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Server prices set to jump 15%, PCs 5%, as memory costs spike - channel sources

(2025/12/04)


Exclusive Server and PC prices are climbing sharply as hardware manufacturers grapple with soaring memory component costs, multiple supply chain sources have told The Register .

Major manufacturers including Dell, Lenovo, HP, and HPE are planning price increases of around 15 percent for servers and 5 percent for PCs, according to channel sources.

"I believe the hikes are coming from everyone," said a contact at a major reseller who requested anonymity.

[1]

Dell COO Jeff Clarke called the memory shortages "unprecedented" during a recent earnings call

[2]PDF

, noting that the problem extends beyond DRAM to NAND, hard drives, and leading-edge semiconductor nodes.

[3]

[4]

"We have not seen costs move at the rate that we've seen," Clarke said. "Demand is way ahead of supply."

A Dell spokesperson did not deny plans to increase prices, saying the company takes "targeted pricing action when necessary" while maintaining supply continuity.

[5]

Marco Andresen, COO at Lenovo's Intelligent Devices Group, echoed the severity, telling us, "There is an unprecedented cost increase widely in the industry, especially on memory and SSD. The cost increase itself is more dramatic than usual – more than any player can mitigate."

[6]Micron ditches consumer memory brand Crucial to chase AI riches

[7]Commodity memory prices set to double as fabs pivot to AI market

[8]Memory boom-bust cycle booms again as Samsung reportedly jacks memory prices 60%

[9]The $100B memory war: Inside the battle for AI's future

Analysts warned in September that memory makers were prioritizing higher-end DRAM and HBM production for AI servers. TrendForce estimated DRAM prices could jump 8 to 13 percent, while Counterpoint forecast an even steeper impact.

On Wednesday, memory maker Micron announced it would [10]kill off its Crucial brand of consumer memory DRAM and storage products after 29 years so it could focus more on the needs of large clients with AI systems.

At Wednesday's UBS Global Technology and AI conference, HP CFO Karen Parkhill [11]described the "increased cost of memory" as a "temporary headwind" that "really impacts PCs, not peripherals."

She said HP would focus on "reconfiguring solutions to optimize the memory situation for our customers." HP did not respond to requests for comment.

[12]

A senior European reseller source expects elongated lead times from all major PC brands, with price increases across the board except for Apple Macs and Microsoft Surface products.

HPE, currently in its quiet period before Q4 results, acknowledged the industry is "experiencing constraints and pricing increases on certain memory components due to the rapid expansion in AI datacenters and compute refresh cycles," a spokesperson told us.

Matt Eastwood, senior VP of research at IDC, told us that while suppliers are experienced at managing volatile component pricing, the "magnitude" of current memory market movement is "unique." ®

Get our [13]Tech Resources



[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aTISidvdRsTR1ZG7VkWfYgAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0

[2] https://investors.delltechnologies.com/static-files/9d07092c-7a61-42be-a1c2-54aea7465d17

[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aTISidvdRsTR1ZG7VkWfYgAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aTISidvdRsTR1ZG7VkWfYgAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aTISidvdRsTR1ZG7VkWfYgAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/03/micron_cuts_crucial/

[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/19/commodity_memory_price_rise/

[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/14/samsung_price_jump/

[9] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/16/race_to_supply_advanced_memory/

[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/03/micron_cuts_crucial/

[11] https://seekingalpha.com/article/4849864-hp-inc-hpq-presents-at-ubs-global-technology-and-ai-conference-2025-transcript

[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/systems&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aTISidvdRsTR1ZG7VkWfYgAAAEw&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0

[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/



Yay!

Throatwarbler Mangrove

I've got 64 GB of DIMMs lying around. Now I can retire!

Re: Yay!

Snake

LOL! :D

But in all seriousness, with "AI" NPU's already adding costs to new computers and now this? I expect a PC sales slowdown especially if these price increases hit quickly (in time for Christmas).

Re: Yay!

Nate Amsden

I'm planning to retire several TB of registered ECC DDR4 next year, originally just planned to take the servers to e-waste and drop them off but maybe I need a better plan for just the ram anyway...

Re: Yay!

Snake

Couldn't you make decent bank selling the kit on eBay, rather than just binning it?

Damn

Michael Hoffmann

I just went through my old stash and it's all DDR3. How desperate are they? Worth throwing on Ebay?

Re: Damn

DS999

It takes a few seconds to do a search for completed sales on eBay for your DDR3 based on specs/capacity and see what it is going for, and determine whether it is worth your time to bother with or not.

I have some DDR4 and DDR5 laying around from my old PC and old laptop RAM but I haven't listed it yet because supplies keep getting tighter so prices can only go up, though that's probably not the case with DDR3.

Re: Damn

williamyf

NAS users may want a pice of that DDR3 action, worth a try.

AI laptops caught between a rock and a hard place

williamyf

For one thing, local AI needs globs of memory... 40GB or more, and the extra storage to save the 20~24 Billion parameter model.

This will make the laptops more expensive, on top of the cost of the NPU

For another, procuring the memory becomes harder and harder, even at higher prices.

Yet, you need the laptops as cheap as possible for people to buy...

The only way out of that connundrum for the HPs, DELLs and Lenovos of this world is to NOT solder the RAM and the SSD, and use PCIe4 M.2 and CAMM2 or SOCAMM2 LPDDR5 for the memory, and sell the AI laptops (and laptops in general) with as little memory and storage as the market will tolerate.

If the user later wants to use the local AI capabilities, is up to them to expand RAM and storage as they see fit

If this shortage/higher prices drives adoption of upgradeable RAM and Storage on laptops, it may be an (admitedly small) silver linining of this clusterfuck.

1 1 was a race-horse, 2 2 was 1 2. When 1 1 1 1 race, 2 2 1 1 2.