dell The Madness has begun

[MyPC8MyBrain]

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I got notified on my end this morning. RAM and storage manufacturing costs are increasing next month. This isn’t something that is only going to affect Dell, it’s across every industry.  Everyone is set to get hit with the same cost increases because these components come from the same global suppliers.

Even though your server doesn’t have drives in the configuration, the system itself still uses components that fall under the new pricing model such as the ram. I wanted to mention this to you because you will notice the pricing on the server is not the same as what it has been in previous quotes. This is the new pricing model that I was able to get to after a lot of back and forth with our financing dept.

This is from our Dell business sales manager letting me know that they now need to increase the price for a single 16GB stick of RAM included in our server config by additional $400 for that single RAM stick that already was quoted at around $360+.

looks like manufactures and vendors wants us to pay inflated rates created by the current AI-driven market panic they themselves created.

[Aaron44126]

This has been brewing for a while.

 

More demand = higher prices. They're going to sell their inventory at the highest price possible, and AI companies are willing to pay a lot, it seems like.

 

Also, other market shifts.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/12/after-nearly-30-years-crucial-will-stop-selling-ram-to-consumers/

 

New fabs are being set up to try to meet the demand, but that's a years-long process.

 

Maybe the AI bubble will burst eventually. I'm just glad that I'm not in a spot to want to buy a new system or upgrade anything right now.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

That isn’t “market adjustment.” It’s straight exploitation. Vendors are offloading their AI-driven supply issues onto end users.
They’re the ones pouring billions into AI buildouts and creating this demand spike; now they’re trying to make consumers eat the cost.
 

And let’s be honest; Dell’s RAM was already inflated at roughly triple the real value. Adding another $400 overnight for the same 16 GB stick is outrageous.
They’re not buying new stock at panic-pricing today; they’re sitting on inventory. This move is nothing but opportunistic markup, and it’s aggravating to watch.

[Aaron44126]

Yeah, I get the way that the rep framed the price hike to you is gross. I think it is really the Dell bean counters "exploiting" as you say, realizing that they can sell the RAM at a higher price so they're going to do it. (They would have to raise prices eventually as their upstream source for memory starts to cost more, but that hasn't happened yet for stuff they have already purchased and have in inventory.)

 

Not just Dell, anywhere you look RAM prices are up 2×-4× since summertime.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

The funny part is we’ve got multiple servers on order and ten times that number in Dell workstations coming in.
Not a single workstation config had a RAM price hike. Only the servers did.
 

So the “global supply increase” explanation doesn’t hold water. If this were a universal memory cost jump, it would hit every line across the board. Instead, they selectively bumped server RAM; where margins are already padded and customers are easier to corner. That tells me this isn’t supply pressure; it’s opportunistic pricing.

[Aaron44126]

Just saw this fun headline.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/2998935/ram-is-so-expensive-samsung-wont-even-sell-it-to-samsung.html

[MyPC8MyBrain]

Yeah, I saw that headline too. This AI frenzy is out of control.
By the time the average non-tech person realizes what’s happening, the damage will already be baked in.
Prices never snap back 50% in a few months; once they ratchet up, they stay there.
 

If this keeps going unchecked, it’s going to wreck the entire market. Everyone pays for the hype except the companies driving it.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

We’ve had our share of global “races” before - atomic, space, take your pick. The difference is those had a finish line. AI doesn’t.
This one just keeps accelerating with no defined endpoint, and the collateral damage gets pushed onto everyone else.

No one actually seems to know what the end goal is here. There’s no clear technological milestone that advances humanity; just financial greed and FOMO. These companies aren’t betting on a defined outcome; they’re betting on “not missing out,” and all of it revolves around endlessly training bigger models with no finish line. It’s a blind arms race that burns resources and drives prices up for everyone else.

The newer crowd pushed the old guard aside, and the whole thing is being driven by this generation’s obsession with FOMO.
It’s not discipline, strategy, or long-term vision; it’s reactionary hype, and the industry is paying the price for it.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

Quick update on the situation,

After pushing back on the sudden RAM price hike, Dell doubled down and framed it as “new pricing models” driven by market conditions. I went through several rounds of back-and-forth with their sales and finance contacts. The justification kept shifting, and it became clear the change wasn’t tied to actual upstream cost increases; it was a selective adjustment on server-grade RAM only.
 

The ironic part is we have multiple servers and a large batch of workstations on order. Not a single workstation configuration saw a RAM increase. Only the servers got hit, and only after they realized the size of the overall purchase. That tells you everything.
 

Right now, it looks less like a supply problem and more like internal margin tuning triggered by the current AI-driven panic in the market.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

a direct comparison against an equivalent HPE configuration to sanity-check this RAM increase.
Both servers are effectively identical where it matters:
• Xeon Gold 6526Y
• 128 GB DDR5-5600
• 2× 480 GB SATA SSD (RI)
• Hardware RAID
• 8× 2.5" SAS/SATA-capable bays
• Redundant Titanium PSUs
• The only functional difference is networking (HPE ships 4×1 GbE vs Dell’s 2×1 GbE)

Publicly advertised pricing:
• Dell PowerEdge R660xs: 8,939.25 link
• HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen11: $6,120.28 link
(HPE add 2x 480GB SSD Drives to match)

Dell’s systems now land almost 50% higher for the same hardware profile.

[MyPC8MyBrain]

Quick update on where Dell’s head is at right now.
 

They’ve fully committed to this narrative that “the market is going up next month” due to AI demand, component shortages, the usual buzzwords. They’re trying to set the stage so everyone just accepts higher pricing as inevitable. The problem is the numbers don’t line up with reality. HP’s public pricing on identical class hardware is still sitting well below Dell’s, even without promos. That tells you everything.
 

On Dell’s side, the internal machinery feels jammed. Slow movement, slow approvals, half-baked answers, lots of “checking with the team.” It’s not the reps; they’re doing what they can, but the system above them is clearly locked into a defensive position. The whole thing feels more like price conditioning than actual market pressure.
 

Bottom line Dell is betting hard that customers won’t push back and won’t price-check outside their ecosystem. The public market says otherwise. If this is the direction they’re taking, expect the next quarter to be rough for anyone sticking with them out of habit instead of value.

[Aaron44126]

https://www.theverge.com/report/839506/ram-shortage-price-increases-pc-gaming-smartphones

[MyPC8MyBrain]

There’s so much wrong here it’s hard to know where to start. By the time these companies finish polishing their new AI data centers and building their next wave of fabs, they’re going to run headfirst into a market where fewer and fewer people can afford the hardware needed to actually use any of it.
 

This isn’t just about RAM. Every step in the chain is flashing red->
• Rack space for small and mid-size businesses is already tightening, and once data centers give priority to AI customers with deeper pockets, prices will spike. A ton of small operations, hobby projects, and long-standing community forums simply won’t survive the new baseline.
• Cloud dependence will get worse, not better. As physical hardware becomes too expensive for individuals to buy or host, more people will be forced into cloud ecosystems that are also raising prices.
• Talent shortage is real. There aren’t enough qualified engineers to justify the billions being poured into expansion. You can’t brute-force experience. You can’t scale people like you scale GPUs.
• Consumer hardware is drifting toward luxury-tier pricing. It’s becoming something you “qualify for,” not something you buy. Entry-level devices will become disposable junk, while anything usable gets locked behind a financial wall.
 

Everyone’s chasing the same fantasy, infinite AI growth with no real-world constraints. It’s a blind stampede that destroys the equilibrium we finally reached with component pricing; not because of innovation, but because greed and panic are steering the ship.
 

Honestly, it’s hard to call this progress. We’re supposedly the “smart species,” yet we’re building the lion’s den and then sprinting straight toward its mouth. The monkey we claim to have evolved from would’ve simply run for its life. So right now, who looks smarter?