Incredible find: This man bought 64 GB DDR5 RAM for 160 Czech crowns

If you’ve been shopping for DDR5 RAM lately, you probably left the e-shop with a slightly terrified expression. RAM prices are currently high, and a 64GB kit will cost you 15,000 CZK or more in the Czech Republic. However, one lucky person from the United States paid an amount for the same capacity that wouldn’t even buy you lunch in a canteen here.

Seven dollars for memory that costs hundreds

A user with the nickname u/L0OK0UTT shared their shopping find on the r/pcmasterrace subreddit, which literally floored the community. At a local liquidation store, they stumbled upon a 64GB Crucial DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM kit — that is, laptop memory with two 32GB modules. The item was marked as an Amazon return, but it was missing a price tag.

When it was time to check out, the clerk didn’t know what product she was holding. She tried to look up the price in the system for a while, found nothing, and eventually just priced the kit at 6.99 dollars — roughly 160 Czech crowns. For comparison: the same kit sells in American stores for approximately 580–600 dollars. A discount? Around 99%.

Liquidation Stores: An American Phenomenon Full of Surprises

In the USA, there are so-called liquidator stores — shops that buy returned goods in bulk from Amazon, Walmart, and other large chains. They purchase pallets full of returned products for a fraction of the original price and then resell them to customers. Some operate on a declining price principle: on Friday, everything costs 16 dollars, by the end of the week, only a few.

The catch is that the goods are often unsystematically labeled, and the staff rarely knows exactly what they are selling. That’s why premium hardware sometimes sells for the price of a pack of gum. Other Reddit users described similar finds — a 2TB NVMe drive for 16 dollars or an Intel i7 processor for a few tens. Of course, it also works the other way around: a broken charger might be waiting for you in a box labeled “electronics.”

Is it even usable?

Some commenters immediately noticed that these are SO-DIMM modules — memory primarily designed for laptops, not for regular desktop computers. However, that doesn’t mean they are useless. There are simple SO-DIMM to DIMM adapters that cost a few hundred and allow laptop memory to be used in a classic build. You might lose a few hundred megahertz, but at a price of 160 Czech crowns for 64 GB, that probably won’t bother anyone much.

Further use is offered in mini PCs and servers that natively use SO-DIMM memory. Users in the discussion mentioned, for example, the popular Minisforum MS-01 mini server, where such a kit would represent a significant upgrade.

Don’t Expect Such a Miracle in the Czech Republic

The phenomenon of American-style liquidation stores practically doesn’t exist here. Returned goods from Czech e-shops usually re-enter circulation as refurbished or are sold directly through second-hand markets. You would wait in vain in this country for a store to sell you DDR5 memory for the price of a roll.

However, the story nicely illustrates the current state of the memory market. DDR5 prices are currently significantly higher than we were used to — for a 64GB DDR5 kit, you’ll pay at least 15,000 Czech crowns in the Czech Republic, usually more. And while most of us honestly shell out that money at Alza, somewhere in an American town, someone is taking home the same thing for the price of a bottle of water.

What’s your best hardware find? Share it!

Source: Reddit (r/pcmasterrace)