SBC = Single Board Computing
Betriebsblind
DRAM pricing is killing the hobbyist SBC market
471–480 of 592 posts
Re: DRAM pricing is killing the hobbyist SBC market
#472The title should say: "Collusion of large corporations promoting LLMs with RAM manufacturers is killing the hobbyist SBC market (and bankrupting anybody trying to get a PC or laptop)". Because we all know that DRAM prices have spiked since production is going to those infernal chatbot training data centers. Same as a lot of the electricity in some parts of the world, BTW.
> Collusion of large corporations promoting LLMs > We all know that DRAM prices have spiked since production is going to those infernal chatbot training data centers I know it's very fashionable here to talk about capitalism as some hand-washes-hand big corp organized scam, but if you put that ideology aside for a moment, you contradicted yourself here, I think. I personally don't like conspiracy-theory-thinking. If…
I didn't say "Criminal conspiracy" nor "Capitalism is bad" (although I'm not a fan, and not because of the DRAM price spike). What mean by collusion is that OpenAI apparently agreed with Samsung and Hynix to secure 40% of global DRAM output, for their own exclusive use.
See coverage here:
https://bizety.com/2025/12/28/the-dirty-dram-deal-how-openai...
https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/dram/openais-star...
Re: DRAM pricing is killing the hobbyist SBC market
#473Re: DRAM pricing is killing the hobbyist SBC market
#474Earlier quoted context omitted.
iPhone 12 wasn't low end
The same applies at the low end, the grand parent comment even agrees. You buy a new phone every two years, it comes with a camera, a cpu, a gpu, a host of sensors. Same as phones did two years ago, and ten years before that. I don’t use my current smart phone in any ways that are different to the iMate PDA2K I had twenty years so. https://www.gsmarena.com/i_mate_pda2k-962.php
How often does your browser freeze up when you open a webpage? How often does your phone browser dump its memory when you switch to another tab and then switch back? Eg if you were writing a post and opened another tab to go check some fact then the post in the original tab gets deleted.
Because that's what happens if you use an old cheap phone in the modern day.
I even had a phone that would occasionally just crash when on a heavy website and the onscreen keyboard popped up. That was not at all infuriating!!! Especially when it would crash when I try to refine a Google search.
Re: DRAM pricing is killing the hobbyist SBC market
#475Re: DRAM pricing is killing the hobbyist SBC market
#476Just checked my Amazon history, and in late 2020 I bought two Raspberry Pi 4s with 4GB memory for ¥6,500 JPY (~$62 USD) each. At the time, they were in somewhat short supply and I payed a little over the $55 list price from a reseller on Amazon. It looks like the current price on Amazon for the Raspberry Pi 4 4GB is ¥18,800 (~$117 at current rates), which is indeed expensive AF. Oddly, the Raspberry Pi 5 4GB is price…
I bought a pair of 4 TB SSDs for like $300-350/ea two years ago. I don’t remember exactly. Around Christmas I tried to order one more. They wanted to above MSRP, like $500. Given the price of everything else I decided to just bite the bullet and do it. After about a month they canceled my order. Whether that’s because they didn’t actually have one and couldn’t get one, or because they just wanted to wait for the pric…
I built a new desktop in 2023 and repurposed my old desktop for my daughter. The old desktop had a couple of smaller SSDs so I swapped them out for a 2TB Samsung SSD. Paid $99 on Amazon.
The exact same SSD is $479 on Amazon today. It's not a fancy super fast NVMe. It's a slow SATA drive. I have no idea why anyone would even consider building a PC with prices this inflated.
Re: DRAM pricing is killing the hobbyist SBC market
#477OTOH things which belong on microcontrollers are now being pushed back to microcontrollers for cost reasons, so there is a win to be found there.
Agree, but there was something special about SBCs being so cheap they were the default recommendation for new hobbyists and I'm sad to see that go.
I would not have fallen in love with microcontrollers without Raspberry Pi and PocketCHIP as stepping stones.
The messaging of "it's a tiny computer, make whatever you want with it" is so much more approachable than anything I've found on the microcontroller side. Even Arduino. I dismissed it for a long time because I misunderstood it. I thought I had to buy Arduino devices, then Arduino shields, then program them in the Arduino language using the Arduino IDE.
Re: DRAM pricing is killing the hobbyist SBC market
#478Earlier quoted context omitted.
Will it be such a big deal though? Currently people are swapping out their phones for another model that's exactly the same but with a different number at the end of the name every 12 months. This could just mean that the unnecessary churn dies down a bit, and companies taking advantage of it have to find a new line of business.
> Will it be such a big deal though? Currently people are swapping out their phones for another model that's exactly the same but with a different number at the end of the name every 12 months. I don't think they do that at the low-end (nor the high-end, though that doesn't matter here - higher-end manufacturers have a small margin they can eat into). People on the low-end phones want a new phone, they just cannot af…
Even in the mid-end: If you buy a phone which you find to be decent, but affordable, and are not out for chasing the latest gimmick - there is no reason it would not last you 6 or 8 years easily - before applications start assuming the presence of better hardware, or a newer Android version than you have etc. Naturally you will have to protect it from physical damage, and maybe replace a battery at some point.
Re: DRAM pricing is killing the hobbyist SBC market
#479Earlier quoted context omitted.
Well first you have to learn the Arduino programming language. And the stdlib.
it's literally the hello world of micros. get an arduino, plug it into the usb, install the ide, new -> example -> 01. Blink. Press Run. Cool you have now blunk a led. Now use AI to draw the rest of the owl.
It's easy once you've done it - but before you've done it (for me at least) it was much easier to just install a Linux on a Pi and run a bash script than to learn how to program an Arduino.
(Of course, there are those to whom an Arduino is an overpriced piece of junk and they don't understand how I can't solder a three cent chip myself.)
But let's be realistic - all of these things are like my Steam library - purchases made but never used (I have a drawer full of Pis and other SBCs, and Arduino dev kits, etc. Someday I'll have time time time!).
Re: DRAM pricing is killing the hobbyist SBC market
#480Earlier quoted context omitted.
Those will dry up soon enough. Corporate laptop refreshes will be drawn out as they try and cost save on the increased price. You also better hope the aliexpress dont figure out a way to get the RAM out of those things because they will start harvesting it for sure if there is money to made.
Windows 11 requiring a TPM is still going to force a decent number of replacements: extended support on W10 is $61 Y1, $122 Y2, $244 Y3. Delaying that refresh might actually end up the more expensive option.
I recently did an install of Windows 11 on a machine without TPM
To bypass the check during installation:
Boot the laptop from your USB.
When you see the "This PC can't run Windows 11" screen, press Shift + F10 to open a command prompt.
Type regedit and hit Enter.
Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\Setup.
Right-click Setup, create a new Key named LabConfig.
Inside LabConfig, create two DWORD (32-bit) values:
BypassTPMCheck = 1
BypassSecureBootCheck = 1
Close the registry and the command prompt; the installer will now let you proceed.