You can blame AI for lots of things, from the environmental impact of enormous AI data centers consuming massive amounts of land, water and power to AI slop that is somehow making advertising and social media even worse. And now, as you watch your electricity bill rise while sitting through terrible McDonald's and Coca-Cola holiday commercials, you can blame AI for the rising cost of computers.
The AI boom has led to a shortage of PC memory, as AI companies gobble up RAM and storage to help power the thousands of servers in their growing number of data centers. This increased demand has resulted in a sharp spike in the price of RAM -- the same RAM found in laptops and desktops. And computer manufacturers seem ready to pass this cost onto consumers.
According to reports, Dell will raise prices for its computers by 15 to 20% or more as soon as mid-December, and Lenovo has said its prices will increase at the start of the new year. You can expect the other PC vendors to follow suit.
If you want to get ahead of the rising costs that are expected to hit sooner rather than later, I've got a couple of suggestions:
1. If you're shopping for a computer, don't delay
If you've got the money earmarked for your next laptop and can buy it before the end of the year, I'd make that purchase now -- before the price goes up. By the time next year's models are announced at CES in a few weeks, it might be too late. And there are plenty of great laptops available right now (more on that shortly).
2. Buy as much preinstalled RAM as you can afford
Most laptops have soldered RAM that you can't upgrade post-purchase, so this is a good general rule of thumb at any point when buying a laptop. But it's even better advice (if I do say so myself) at this specific point in time, with prices set to take off. If you can pack 32GB or even 64GB of RAM into that laptop you're eyeing, I say go for it.
For gaming laptops that have user-replaceable RAM that isn't soldered to the motherboard, it might be a good idea to fill up those DIMM slots when you're configuring a model for purchase. Because if you plan to buy a gaming laptop with a minimum of RAM now, leaving a DIMM slot or two free to add more RAM later, you'll likely find yourself paying more for it than you would now.
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