Yesterday's news about the Pi 5 16GB being $299.99 was *not* an April Fool's joke (sadly)—DRAM pricing is killing the hobby SBC market, and it's not just Raspberry Pi that's affected.
I wrote more on my blog, here: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2026/dram-pricing-is-killing-the-hobbyist-sbc-market/
Almost every day donald trump discovers a new way to make life worse.
(I'm blaming, the AI bubble, tariffs, and the helium shutdown due to his stupid war for these price increases)
@geerlingguy Rehashing the same advice elsewhere...
The best time to buy electronics was last year. The second best time is now. Take care of your things, because the upgrade cycles are all broken.
@Tock @geerlingguy note that the oligopolists fanning this greedflation are exactly counting on such a rush to buy.
The best would be to ask one self whether you really need these electronics with those specs, or whether you could fall back on lower specs, second hand, or entirely skip the upgrade.
(less money going into the pockets of 3 Ram makers quasimonopolies)
@dryak @geerlingguy Goes without saying, if you don't need, please save your money.
But take care of your things! (Maybe replace your phone case if it already took a bad hit, or get a better bag for your laptop than a dinky little sleeve.)
@geerlingguy the most novel thing about the raspberry pi is the accessibility of the GPIO pins. If a project doesn't require this or the small form factor, then maybe it's time to grab a refurbished think centre etc.
Or maybe, do the math on what hardware is actually required for the project to run with a small margin for error.
agnivesh
Jeff Geerling
Ron's Computer Videos🖥️📼
DrYak
Burak Gürsoy
Diane
Tock
Spirit
/dev/loop0
Dave Mc
flywheel
synlogic4242
nieuemma