The PC industry definitely does not have a good start this 2021 as we continue to experience exorbitant prices, not only in the latest RTX 30 series, AMD Ryzen 5000, and AMD Radeon 6000 series but in memory modules as well. Earlier today, PH retailers started posting their RAM and component price hike announcements on Facebook.
PC Configure Computer Center, a retailer based in Pampanga and Tarlac, was the first one to post on their Facebook page. We don’t have access to their pricelist so we aren’t able to compare the previous 2020 RAM to the priced hike variants.
Strategic Technologies shortly followed with a post of their own on their Facebook page albeit for all PC components. Strategic Technologies has a much more detailed explanation for their price increase with the reasons being component cost, operating costs, logistics, and import tariffs. Unfortunately, we don’t have Strategic Technologies’ price list to compare their previous prices to the inflated prices.
We were able to get some information from our friends at Kingston regarding the RAM price hike situation. Other memory brands have yet to respond regarding the price hike issue.
Is Kingston/HyperX affected by the higher RAM prices?
“Yes. Across all product lines including DDR3”
Is this price hike prevalent in other regions and what is the cause for your side?
“It’s not just for PH. Strong global demand from key markets and OEM business has affected channel supply. For Kingston, we try to make sure that we have sufficient availability not just for OEM partners but also for channel partners. Although DRAM chips haven’t been severely affected yet as of the start of Q1, we see spot pricing for both DDR3 and DDR4 chips starting to increase. In addition, we also see competitors adjusting market pricing up to keep up with the supply/demand issue. As of now, there are no significant stock issues yet.”
When will this price hike take effect?
“Expect pricing to continue going up at least for early Q1 2021.”
How big is the price hike? Are we going back to the early days of DDR4 where a 16GB kit costs around 10k+?
“We don’t know yet for sure”
Our quick interview with Kingston shed some light on this 2021 RAM price hike with the main takeaways being DDR3 and DDR4 chip cost increase as well as some memory brands facing a supply or demand issue.
While there are only two stores that announced their price increase as of writing,
As of writing, there were are only two local stores that announced their respective price increase – we commend them for their transparency to their customers. Other stores may have begun to slowly increase their prices. According to a PH retailer who requested not to be mentioned, “prices were already going up since last December 2020 and will continue to go up for Q1 2021.” The main reason why we weren’t able to feel the price increase last month was because of Christmas sales happening from different brands and stores – not to mention Lazada and Shopee’s 12.12 sale.
Grant is a Financial Management graduate from UST. His passion for gadgets and tech crossed him over in the industry where he could apply his knowledge as an enthusiast and in-depth analytic skills as a Finance Major. His passion allows him to earn at the same time help Gadget Pilipinas' readers in making smart, value-based decisions and purchases with his reviews and guides.
