So I ordered some DDR5 RAM just over a year ago, but it didn’t work in the machine. As I ordered the motherboard from China, I assumed it was the motherboard that was faulty.
I bought a new motherboard today and discovered it was the RAM that was faulty. I managed to borrow a DDR5 stick to test and both motherboards work with the borrowed stick but now the one I bought.
Luckily, it is still under warranty, so I request a repair/replacement from Digitec. I’m ready to send it back and get a message that for ‘economic reasons’ they will give me a refund of 41.70 Fr. instead of replacing it. The problem is, the RAM now costs 194 Fr. so I’m not able to buy a replacement with this refund.
It’s not that simple, with high speed RAM you should have checked the motherboard compatibility list. It may be a good working RAM by a chance, just not compatible with the motherboard or mb+cpu combination.
I was considering upgrade from Zen4 to Zen5, but surprisingly the RAM kit I have is not compatible (or rather is not listed as compatible, maybe could work…) on the mobo with Zen5.
BTW, I have ordered last year some SBC on digitec, but I decided to cancel it after waiting ~3 weeks. It turned out the supplier never refunded it, just delayed the delivery (most likely until the RAM price falls again ). An escalation solved the issue, money is back on my account.
I’ve heard that graphic card manufactures (other than NVIDIA) are in big trouble as nobody would pay so much for a toy (a GPU to just play some games) but the modern games require these vast amount of GPU RAM
For end customers, this means that for all those who need hardware, the point of tolerability has probably already been passed. Anyone for whom RAM and SSD are not yet too expensive should buy now at the latest. Or prepare yourself for unaffordable products.
at least if the purchase is needed in the next 2-5 years
perhaps the lower bound, because if the demand for RAM won’t cede relatively soon, there will be a competition setting up manufacturing plants eventually stabilizing the prices
I believe game studios will be forced again to hire good software engineers as they won’t be able to push the gaming community to shell so much money for a beefy hardware to compensate their mediocre cut-offs in software
I long the good old days of 8-bit personal computers, actually I’m considering to buy or make one of the good FPGA emulators for the good old ROMs
I started to go down the DIY retro hardware rabbit hole a couple years ago, but had to stop due to lack of time.
The resources we have today are incredible. A single person can literally now design and manufacture an early Z80 class machine for low tens of dollars by leveraging the Chinese electronics supply chain.
I also picked up a new company phone yesterday. I saw some DDR5 packages on the table and I HAD TO ASK. 900 CHF for some server memory (DIMM).
Eventually, one AI company will go bust, the insatiable demand for hardware will relax, and prices will go back to normal. That day, depreciation will hit like a brick to the remaining AI companies.
Software engineers always were conscious about the CPU/RAM cost/complexity, that’s the essential trait which weeds the imposers from the skilled in the FAANG interviews, though even at FAANG once you get there you have to listen to the PM telling you how to prioritize things based on the cost they see
). An escalation solved the issue, money is back on my account.
