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So... I recently got a hankering for some good old Conan Novels. They're owned and published by someone else, and I bought all 3 "volumes" that claim, "in the original order, as intended, solely by Robert E Howard, returned to their original format...
And it turns out, that isn't what I wanted. I wanted the 80s chronological order - with a lot more supernatural and sword and sorcery. L.Sprague de Camp seems to have been the prevalent author shaping Conan in my youth - in the late 70s, early 80s. So I had to eBay all 12 books from the 80s - Some of the stories are exactly the same - some are the same with significant differences, and some are completely different - and those ones tend to be the ones I was missing in the pure Robert E Howard versions.
$140 for all 12 of them - with a cover price of about $30 total - and I had them all at one point, and dumped them. Point is - I get rid of the stuff, and they change it up and it isn't the same, and so I have to buy back what I got rid of. It turns me into something of a media and hardware hoarder. I'm afraid to let things go, because when you buy them back NEW - they've been modified.
Think RAM prices are bad now.. just wait.. going to triple next month it sounds like.
And i heard today that 2TB of DDR5, will run you over $40k, IF you can even find it to buy, and no, that was not a typo.
Enterprise RAM isn't spiking as much as consumer, and 2TB is usually purchased in enterprise .. but yeah, it's still going to be a big spike.
Entire lines of consumer RAM and consumer SSDs being discontinued so that they can make more enterprise stuff. Add to that crazy tariffs if you're in the US, and we've got a recipe for disaster coming. When this started coming down the pipe, my IT guys were told to spend 2026's IT budget as soon as they possibly could, and maybe even crack into 2027's IT budget, because it's NOT going to be pretty if we have to order any emergency hardware a year from now.
Sun Dec 28 2025 23:03:03 UTC from Nurb432Think RAM prices are bad now.. just wait.. going to triple next month it sounds like.
And i heard today that 2TB of DDR5, will run you over $40k, IF you can even find it to buy, and no, that was not a typo.
Ya, its due to resources being moved from consumer to enterprise, and then jacking that price up since they will pay it ( well pass it down to the customers... not one company pays a dime of their own for anything, in effect. ) Damned AI centers.
And yes, that 2TB was Enterprise level. ( or at least they claim to be, i heard its a bit iffy on quality)
Mon Dec 29 2025 02:21:14 UTC from PanaSonicEnterprise RAM isn't spiking as much as consumer,
This comes and goes in cycles. The market will correct. Exorbitant RAM prices will lead to innovation in a demand driven market - unless the GOVERNMENT steps in and starts regulating.
Then graft and corruption means things will remain artificially expensive AND lame indefinitely.
Not that i count for much, but i have never seen it this bad.. And we have never seen it due to a reason like this. Its not part of the normal cycle.
And don't kid yourself, the government IS involved.. to guarantee the big data-center players win, and us little folk, lose out.
Sat Jan 03 2026 03:46:46 UTC from ParanoidDelusionsThis comes and goes in cycles. The market will correct. Exorbitant RAM prices will lead to innovation in a demand driven market - unless the GOVERNMENT steps in and starts regulating.
Then graft and corruption means things will remain artificially expensive AND lame indefinitely.
There is this bias toward believing that everything is driven by some conspiracy. Corporate, Government - there is always some other agenda. Shadowy secret global government cabals bringing down the Twin Towers for... *reasons*.
I'm not saying that these conspiracies are always wrong... but Occam's Razor is also a thing.
I'm not really in the market for memory right now - and the curve that technology is on, at my age - a lot of things I like, I'm going to be fine with until I shuffle off this rock. I'm listening to 1984 on LP vinyl right now - and I'm 54. If I make it another 45 years - the equipment I have now in that regard should get me through - being that I'm going BACKWARDS with the technology, not forward.
Same with computers. I spent as much time on 8 and 16 bits as with PCs. So, memory and cloud hosted Ai solutions aren't that big of a deal to me.
I can't recall specifically, but I think I paid about $400 for 1.5mb of memory and a memory card for my A2000 around 1987.
That isn't a typo.
I don't think memory is NEARLY as expensive as you think it is.
Sun Jan 04 2026 22:03:23 UTC from DarfWaderNot that i count for much, but i have never seen it this bad.. And we have never seen it due to a reason like this. Its not part of the normal cycle.
And don't kid yourself, the government IS involved.. to guarantee the big data-center players win, and us little folk, lose out.
Its not just me that feels that way. The entire industry is in the same boat with me. As far as conspiracy, tell me what the government does NOT have their fingers in manipulating things? Nothing.
And ya i have paid high prices in the past too, but doesn't negate what is going on today, which is totally insane.
Mon Jan 05 2026 23:58:40 UTC from ParanoidDelusions.
I don't think memory is NEARLY as expensive as you think it is.
Then graft and corruption means things will remain artificially
expensive AND lame indefinitely.
You're only saying that because it's true 100% of the time. :)
On the other hand, I remember when RAM was $30 per megabyte. Or further back than that, when the 64KB in your computer represented half of its cost.
I'm not going to panic. Nothing moves in the same direction forever.
Wait until the AI bubble pops. The landscape will change.
What he said. The weird thing about getting really old is that you start understanding that the really old people you thought were nuts - simply had seen what you thought was "new" a few times already and were a bit jaded about it.
Ig basically said, "you're not wrong, but it is probably a temporary thing."
And I agree. I've got $6000 of GPUs in my two gaming PCs that I couldn't sell for probably $1000 right now - because GPU supply chains caught up again - but I wanted all that power at the peak.
Fri Jan 09 2026 23:46:09 UTC from IGnatius T FoobarYou're only saying that because it's true 100% of the time. :)
On the other hand, I remember when RAM was $30 per megabyte. Or further back than that, when the 64KB in your computer represented half of its cost.
I'm not going to panic. Nothing moves in the same direction forever.
Wait until the AI bubble pops. The landscape will change.
Meanwhile, it's been so cold lately that my garage is dangerously below the acceptable operating temperatures for computer equipment. So I gone and done it: I moved the server up into my office. Completely headless now, it only has power and ethernet cables going into it. And its waste heat is now helping to warm the room and offsetting the cost of heat in that room, so that's a plus.
So my grandiose plans for a battery backed 12 volt bus have been scrapped.
Since there is now nothing left in the garage except the ONT (fiber terminal), router, and switch, the battery backup in the ONT is more than enough to keep those three devices running uninterrupted.
I might get a UPS in the office someday, but honestly, the power goes out so infrequently here, that it might not be worth bothering. I've got bigger fish to fry right now.
He meant grams of bugs. He just said it prematurely.
( ya, im not a fan of him either. He talks a good story, but he really does not care about people, or the planet. )
Wed Jan 14 2026 03:01:57 UTC from IGnatius T FoobarAfter all, 640K ought to be enough for anybody,