Hey everyone! I've been dreaming about building my first gaming PC for years, but I finally landed a job and was ready to make it happen. My plan was to wait until I could move into a more stable place in 2026, but then I saw that RAM prices have shot up unexpectedly. I'm not sure if I should wait it out and hope prices go back down or just accept that this new price point is here to stay. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
5 Answers
It doesn't look like prices will drop anytime soon. Many folks believe it could take a year or two before we see any significant reduction.
One thing to consider is buying a motherboard and RAM bundle if you can find one. It might save you some cash in the long run, though it seems bundles are becoming rarer lately.
Funny you mention that! I checked Microcenter and they actually removed RAM from the bundle I bought last year, and prices went down afterwards. It's a bit of a gamble.
If you're feeling the pinch from RAM prices, you might want to try finding some used RAM. I scored a pretty good deal on 32GB of DDR5 recently, but it did take some hunting.
If you want to build this year, you’ll need to accept the higher RAM prices. While it’s annoying, an extra $100-$150 in the grand scheme of your entire setup won't break the bank, and you wouldn't want to miss out on gaming!
Given how prices have been over the last few years, it’s probably best to buy now if you’re serious about building. Before this, we had GPUs at outrageous prices, and now RAM is the one causing headaches.
Yeah, I’ve heard the same. Most production for 2026 is already locked down, with a lot of it going to AI data centers. It's likely we won't see much change until something major happens in the market.