Hi guys,
I know no-one has a crystal ball but curious what others would do in this situation.
I'm thinking of building a desktop in the next 6-12 months so have been keeping an eye on prices for parts I'm interested in.
Seems like RAM prices have dropped quite a bit over the last 6-12 months and unlike other components do seem to at times go up in price.
I will be building a machine with at least 32gb ram. (To crunch data lol).
Cheers
My crystal ball ran out of battery. Do you know when they’re on special too?
Cheaper in 6 months
Cheaper again in 12 months
RAM is very cheap right now. But IMO just buy the RAM when you buy the rest of the system. The risk of the prices dropping or going up significantly is small and not worth pre purchasing anything.
The risk of the prices dropping or going up significantly is small
Looking back it appears that the risk is actually very high. Prices have been yoyo-ing.
I guess I worded that badly. I meant that there’s equal risk it keeps dropping and equal risk rises. So either way it’s a gamble. But even if it rises $30 for a 32gb kit in 12 months time its only $30.
It isn't a gamble and the probabilities aren't equal. One can made an educated guess by measuring outputs vs demands. https://www.dramexchange.com/ provides market research and futures contracts to paid members.
@alvian: Who cares though? I mean it’s not like OP is spending $10k on ram for 100 systems. If that were the case sure do
Some research and buy wisely. But for one system of 32gb who cares if the price fluctuates a bit.
around 12 months ago 16gigs of RAM cost roughly $200, nowadays that same type of RAM is $95 delivered. I don't think the price will go any lower and even if it does, you won't be saving much $$.
Buy now if you need it.
If you won't be able to get the rest of your PC for another 6 months I would say hold off. A lot can change during that time and it's unlikely something will happen that makes RAM prices skyrocket. More likely new sets will come out, old ones will be further discounted, etc. Unless there's a fantastic deal I would say try and buy your components as close together as possible to make sure you don't buy early and miss out on something else later.
You can get 32GB DDR4-3200 for around $175 now (the Corsair Vengeance LPX kit from Shopping Express or Centrecom). I'd go for this.
Historically cheapest prices atm, they may go down or up depending on aud vs usd, so if you have a crystal ball and expect aud to strengthen, then its best to wait, otherwise buy now.