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Some folks might have missed that memory prices on the whole are up [1] 90% since Q4. The memory used by the Pi 5 is up 700% [2]! Raspberry Pi are working the

Some folks might have missed that memory prices on the whole are up [1] 90% since Q4. The memory used by the Pi 5 is up 700% [2]! Raspberry Pi are working the issue by releasing new memory variants that are cheaper[2]. Edit: You can still walk into a Microcenter and get Pi 5 16GB for US $289! 1. https://au.pcpartpicker.com/trends/price/memory/ https://au.pcpartpicker.com/trends/price/memory/ 2. https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/a-new-3gb-raspberry-pi-4-for-83-75-and-more-memory-driven-price-increases/ https://www.raspberrypi.com/news/a-new-3gb-raspberry-pi-4-fo...

halyconWays 3mo ago
>Raspberry Pi are working the issue by releasing new memory variants that are cheaper[2] Raspberry Pi are working on the issue but letting you spend the same amount of money per GB, for fewer GB.
justin66 3mo ago
Microcenter doubled the price of the 500+ kit shortly after I bought one. Still $90 cheaper than Adafruit, unsurprisingly.
- schappim 3mo ago
  You'd have to imagine that the 500+ Kit's cost of goods is impacted twice, first on memory and again on solid state storage.
- alsetmusic 3mo ago
  I bought a bunch of NUCs 18 months ago for some projects. They're no longer in use. A friend asked if I was selling any. I realized I might be able to sell them at cost or a profit. Crazy times.
- throwaway2037 3mo ago
  > unsurprisingly I'm unsure what is meant here. Does Microcenter usually have very cheap prices, or the opposite for Adafruit?
  - gunalx 3mo ago
    Adafruit is mostly on the expensive side.
    - _spduchamp 3mo ago
      I've never minded paying more at Adafruit to help support them. The support they have provided, with documentation, examples, libraries, etc. has been immensely valuable to my hobbies and work.
  - schappim 3mo ago
    There are generally lower-cost alternatives for sourcing the third-party products they carry. Their first-party products are usually more expensive, but they're of higher quality than the competition and come with better documentation and guides.
  - justin66 3mo ago
    Both. Microcenter tends to sell Raspberry Pi hardware at MSRP, and occasionally on sale a couple bucks below MSRP. Adafruit tends to be a bit more expensive. It's never bothered me since I like the company and its service, but I think pretty much anything you buy there ought to be purchased with the thought that you're prototyping and if you want to buy many parts for a final product, you'll eventually want to source parts somewhere else. (or, I assume, call Adafruit and try to negotiate a better price) It's understandable enough why both companies are this way. Microcenter is a retail chain and can do things Adafruit cannot. (in truth, they are partners on some things, so it's more complicated than that - the point is that Microcenter is a much larger company)
Rekindle8090 3mo ago
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Teknoman117 3mo ago
The trouble is that the RAM chip on the Pi is a high density module that's going to have come under pressure from the datacenter buildouts. An 8 GiB DIMM for a desktop or server is using 8x 1 GiB chips or 16x 512 MiB chips (9/18 for ECC). An 8 GiB Pi uses a single 8 GiB chip. That's the same density as you would use for 128 GiB or larger sticks.
- RecycledEle 3mo ago
  > An 8 GiB Pi uses a single 8 GiB chip. That's the same density as you would use for 128 GiB or larger sticks. Thank you for the explanation. I wish PIs used SODIMMs. I'm sure there's a reason they don't involving address and data lines, but I wish they used cheap, commodity RAM.
qsera 3mo ago
I wonder if it be possible for pi to support cheap older generation of RAM modules? And thus use recycled RAM from old computers from scrap?
- lproven 3mo ago
  Nobody responsible or competent is scrapping DDR5 computers yet. You can't use other speed standards of RAM in a computer designed for a faster (or slower) standard. If it needs DDR5 it can't use DDR, DDR2, DDR3, or DDR4. I don't think I've ever seen any x86 machine that could use older slower standards. You could use EDO in some FPRAM machines, and FPDRAM in EDO machines at a 15% speed penalty. You can use slightly faster DRAM in a machine that wants slower: later in their lives, I maxed out the RAM in some PowerMac G3 machines that wanted 66MHz DRAM using cheaper, already obsolete, 100MHz DRAM, or 133MHz DRAM in ones that only wanted 100MHz. But only within that standard. It's an idea that has some merit. I still use old Thinkpads that need DDR3 as what would have been prohibitively expensive when they were new is now cheap -- I have maxed-out 16GB X220 and T420 machines, and a near-full W520 with 24GB. But not DDR4, and you can't max out old DDR2 machines as big DDR2 DIMMs always were expensive and still are.
  - extraduder_ire 3mo ago
    Intel has released CPUs that support multiple memory standards, but it's up to motherboard manufacturers to wire them up correctly and it's one or the other not both. Boards with both slots on them have started to be released due to this current ram squeeze. e.g. ASRock's H610M COMBO board[0] has 4 DDR5 and 2 DDR4 slots [0]: https://asrock.com/MB/Intel/H610M%20COMBO/index.vn.asp#Overview https://asrock.com/MB/Intel/H610M%20COMBO/index.vn.asp#Overv...
    - Grombobulous 3mo ago
      As someone who typically buys AMD chips, these combo boards have always been so cool to me. Intel boards are often so much better than AMD. I got around the high RAM prices by purchasing a micro center bundle deal to upgrade from my 5600X3D to a 9850X3D. The total price was $699 for the processor, 32GB DDR5 RAM, and motherboard. I’m not even sure how they do it. They’re basically discounting the CPU by $200 and the board and RAM by $50 each. One theory I have is that inventory has piled up at retailers like Micro Center as consumer sales have dropped off a cliff. Perhaps consumer demand has been hurt so much that micro center’s cost basis for the RAM is still pretty low; it’s old inventory. RAM prices have gone up but micro centers can’t magically sell their consumer ram to data centers. They are stuck selling it to consumers. So maybe they’re only willing to discount the price below market rate if you buy more stuff from them and buy in-store only. If they sold it for the old price they’d see customers coming in just to flip the memory on eBay. I know the consumer RAM and motherboard brands are hurting and it’s only the companies producing the underlying chips that are benefiting.
throwaway2037 3mo ago
Here is a link for Microcenter @ 289.99 USD: https://www.microcenter.com/product/702590/raspberry-pi-5?rd=1 https://www.microcenter.com/product/702590/raspberry-pi-5?rd...

halyconWays 3mo ago

>Raspberry Pi are working the issue by releasing new memory variants that are cheaper[2] Raspberry Pi are working on the issue but letting you spend the same amount of money per GB, for fewer GB.

justin66 3mo ago

Microcenter doubled the price of the 500+ kit shortly after I bought one. Still $90 cheaper than Adafruit, unsurprisingly.

schappim 3mo ago
You'd have to imagine that the 500+ Kit's cost of goods is impacted twice, first on memory and again on solid state storage.
alsetmusic 3mo ago
I bought a bunch of NUCs 18 months ago for some projects. They're no longer in use. A friend asked if I was selling any. I realized I might be able to sell them at cost or a profit. Crazy times.
throwaway2037 3mo ago
> unsurprisingly I'm unsure what is meant here. Does Microcenter usually have very cheap prices, or the opposite for Adafruit?
- gunalx 3mo ago
  Adafruit is mostly on the expensive side.
  - _spduchamp 3mo ago
    I've never minded paying more at Adafruit to help support them. The support they have provided, with documentation, examples, libraries, etc. has been immensely valuable to my hobbies and work.
- schappim 3mo ago
  There are generally lower-cost alternatives for sourcing the third-party products they carry. Their first-party products are usually more expensive, but they're of higher quality than the competition and come with better documentation and guides.
- justin66 3mo ago
  Both. Microcenter tends to sell Raspberry Pi hardware at MSRP, and occasionally on sale a couple bucks below MSRP. Adafruit tends to be a bit more expensive. It's never bothered me since I like the company and its service, but I think pretty much anything you buy there ought to be purchased with the thought that you're prototyping and if you want to buy many parts for a final product, you'll eventually want to source parts somewhere else. (or, I assume, call Adafruit and try to negotiate a better price) It's understandable enough why both companies are this way. Microcenter is a retail chain and can do things Adafruit cannot. (in truth, they are partners on some things, so it's more complicated than that - the point is that Microcenter is a much larger company)

Rekindle8090 3mo ago

[dead]

Teknoman117 3mo ago

The trouble is that the RAM chip on the Pi is a high density module that's going to have come under pressure from the datacenter buildouts. An 8 GiB DIMM for a desktop or server is using 8x 1 GiB chips or 16x 512 MiB chips (9/18 for ECC). An 8 GiB Pi uses a single 8 GiB chip. That's the same density as you would use for 128 GiB or larger sticks.

RecycledEle 3mo ago
> An 8 GiB Pi uses a single 8 GiB chip. That's the same density as you would use for 128 GiB or larger sticks. Thank you for the explanation. I wish PIs used SODIMMs. I'm sure there's a reason they don't involving address and data lines, but I wish they used cheap, commodity RAM.

qsera 3mo ago

I wonder if it be possible for pi to support cheap older generation of RAM modules? And thus use recycled RAM from old computers from scrap?

lproven 3mo ago
Nobody responsible or competent is scrapping DDR5 computers yet. You can't use other speed standards of RAM in a computer designed for a faster (or slower) standard. If it needs DDR5 it can't use DDR, DDR2, DDR3, or DDR4. I don't think I've ever seen any x86 machine that could use older slower standards. You could use EDO in some FPRAM machines, and FPDRAM in EDO machines at a 15% speed penalty. You can use slightly faster DRAM in a machine that wants slower: later in their lives, I maxed out the RAM in some PowerMac G3 machines that wanted 66MHz DRAM using cheaper, already obsolete, 100MHz DRAM, or 133MHz DRAM in ones that only wanted 100MHz. But only within that standard. It's an idea that has some merit. I still use old Thinkpads that need DDR3 as what would have been prohibitively expensive when they were new is now cheap -- I have maxed-out 16GB X220 and T420 machines, and a near-full W520 with 24GB. But not DDR4, and you can't max out old DDR2 machines as big DDR2 DIMMs always were expensive and still are.
- extraduder_ire 3mo ago
  Intel has released CPUs that support multiple memory standards, but it's up to motherboard manufacturers to wire them up correctly and it's one or the other not both. Boards with both slots on them have started to be released due to this current ram squeeze. e.g. ASRock's H610M COMBO board[0] has 4 DDR5 and 2 DDR4 slots [0]: https://asrock.com/MB/Intel/H610M%20COMBO/index.vn.asp#Overview https://asrock.com/MB/Intel/H610M%20COMBO/index.vn.asp#Overv...
  - Grombobulous 3mo ago
    As someone who typically buys AMD chips, these combo boards have always been so cool to me. Intel boards are often so much better than AMD. I got around the high RAM prices by purchasing a micro center bundle deal to upgrade from my 5600X3D to a 9850X3D. The total price was $699 for the processor, 32GB DDR5 RAM, and motherboard. I’m not even sure how they do it. They’re basically discounting the CPU by $200 and the board and RAM by $50 each. One theory I have is that inventory has piled up at retailers like Micro Center as consumer sales have dropped off a cliff. Perhaps consumer demand has been hurt so much that micro center’s cost basis for the RAM is still pretty low; it’s old inventory. RAM prices have gone up but micro centers can’t magically sell their consumer ram to data centers. They are stuck selling it to consumers. So maybe they’re only willing to discount the price below market rate if you buy more stuff from them and buy in-store only. If they sold it for the old price they’d see customers coming in just to flip the memory on eBay. I know the consumer RAM and motherboard brands are hurting and it’s only the companies producing the underlying chips that are benefiting.

throwaway2037 3mo ago

Here is a link for Microcenter @ 289.99 USD: https://www.microcenter.com/product/702590/raspberry-pi-5?rd=1 https://www.microcenter.com/product/702590/raspberry-pi-5?rd...