SHOP TALK

During this year, how much have you seen prices of DDR4 come down by on average? Has this affected what your customers now buy and what you sell in pre-built systems?

Jaimie, Leader Computers:

“We have seen DRAM prices pretty much halve since Christmas last year, which has helped combat the overall price hikes caused by a poorly performing Aussie dollar.

The specs have not really changed for our builds, with 8GB still being the entry- and mid-range norm, but it’s a very popular upgrade to our systems due to the attractive performance boost jumping to 16GB for the relatively small cost.

The rise of RGB gaming memory has also helped to spur on the different manufacturers in their race to gain market share, keeping costs low and coming out with increasingly extravagant RGB lighting arrays. As is always the case in this industry, competition is good for the consumer!”

John, TI Computers:

“Yes, the DRAM price went up and down this year a few times, but that is more to the DIY consumers. We generally stock a good few months’ supply of DRAM to prevent the fluctuation from impacting our business. Considering the cost of DRAM is also no longer the major contributor toward the overall cost of a desktop system, we don’t really see much impact from the fluctuation of DRAM price this year.”