Cache is king and DIMMS are bling as memory prices soar
- Reference: 1770620308
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2026/02/09/memory_price_rises_cashing_in/
- Source link:
“Forget Crypto or Gold,” [2]wrote Broadcom staffer Tyson Then. “In 2026 VMware Cloud Foundation Home Labbers making bank. Awwww yeahhh.”
[3]
Tyson Then shows off his memory - Click to enlarge
Then’s belief he could score a payday is supported by [4]informal analyses that suggest the price of second-hand memory has surged by 700 percent or more over the last year.
Home labs can require plenty of RAM. Another VMware staffer, William Lam, recently [5]advised that a minimal lab configuration of Broadcom’s Cloud Foundation stack requires 194GB of memory – but that’s a single-host rig. Many home labs use several hosts, meaning their owners are sitting on perhaps half a terabyte of memory.
Over on Reddit, a member named gpot97 last month [6]claimed he recently chose to be paid for a gig in hardware, and took 34 sticks of 16GB DDR4-2400, half a dozen 7.68TB U.2 SSDs, plus a pair of 1.6TB Samsung PM1725a SSDs.
[7]
“It ain’t fast but with prices the way they are right now I’m not complaining,” he wrote. “Can’t say I’ve ever been paid in gold bars before.”
[8]
Another Redditor, “elecboy,” [9]wondered if he could pay off his mortgage with the ~100 DIMMS he got his hands on to upgrade machines at his workplace.
Over on Instagram user markhoward642 [10]photographed a single DIMM and supposed “I could be a millionaire.”
[11]
Tyson Then gets the last word, because he finished his post by observing “Self Development ALWAYS pays off. Often in unpredictable ways.” ®
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[1] https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/02/dram_prices_expected_to_double/
[2] https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tysonthen_forget-crypto-or-gold-in-2026-vmware-cloud-activity-7426043244586917888-Kdg1/
[3] https://regmedia.co.uk/2026/02/09/supplied_tyson_then_ram_bling.jpg
[4] https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1qy00og/ram_prices_almost_one_year_ago/
[5] https://williamlam.com/2025/06/minimal-resources-for-deploying-vcf-9-0-in-a-lab.html
[6] https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1q7dca4/got_paid_in_hardware_for_a_gig_recently_cant_say/
[7] 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=2aYm-UT6bEVXH9gHcNHlo_AAAAok&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[8] 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=44aYm-UT6bEVXH9gHcNHlo_AAAAok&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[9] https://www.reddit.com/r/homelab/comments/1qv8eb4/im_thinking_i_can_pay_off_my_house_with_this/
[10] https://www.instagram.com/p/DUeIADhD9ld/
[11] 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=44aYm-UT6bEVXH9gHcNHlo_AAAAok&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: HBU?
I'm only buying on the way down. So 3 months!
Cable theft 2.0
I wonder when some workplaces experience a subtle drain in installed memory.
I've got a small pile of 1 and 2GB DDR2 / DDR3 SODIMMs in a drawer, removed from projects that got memory upgrades to make them useful. I guess if the prices keep ramping even those will be worth something....!
I've seen people asking a couple of hundred quid for a single DDR2 1GB.
Haven't seen anyone *buying* at that price (the sale just - ended).
Either way, the stick out of my "the caps on the mainboard have all blown up" box has gone into an antistatic bag.
32G ECC RDIMM ?
I have a tad under ½Tb in an old dual socket server which makes too much of a racket to be turned on very often. Given its age it's probaby ddr3 and I imagine not worth very much. :(
I have always put at least 16G in the various refurbished PCs I have purchased (it was cheaper to buy them with the base 4Gb or 8Gb complement and ditch or repurpose that and purchase new ram elsewhere.) So I fortunately don't have an pressing need to upgrade the ram for the Linux/Unix stuff I run.
Anyone hoarding consumer parts might come a cropper when the bubble pops.
I can recall in the 90s, PCs in student labs being fitted with padlocked steel chastity belts prevent the ram going walkabout. (Note: the PCs were outfited, not the students although…) Not an entirely successful strategy as some enterprising felons brought a boltcutter with them and made off a number of entire PCs.
Homelabbing right now is crazy...
I picked up 4 Supermicro hosts (3 of them multi-node hyperconverged boxes) on eBay about 6 months ago, with 2TB of DDR4 RAM between them. Total cost was about £1600.
The going market rate for that much DDR4 (in the 32Gb sticks my boxes have) is about £150-200 per DIMM, so £7000-8000 total.
I'm glad I had SSDs/HDDs I could reuse as there's been similar price increases on storage, even recertified/reconditioned drives with a manufacturer's warranty are going for silly money.
30 years ago someone broke into our offices and stole the RAM from the server. Left the severs behind. These times may come back.
HBU?
I'm waiting about 3 months to sell my stash, how about you?