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Tag: ram

  • Store Running Low On Gaming PCs Begs People To Sell Rigs

    As PC components like RAM continue to be gobbled up by AI hyperscalers, leading to higher prices and limited supplies, a large electronics store in Japan is running out of computers and parts and is asking its customers to please sell them some old PCs.

    It has become more expensive to build or upgrade a PC over the last few months. A big reason for that is AI-focused tech companies gobbling up PC parts to build massive data centers. It’s becoming quite pricey and challenging for your average person to buy PC RAM and graphics cards, as companies like Micron stop selling to consumers and focus more and more on big companies that buy in bulk. Prebuilt PCs from companies like HP, Dell, and Asus will likely see a price increase of 15 to 20 percent as well, according to PC World. All of this, plus tariffs causing other problems, has led to fewer PC parts and computers on shelves in some stores, forcing one shop to beg people to sell them some hardware.

    On January 7, as spotted by PC-Watch and Tom’s Hardware, Sofmap Gaming, a large electronics shop in the Akihabara district of Tokyo, posted a somewhat desperate-sounding plea. Here’s the tweet text via machine translation:

    “Um, as a favor, if you buy a new PC, please sell your gaming PC to our company. We buy them back at pretty high prices. Whether it’s a gaming desk or a laptop, or even a regular non-gaming one, we pretty much buy any PC.”

    Attached to the tweet was a photo of what appears to be a mostly empty shelf inside of Sofmap Gaming with only a few PCs and monitors left. “Gaming PCs, even used ones, are really out of stock right now. This is it,” claimed Sofmap Gaming. The account is also replying to nearly every user who responds with questions about what they can sell and how much it might be worth.

    With some experts saying the ongoing demand for memory and other PC components, like GPUs, will be a problem for 2026 and even 2027, it might be a good time to start looking around your house to see what random bits of hardware you have lying around somewhere collecting dust. If the parts aren’t too old, they might be worth a pretty penny soon.

    Zack Zwiezen

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  • IDC warns of major PC market downturn due to memory crunch

    The demand building out AI infrastructure has placed on PC component makers has already led to the death of one consumer-facing RAM brand, but a new report from the International Data Corporation (IDC) suggests it could have an even worse impact on the PC industry at large. In its worst-case-scenario model, the IDC predicts PC shipments could shrink by up to 8.9 percent in 2026 because of the high cost of memory.

    “Instead of expanding conventional DRAM and NAND used in smartphones, PCs and other consumer electronics, major memory makers have shifted production toward memory used in AI data centers, such as high-bandwidth (HBM) and high-capacity DDR5,” IDC writes. That’s continued to drive up the price of the RAM that is available for PC makers, which has naturally led to them to raise the price of their own products to stay above water. For example, modular PC maker Framework has already had to raise prices on some of its laptops and parts, and says “further cost and price increases are highly likely over the next months.” The IDC says prices could rise by 6 to 8 percent in 2026 if its most pessimistic scenario comes true.

    The timing of this RAM crunch is particularly ironic because selling “AI PCs” — computers with neural processing units that can run AI models locally — were supposed to be one of the things pulling the PC industry out of its post-pandemic slump. Instead, those computers’ larger RAM needs leave them more vulnerable to the effects of the AI industry itself. Computers aren’t the only electronics impacted, either. The IDC says the average selling price of a smartphone could grow by 6 to 8 percent in its most pessimistic scenario, and smartphone shipments could shrink by as much as 5.2 percent.

    Companies like Apple and Samsung, with cash to spare and long-term supply agreements, could weather these higher RAM prices and keep things consistent for a year or two, according to the IDC. For everyone else, though, the near-term is looking much more expensive, and by necessity, much less adventurous.

    Ian Carlos Campbell

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  • Get $120 off Apple’s Mac mini M4 for Black Friday

    It’s a good idea to look for Black Friday Apple deals this time of year if you’re thinking about upgrading an aging laptop or picking up a pair of AirPods or an Apple Watch as a gift. One of the best discounts we’re tracking at the moment is on the M4-powered Mac Mini desktop — it’s $120 off right now, down from $599 to $479. That applies to the 16GB of RAM/256GB SSD model, and it’s pretty close to its all-time-low price.

    We gave the Mac mini M4 a 90 in our review, in part, because it packs an incredible amount of power into such a small design. It also has front facing USB-C and headphone ports, a first for the Mac mini lineup. Plus, it starts with 16GB of RAM, an upgrade from its predecessors.

    Apple

    However, if you want more memory or storage, the other Mac Mini M4 models are also on sale. You can get 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD for $719, down from $799. Then there’s the option for 24GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD at $889, down from $999. Plus, if you want to bundle in three years of AppleCare+, each model ends up being about $100 cheaper than normal.

    If you’re looking to build a desktop setup from scratch, there’s a small but notable discount on Apple’s Magic Trackpad as well. It’s down to $120, which is only seven percent off its usual price but it’s the cheapest we’ve seen it.

    Image for the mini product module

    Sarah Fielding

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  • Black Friday deals include the Mac mini M4 for $100 off

    While there are lots of great Black Friday sales on cheaper devices, it’s the big ticket items that really make a world of difference. Take Apple’s 2024 Mac mini M4, which has dropped to $499 from $599 as part of early Black Friday deals. The 17 percent discount brings Apple’s mini desktop computer with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD to only $30 more than its all-time low.

    We gave the Mac mini M4 a 90 in our review, in part, because it packs an incredible amount of power into such a small design. It also has front facing USB-C and headphone ports, a first for the Mac mini lineup. Plus, it starts with 16GB of RAM, an upgrade from its predecessors.

    Apple

    However, if you want more memory or storage, the other Mac Mini M4 models are also on sale. You can get 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD for $690, down from $799. Then there’s the option for 24GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD at $890, down from $999. Plus, if you want to bundle in three years of AppleCare+, each model ends up being about $100 cheaper than normal.

    If you’re looking to build a desktop setup from scratch, there’s a small but notable discount on Apple’s Magic Trackpad as well. It’s down to $120, which is only seven percent off its usual price but it’s the cheapest we’ve seen it.

    Image for the mini product module

    Sarah Fielding

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  • Black Friday Apple deals include $100 off the Mac mini M4

    While there are lots of great Black Friday sales on cheaper devices, it’s the big ticket items that really make a world of difference. Take Apple’s 2024 Mac mini M4, which has dropped to $499 from $599 as part of early Black Friday deals. The 17 percent discount brings Apple’s mini desktop computer with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD to only $30 more than its all-time low.

    We gave the Mac mini M4 a 90 in our review, in part, because it packs an incredible amount of power into such a small design. It also has front facing USB-C and headphone ports, a first for the Mac mini lineup. Plus, it starts with 16GB of RAM, an upgrade from its predecessors.

    Apple

    However, if you want more memory or storage, the other Mac Mini M4 models are also on sale. You can get 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD for $690, down from $799. Then there’s the option for 24GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD at $890, down from $999. Plus, if you want to bundle in three years of AppleCare+, each model ends up being about $100 cheaper than normal.

    If you’re looking to build a desktop setup from scratch, there’s a small but notable discount on Apple’s Magic Trackpad as well. It’s down to $120, which is only seven percent off its usual price but it’s the cheapest we’ve seen it.

    Image for the mini product module

    Sarah Fielding

    Source link

  • Apple’s Mac mini M4 is $100 off ahead of Black Friday

    While there are lots of great Black Friday sales on cheaper devices, it’s the big ticket items that really make a world of difference. Take Apple’s 2024 Mac mini M4, which has dropped to $499 from $599 as part of early Black Friday deals. The 17 percent discount brings Apple’s mini desktop computer with 16GB of RAM and 256GB of SSD to only $30 more than its all-time low.

    We gave the Mac mini M4 a 90 in our review, in part, because it packs an incredible amount of power into such a small design. It also has front facing USB-C and headphone ports, a first for the Mac mini lineup. Plus, it starts with 16GB of RAM, an upgrade from its predecessors.

    Apple

    However, if you want more memory or storage, the other Mac Mini M4 models are also on sale. You can get 16GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD for $690, down from $799. Then there’s the option for 24GB of RAM and 512GB of SSD at $890, down from $999. Plus, if you want to bundle in three years of AppleCare+, each model ends up being about $100 cheaper than normal.

    Sarah Fielding

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  • Best Amazon Prime Day laptop deals: Discounts on machines from Apple, Lenovo, Dell, HP and more

    So you need a new laptop — now’s the time of year to look out for one on sale. October Prime Day, as has been in years past, offers a ton of laptop deals to consider. All kinds of devices are on sale this year for Big Deal Days, from refreshed MacBooks to high-end gaming machines to already affordable notebooks. But sussing out a good deal from a just-ok deal (or even worse, a bad deal all together), can be a challenge. Laptop prices for machines from Lenovo, Dell, Acer and others on Amazon are all over the place even when it’s not Prime Day depending on the configuration of the notebook, the seller and a bunch of other factors.

    This is where Engadget can help. We’ve poured over the Prime Day laptop deals available this year to pick out the best ones you can get across all kinds of computers. As always, if you’re super particular about the display panel you want in your next laptop, or you know you want to get as much RAM as possible, we recommend going straight to manufacturers to customize your next PC. But if you’re willing to work with premade models, October Prime Day deals could help you save some cash on your next laptop.

    Best Prime Day laptop deals: MacBooks

    Apple’s latest laptops are the MacBook Air M4 and the MacBook Pro M4, and we recommend getting those if you want a device that’s as future-proof as possible at the moment. You’ll find decent MacBook deals on Amazon throughout the year, and most of them will be on the base configurations. In a welcomed update earlier this year, Apple recently made all base models of the MacBook Air M4 have 16GB of RAM by default (which is the same as you’ll find on the base-level Pros).

    Best Prime day laptop deals: Windows laptops

    You’ve got a lot of variety to choose from when it comes to Windows laptops, and that can be a blessing or a curse. We recommend looking for a laptop from a reputable brand (i.e. Microsoft, Dell, Acer, Lenovo and others like them), and one that can handle daily work or play pressures. That means at least 16GB of RAM and 245GB of SSD storage, plus the latest Intel or AMD CPUs. If you’re looking for a new gaming laptop, you’ll need a bit more power and a dedicated graphics card to boot.

    Best Prime Day laptop deals: Chromebooks

    Most Chromebooks are already pretty cheap, but that just means you can get them for even less during an event like Prime Day. However, there are a ton of premium Chromebooks available today that didn’t exist even three years ago, so now is a great time to look out for discounts on those models. In general, we recommend looking for at least 4 to 8GB of RAM and at least 128GB of SDD storage in a Chromebook that you plan on using as your daily driver.

    Valentina Palladino

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  • Rams’ Demarcus Robinson robbed of jewelry at gunpoint

    Rams’ Demarcus Robinson robbed of jewelry at gunpoint

    Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Demarcus Robinson was robbed of his luxury jewelry at gunpoint early Friday morning outside a Los Angeles hotel, according to media reports.

    Robinson, 29, was leaving a hotel when two armed men approached and demanded his jewelry, law enforcement sources told TMZ.

    The thieves reportedly made off with $100,000 worth of Robinson’s belongings — including a luxury watch.

    The Los Angeles Police Department did not immediately respond to an inquiry for additional information on the robbery.

    Robinson spent his first six seasons with the Chiefs. He signed with the Rams this past off-season.

    Rebecca Ellis

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