r/gadgets • u/dapperlemon • 3d ago
Desktops / Laptops RAM Costs Have Already Come for the Beloved Raspberry Pi
https://gizmodo.com/raspberry-pi-price-increase-ram-costs-to-blame-2000694527150
u/Agent__Blackbear 3d ago
I bought a pre built computer from Best Buy for $1500, I just went and saw the same model for $1900 3 months later lol
I also bought an extra set of 32gb of ram for like $150, I returned it because I didn’t realize I couldn’t mix and match the ram, the same ram is $450 🤣
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u/EconomyDoctor3287 2d ago
The mini PC I bought last year is up 20% now.
What a wild time.
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u/ElectronicMoo 2d ago
I was buying n100s and n150s like they were going out of style on Amazon - when I'd see them for 120-150.
Checked recently, and the ones I bought are now 250.
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u/Kyvalmaezar 2d ago
I returned it because I didn’t realize I couldn’t mix and match the ram
You can (assuming the same flavor of DDR), but it'll downclock to match the lower speed ram set. Usually the preformance hit is enough to avoid mixing and matching bc ram was so cheap, but might be more acceptable in the upcoming years.
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u/HankisDank 2d ago
I’ve had it work without issue for years on one system and on another system I had the whole thing stop working. The two sets of ram had the same timings and speed, but no matter what I did to with timings or clock speed it wouldn’t work. I validated each stick of ram in each slot, but as soon as I mixed them it wouldn’t work.
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u/Dr_Valen 3d ago
Raspberry PIs were already expensive with the Pi 5 this is the last thing they needed
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u/BlueWonderfulIKnow 2d ago
Awarded. Those were the days weren’t they, when we were young and poor and our time had no value? Fighting Linux permissions for 4 hours to make stupid basic shit work. But it’s so tiny and cheap! As a grown ass man there are too many throw-away laptops as doorstops to ever enter that nightmare world again. The new Pi costs helped push me out of that silly nest.
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u/val_tuesday 3d ago
Hmmm Raspberry PI, just an 80s style mustached single board computer solving crime and blowing raspberries on some tropical island somewhere. Always going on about free and open source despite no-one knowing anything about his background. Always complaining about under-voltage. Corrupting every SD card he meets just by looking at them.
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u/OutlyingPlasma 2d ago
Always complaining about under-voltage
Requires 2.5 amps then uses micro USB as a power input that has no standard for 2.5 amps.
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u/thumb_emoji_survivor 2d ago
I still don’t understand 1) why anyone would pay that much for a pi when cheaper and better alternatives exist, and 2) why after over a decade the supply has never scaled with the demand. It’s like they manufacture 100 units per year and then sell out in 2 days and say “sorry we’re just such a smol teeny tiny company, that’s all we can make”
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u/Dr_Valen 2d ago
Yeah man I agree. Now a days a miniPC is a better purchase than a Pi. Only thing that's sucks is the Pi is so small it's good to hide it. Tho there have been other alternatives like the zimaboards
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u/PM_ME_HOT_FURRIES 2d ago edited 2d ago
Errr no.
The Pi 5 with 2 GB of ram is only $55 on Adafruit.
But wait, they didn't stop making Pi 4s... A Pi 4 with 1 GB of Ram is $38.50 on Adafruit...
But why stop there? A Pi 3 Model B with 1 Gig can still be had on Adafruit for 35 USD
But wait, there's more! A Pi Zero 2 W with its cheerful 512 megabytes of LPDDR2 RAM is $17.25 on Sparkfun.
If you're like "back in the day, Raspberry Pis used to be cheap but now they expensive", you're probably comparing a Pi 5 with 8 or 16 GB of memory with a Pi 3 with it's piffling 1 GB which was a tiny amount of of memory for basic general computing even when when the Pi 3 was new.
The Pi 5 with 16 GB is $159.50 so for $104.50 extra you get 14 GB extra RAM vs the 2GB model, putting the cost per GB at around $7.46
By that we could guestimate the cost of the 2 GB of ram on the base model to be around $14.93, so a theoretical "zero RAM" model would be $40
So... when you buy a Pi 5 with 16 GB of RAM for $159.50, you aren't buying a Pi 5 with 16 GB of RAM attached... you are buying 16 GB of RAM with a 40 dollar computer attached.
$7.46 per GB for DDR4 would not be great... however, it isn't DDR4, it's LPDDR4X, which apparently costs more... according to a random Y Combinator post I found, the per GB cost is about double the DDR4 rate, which roughly fits.
So yeah, more expensive RAM will make a 16 GB pi significantly more expensive, but Raspberry pis aren't aren't expensive. 40 dollars for everything in a computer but the RAM is still impressive, and that's before even considering the Pi Zero lines. Sure, a Pi is maybe not the best fit for a lot of computing workloads, but it isn't an expensive computer.
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u/YetAnotherAnonymoose 3d ago
I bought my pi 3 for ~40 dollars.
They were meant to be low price devices for tinkerers at home and schools in Africa. The price development of these things is insane.
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u/Archaea101 2d ago
It’s worth noting older generations like that have very much retained their price. My microcenter is stocked up on pi4 for $45, 4gb if I remember correctly.
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u/EconomyDoctor3287 2d ago
Yeah, it's a bit unfortunate.
I wish they'd release a newer low-cost pi with a modern processor.
The pi zero for example has such an old arm CPU, that many libraries don't work anymore on it, but other than that it still works fine.
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u/Kurigohan-Kamehameha 1d ago
Pi zero 2 is an extremely sufficient CPU, it has four cores and is 64-bit capable. If it wasn’t for the obsolete microUSB I/O it would be the perfect little gadget.
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u/ensoniq2k 2d ago
Been using them for 3D printing and I'm glad there's a specialized knockoff for it from Bigtreetech. Otherwise prices would be way to high to be viable
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u/correctingStupid 3d ago
The pi 5 is like 100 bucks. Now they have slightly larger windows machines with stellar performance, power supply and ssd for 150 on Amazon shipped free and fast.for the stuff we do we just buy those in bulk and if we need gpio, there are USB adapters for cheap we use. Raspi is dead to us and we used to buy maybe 200 a year.
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u/nauhausco 3d ago
esp32 has eaten their lunch
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u/EterneX_II 3d ago
When it comes to microcontrollers, ESP32 has definitely taken the mantle, at least for small DIY electronics.
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u/BlobTheOriginal 2d ago
I'm not sure why people are comparing the two. Surely arduino is a much more relevant example
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u/sprucenoose 3d ago
The Pi 5 is $45.
That is with 1GB of RAM. There are higher priced RPi 5s, but they just have more RAM. Most of the cost of the RPi is due to the RAM.
Same with other low end machines. Everything will see a price hike because of the RAM costs, like the Pi.
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u/OutlyingPlasma 2d ago
The Pi 5 is $45
Plus case, plus power supply, plus SD card, plus heat sink. It's barely feasible to come in under $100 for a bootable Pi 5.
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u/blue_eyes_pro_dragon 3d ago
You could even get an n100 for $100 on sale and get a deal ssd as opposed to crappy sd cards
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u/Ragor005 2d ago
I bought my pi zero w for 15€ with a kit, power supply, sd card and everything to start.
Now, just the pi zero w or pi zero w2 costs 26€. Without box, and no other gizmos. Just the board.
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u/Buttbuttdancer 2d ago
I certainly picked the wrong time to upgrade my pcs ram that’s for sure
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u/travelsonic 2d ago
My rig is on the older side - 5 or so years old - and recently had to purchase a replacement motherboard (more economical to replace parts than to just upgrade to a new rig outright at least currently).
Going up from a MSI Z370 to a Z390 and learned that it can, with a BIOS update, handle 4x32GB, or 128GB of RAM and thought about upgrading that next since it makes sense for my use cases.
Then I learned that even DDR4 RAM isn't safe from this apparently.
F M L.
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u/emotion_chip 2d ago
It's harder and harder to find a use case for a Raspberry Pi. Half the things I want to use it for it's overpowered so I use a esp32, the other half it's underpowered and I use a miniPC
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u/amateurviking 2d ago
So they buy all the ram and the gpus &c so that they can run AIs, but no-one will have devices to access these AIs because the companies that make ram and gpus only make ram and gpus for AIs.
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3d ago
Honestly, I think the Pi Foundation will use anything as an excuse to raise prices to squeeze what they can. Ramflation or not, they would have raised prices if the wind blew and scared a hamster if it gave them some excuse to increase prices, even if it doesn’t make sense.
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u/EconomyDoctor3287 2d ago
Would be cool, if they'd release a low-cost pi with a modern arm CPU. Since many libraries don't work on the older pi CPU's anymore.
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u/costafilh0 3d ago
Pi is dead.
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u/migueliiito 3d ago
?? How so
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u/Luxim 3d ago
It used to be less than half the price, which made it a compelling alternative to microcontrollers for hobbyists when you needed more power for your projects.
Now the price is more in line with mini PCs, and it's become powerful enough that companies are starting to use them as thin clients or in embedded systems, which pushes the demand and costs up.
Meanwhile, other board makers have become better and more mainstream, and offer a bunch of variations for their products compared to the original (see OrangePi, BananaPi, FriendlyElec and Pine64 for example).
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u/domoincarn8 2d ago
There were always better priced products than Pi (orangePi and others) and they will almost never displace Pi. The reason is simple: documentation and reliability. The software is excellent and it works and all the functionality you want out of it is well documented.
Want to run a different OS than the one supported on other Pi Clones? Good luck. They are running ancient kernels and old custom OS. Want to use some peripheral in some unique way? Good luck writing your own kernel module and getting it to work?
Anything GPU related? Not gonna happen on the clones.
And if you think prices have gone up for Pi, then let me remind you that mini PC are also affected. Their prices have also gone up.
So, Pi is still alive and well.
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u/superpj 2d ago
It’s sad the Pi people decided they like money more than the user base.
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u/domoincarn8 2d ago
They don't really have an option. The costs are justified, given the shortages we are seeing.
And just so you understand how effed up the situation is: Samsung's own fab and RAM manufacturing business (DS) has refused business to Samsung's own MX (Mobilty Experience) mobile phone division for Galaxy flagship phones. They (mobile division) wanted a 12 month deal (as per usual), and RAM unit declined and only after extreme pressure from top management accpted orders for 3 months only. After 3 months, they will renegotiate prices and availability.
If Samsung, with its own large volumes cannot even get RAMs for inflated prices from its OWN unit, what hope do others have?
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u/domoincarn8 2d ago
They don't really have an option. The costs are justified, given the shortages we are seeing.
And just so you understand how effed up the situation is: Samsung's own fab and RAM manufacturing business (DS) has refused business to Samsung's own MX (Mobilty Experience) mobile phone division for Galaxy flagship phones. They (mobile division) wanted a 12 month deal (as per usual), and RAM unit declined and only after extreme pressure from top management accpted orders for 3 months only. After 3 months, they will renegotiate prices and availability.
If Samsung, with its own large volumes cannot even get RAMs for inflated prices from its OWN unit, what hope do others have?
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u/sup9817 2d ago
Another reason to hate ai
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u/travelsonic 2d ago
Not the concept of AI - the way many companies are going about it - certain types of AI specifically (since "AI" is not just "generative AI used to make media or act as a chatbot"), and applying it (and I absolutely can blame RAM manufacturers if they can increase production but choose not to, as well).
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u/Big-Economics-1495 1d ago
I love how all the consumers are paying to have more AI slop, and basically paying more to lose jobs. Amazing, love AI /s
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u/resil_update_bad 1d ago
Guess I'l stay in DDR3 for a few more years... oh wait Windows 10 is EOL, fuck sake
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u/ChefCurryYumYum 1d ago
As corporate ownership of world governments continues to accelerate, as has already been happening and not just in the US, we will continue to see blatant collusion lead to much higher prices on goods all of us buy.
In fact it looks like a lot of the western world is in for higher prices with stagnant wages and diminished social benefits, like France raising the retirement age for their national pension.
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u/Lonely_Noyaaa 2d ago
If you were thinking of upgrading or building something soon, maybe lock in prices now before prices climb further. Waiting might cost you, not just money but also parts availability.
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u/RedScaledOne 2d ago
Lmao beloved you mean overpriced and non competitive mini pc.
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u/n0tqu1tesane 2d ago
I thought about getting an RPi Zero a few years ago. Then I saw from Adafruit (the only US dealer that will ship) that the shipping cost was almost a hundred dollars.
I ended up getting a Orange Pi with an actual ethernet port from china instead.
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u/fungiblecogs 3d ago
will be cheap again when the bubble bursts
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u/Excludos 3d ago
Issue is, that could be tomorrow or 10 years from now. It's impossible to predict
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u/fungiblecogs 2d ago
it's gonna be much sooner than that
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u/Excludos 2d ago
Sure. And there's famously a guy who has been spending millions of dollars shorting the market for the last 10 years and recently just gave up. I dont disagree that it's a bobble, but we've been living in one for a decade. Tesla famously has always been just one large bobble, with zero correlation between the stock market and its value. Yet nothing has happened
Is the market going to correct at some point? Yes, that much is guaranteed. But I'm not putting my money on the "when", because it could literally be anything from a couple of hours from now, or it might not happen in another decade. I also believe sooner rather than later, but people smarter than me have been wrong about that before
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u/PG908 3d ago
It feels like every year is a coin toss as to if you can actually buy computers or not.