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Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

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Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#141

Post by lenerdenator »

sh34r wrote: post #124
derektank wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We’re contemplating jailing people for buying manufactured goods at the market price now?

The Sherman Antitrust Act has outlawed abuses of monopsony power since 1890. What we should really be asking is, why did we ever stop jailing wanton criminals like Scam Alt-Man?

Simple: they create value for the right people. Namely, politicians who get their donations, and a generation that, despite not having enough children to grow the economy organically, doesn't want to work any... er... wants to retire.

Thus, they invest in retirement and pension funds, who in turn invest the money in businesses to earn a return. Since that return must increase constantly, and organic growth is no longer possible, you have to pull shenanigans as a businessman to meet the requirements of the shareholders, lest they kick you out of the plane with a golden parachute.

So we let them do those shenanigans and the politicians don't do anything about it.

Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#143

Post by ikeashark »

ceejayoz wrote: post #136
ikeashark wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt this is to create artificial scarcity. Especially when OpenAI is the biggest player thought to be able to build AGI first and that it is now backed by the US & the Saudis.

> thought to be able to build AGI first Who still thinks this?

The US Government, Saudis, consumer/private investors apparently or at least the one that can build the most economically useful AI. I myself believe Google is most likely.

Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#144

Post by estimator7292 »

asa400 wrote: post #110
Tadpole9181 wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm pretty sure this clearly runs afoul of anticompetitive laws, no? Altman is intentionally sabotaging the global electronics supply chain using their existing market dominance to prevent competitors from being able to operate. And, tangentially, I really don't know what world you lived in. The US has arrested civil rights leaders and overthrown countries and went through an entire era of McCarthyism to get here: wh…

Serious question: should the principals of the RAM manufacturers be jailed?

The ones that collude to fix prices need to be in jail, yes.

Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#145

Post by pmdr »

acephal wrote: post #49

Altman should be jailed for this. Single-handedly crashing consumer spending in an entire sector of the economy. At the very least for the reason that that was supposed to happen _after_ they had the AI in hand to supplant majority white collar labor, not before.

This is a dystopia no one really thought about. A handful of people anointed to spend borrowed money on a (so far unprofitable) quest to destabilize the world's economy, alienate the working class and make everything we've enjoyed the past 15-20 years a luxury.

Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#146

Post by stoltzmann »

Byron_t_Bulb wrote: post #103

In my opinion we are witnessing the market influences of a new type of public-private "Phoebus cartel" except at a total global scale where anti-terrorism laws require pricing businesses and individuals out of owning their own compute forcing them to rent compute from multinational hyperscaler cloud businesses who are integrated with military intelligence operations. Computing technology after all is a weapon of mass…

It certainly feels like we are being squeezed from all sides. I think the push to require ID verification for websites is also part of the plot - it all feels too coordinated, like governments all over the world have the same exact agenda to destroy our privacy. At some point you will have to verify your ID to use any computer system, and it will act just as a terminal to the cloud.

I guess we will get the future that was seen in Sun Microsystems with their Ray thin clients after all, but in a way that will provide complete control over population rather than mobility.

What is in cards for us is complete slavery to digital systems.

Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#147

Post by jdprgm »

arjie wrote: post #71

I bought a couple of terabytes of RAM and now I feel like one of those crypto-whales haha. It's just sitting there in the corner. One was a lucky one, too, because I tried to negotiate a guy to sell me a system with less RAM but he wouldn't discount it much. Now it pays for most of the cost of the damn thing. These spikes do happen. I remember one for hard drives after a storm. The surprising thing for me is how chea…

Are you actually selling some of the RAM though?

I was curious with this spike and while the amazon listing for 2x48GB DDR5 that I bought a year or so ago has indeed almost tripled the ebay resale value for similar packages sold recently is all over the map with some close to what I originally paid and some as much as double but probably on average 30-50% increase which is nowhere near the amazon listing.

Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#148

Post by mNovak »

prmoustache wrote: post #43
adastra22 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is because OpenAI bought 40% of the world’s production capacity overnight. RAM is like toilet paper during Covid now.

The toilet paper thing didn't really happen though because there is so much shit people can produce at a time and the demand never increased if you scaled it to a 2 weeks period. There was enough stock in warehouses that 3 days later every store had a full stock again and the prices never increased.

I literally had a friend mail us a crate of TP in our time of need. Thankfully they had access to industrial suppliers.

Though you're right that the prices didn't skyrocket, as that would have been considered price gouging during an emergency, which would have been PR suicide at a minimum if not actually illegal.

Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#149

Post by thway15269037 »

acephal wrote: post #50
jordanb wrote: post #23

At some point it's going to make sense to buy a computer without ram once the lack of ram pushes demand down for all other components. Maybe this won't last that long given the RAM shortage is apparently a corner attempt by Sam Altman.

From what I've read, he's tied up RAM manufacturers through 2029. That's a lot of quartely earnings reports for many firms in the economy where they watch consumer spend come to a screeching halt.

Now I'm curious: does this situation classify as force-majeure for a major firms? "Hey, you know, actually our entire consumer base just disappeared overnight. Crazy, huh?". And will various governments have to intervene to save them when/if that happens.

Not taking into account that they all be busy handing money to openAI, at least someone somewhere has to notice that something is very wrong.

Re: Framework Raises DDR5 Memory Prices by 50% for DIY Laptops

#150

Post by tick_tock_tick »

embedding-shape wrote: post #42
adastra22 wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is because OpenAI bought 40% of the world’s production capacity overnight. RAM is like toilet paper during Covid now.

And also because Korean companies apparently fear US retribution if they start producing DDR4. I don't feel like "OpenAI bought half the supply" tells the entire story when the companies that used to produce DDR4 with the left over machines no longer dare to do so. Probably the prices wouldn't spike as they're doing right now if the ones who used to produce the older RAM generations actually continued doing so.

Why would the USA care if Korean makes legacy DDR? You're going to have to give some kind of context to this completely wild statement.
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