-the-ai-ram-squeeze-is-finally-starting-to-hit-pc-builders-where-it-hurts

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HockeyRules9186@reddit

Tariffs are an added tax to the cost of ram in addition to supply restrictions and competition for the product from the world of AI Data centers.

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-UserRemoved-@reddit

You're stretching mate. You know it. I know it. Everyone reading knows it. Stop it. No one wants to hear about your politics here, especially when we finally have a topic that has nothing to do with politics.

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HockeyRules9186@reddit

Ok what I can tell you real world. I built my PC in May PURCHASED 64gig of DDR5 cl 40 ram for a total cost of $232 bucks from Amazon. Today’s cost to reorder is $469.00 absolutely bonkers. Yes, competition but also the additional cost from Tariffs bleeding thru to the product cost for end users.

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-UserRemoved-@reddit

That increase is *worldwide*. You have no understanding of the actual situation, so you made one up based on your sample size of 1. This is the problem with political discussion, they never know when to simply stop talking, and it's never based on actual information just a misguided interpretation based on zero research. What's crazy is that as I stated before, everyone here is aware that you don't know this, including yourself, yet you keep doubling down. So anyways, /u/psimwork hows your day going?

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nathanjdias@reddit

Can't know the future for sure but most tech pages report that RAM and SSD prices are unlikely to drop anytime soon and closest projections are mid 2028. Take your call accordingly.

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incel_i9_13gen@reddit (OP)

well I'm lucky to build my pc around that time of posting this thread. Prices skyrocketed since then, even if I got worse prices compared to early 2025, but i don't regret buying it.

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dallasdude@reddit

Hello from the future. NVME prices are up 280% in the past 90 days.

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incel_i9_13gen@reddit (OP)

Lmao i built my pc back in last year December. I am lucky to make quick decisions back then, even if it was costly when i purchased but for far better prices than today's market

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Any-Neat5158@reddit

1) We don't know that this is a "bubble". We don't know if or when AI demand for raw materials will change and how. 2) Black friday prices likely aren't going to be much if any better than they are right now. Stock will sell very fast if they are. The "discount" is going to be on already insanely inflated prices. My crystal ball told me to just buy now. I'm glad I did. My 64GB G.Skill Neo Trident kit cost me $375 on ebay and I ended up with over 100$ cash back thanks to paypal pay in 4 and rakuten. The same kit is retailing at $600+ now just a week or two later. Snagged a 5070TI from walmart for $699 and got the same 31% cash back on that. Two 27" AOC miniLED 1440P monitors for like $125 each out the door after cash back. All in all, this upgrade cost me about $1600. But I got a 7800X3D, 64GB of ram, 5070TI, 4TB Nvme (bought months ago), and MSI MAG Tomahawk B650 board. Plus of course case, cooler and a killer deal on a EVGA P2 SuperNova 800W PSU for $60 on ebay. I built the last machine for $1400 in Aug of 2017. It featured a Ryzen 7 1700X CPU, 16GB memory and a RX580 GPU. I upgraded the GPU to a 1080GTX around the end of 2022 as I was (and still am) on 1080p monitors.

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incel_i9_13gen@reddit (OP)

I've a budget of only 1200 USD and these RAM prices are costing me like 150$ more than what i should spend. If it was a normal day with normal RAM price and with extra 150$, i could've bagged a 5070. (I get a huge discount form the offline store I buy from because they know me long enough)

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BackgroundOk2930@reddit

buy from microcentre use the motb, cpu, ram bundle its a great way to save

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wordfool@reddit

if you know when the AI data center building boom is going to end then wait, otherwise just take your chances: [**https://www.pcworld.com/article/2984629/ram-is-so-expensive-that-stores-are-selling-it-at-market-prices.html**](https://www.pcworld.com/article/2984629/ram-is-so-expensive-that-stores-are-selling-it-at-market-prices.html)

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Scooter_Dave@reddit

Buy used ! I just bought a samsung 980pro for 80 bucks 24tb writes. Ram is coming down too

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psimwork@reddit

The amount of people that think that we have any idea what will happen in a market that has proven to be unpredictable will never cease to amaze me.

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Scooter_Dave@reddit

Look at egg prices . It only affected the U.S. cheap eggs were in Canada, and Mexico.

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GhostGhazi@reddit

sometimes people just want comfort

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Kinky_acquaintance@reddit

No hope for ram or nvme prices to decrease anytime soon :( Datacenter contracts are booming worldwide. Demand is higher than the offer. Unfortunately tech hardware companies are disappointing gamers and the forgot that they wouldn't be at this level if they weren't supported by us for the past 2 decades

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goonmaster6942067@reddit

Well its not like its corsair or anyones faults its more samsung and microns and stuff corsair and those people jus make like the stuff thats on top of the actual ram like the cases

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heisian@reddit

think about how long GPU prices were inflated for due to crypto. it's probably going to be worst for RAM & NVMe seeing as how billions (trillions?) more are being invested into AI.

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NBCCB369@reddit

RAM price will drop at around near 2027, where DDR6 might be already out, i built DIY desktop for more than 20 years and now gave up and went for laptop due to the consistent occurring of high GPU and RAM demand. If you still insist on desktop, you can stop dreaming for the year for the year of 2026, laptop would be the wise choice. 😏

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Full_Alternative3994@reddit

Quit buying stuff all of u

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SaucyCelery@reddit

I'm in a very similar boat rn and my plan is just hope there are good black Friday / cyber-Monday savings. If not, well, I will overspend and cry myself to sleep that night. Since I agree with the others, we don't know if this price influx will ever come back down as AI is still booming and the priorities of ram manufacturers are the billion-dollar companies, not nobodies like us :(

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gothgin@reddit

Bro I ordered 32 gb of ram last week on amazon for 170€. That was a crazy deal, they just cancelled my order im going crazy too. I was going to build a pc after 6 years and give my current one to my gf. IM TRIPPING

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ScrewySqrl@reddit

unlikely on RAM

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SaucyCelery@reddit

Damn thats tough

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ScrewySqrl@reddit

RAM prices are likely to remain elevated through 2026. You can still get some reasonable DDR5-6000 with looser times (36-38) without sacrificing any FPS in games ($100-130)

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incel_i9_13gen@reddit (OP)

I've searched through every options locally or online. there's no way I'm getting 32gigs in 100-130$ range. Thank you for your response tho ):

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ScrewySqrl@reddit

you're right. That was last week, now the cheaspest 32GB (2x16) kit is $207

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Niwrats@reddit

personally i would not wait 3 months. i'd wait a lot more or a lot less. well, you could skip the gpu now and use the igpu for a while to check that the system works correctly. this way you would take some risk of each scenario, but not all risk of one. and it also fixes the budget timing issue.

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incel_i9_13gen@reddit (OP)

GPU is the most important component which will be used in my workflow, so can't skip that entirely now. Guess I have to overspend

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vampirepomeranian@reddit

I can wait. The value of owning an AM4 system can't be overstated with these prices. It buys time. Watch motherboards to be a secondary casualty. I'm returning my DDR 5 board as it's still within the return window. Once the madness is over I will repurchase at what I fully expected to be lower prices.

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vuduong173@reddit

If you look hard enough, you can find a super good Black Friday deal right now. I got a Crucial 32GB kit DDR5 6400MT/s CL32 + 2TB Crucial T500 M.2 for $328 in a bundle for my cousin's build that i did yesterday. Those are sold out right now, though you can probably find something similar to that if you look around right now.

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redditor_no_10_9@reddit

Prices will only get worse if you live in the land of tariffs and subsidizing Argentina

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incel_i9_13gen@reddit (OP)

I live in India. Earlier 32gb (16+16) DDR5 was going around $145-$140 (13,000-14,000 INR) now it goes for like $300+ (Around 26.5k INR).

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Thuddmud@reddit

Hardware unboxed just did a video about the performance hit for using one stick of ram in games. The thought was say buy one stick now to save money and add a second latter of the same brand size etc. the hit to performance was not as bad as one would think however it mostly had the biggest effect on 1% lows. https://youtu.be/_nMu1KFkOC4?si=HId7VoDfAFenaKCL