The RAM crisis just got so bad that YouTubers are making it in their sheds — and our only hope now is a consumer rebellion
Refusing to play ball may be our only hope — it's bleak out there
by https://www.techradar.com/uk/author/darren-allan · TechRadarFeatures By Darren Allan published 26 April 2026
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If you were hoping for some relief from the RAM pricing crisis, April hasn't delivered on that front. Actually, there is a caveat attached here, in that there has been one more positive development of late – although it has a sizable sting in the tail, as we'll see later. But before that – and sorry to do this to you – we must wade through the quagmire of negative news that's been a running theme this month.
In fact, we only need to focus on the past week to see multiple developments that underline just how bad things have got with the RAM situation. Previously, we've heard about stock shortages of the Mac mini (and Mac Studio) theorized to be down to the lack of RAM supply, and then on Wednesday, the base model of the Mac mini completely sold out on Apple's online store. That's the M4 model with only 16GB of RAM, whereas before, it was the versions more heavily loaded with system memory which were (understandably) in trouble.
We also witnessed the launch of the Framework Laptop 13 Pro, dubbed the 'MacBook Pro for Linux users', which went down a storm thanks to many of its design decisions — with a notable fly in the ointment. That was the asking price for this notebook, with wallet-worrying starting prices, particularly in some regions where there are higher, much dearer baseline configurations. Naturally, those prices have been driven up by the rising cost of RAM and storage (along with other PC components besides, including CPUs and GPUs).
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Also this week came the news that someone is making their own RAM in their garden shed (as reported by Tom's Hardware). Okay, so no, they aren't producing functional sticks of memory to slot into a PC, but an intrepid YouTuber did manage to craft working memory cells from scratch, after converting "a shed in my back yard into a class 100 semiconductor cleanroom".
This is actually a seriously impressive project, and I'd recommend giving the video a watch, as it's not just amazing what's achieved in this DIY effort, but it's also very educational in terms of how memory is manufactured (and how it works). Although be warned, it does get quite techie.
Surface downer
Another major downer was a rumor that Microsoft's next-gen Surface devices are likely to be, well, shall we say expensive. Or to quote the leaker in this case: "Prices are probably going to be so bad, no one will be able to afford the things anyway."
Yikes. And guess why? That's right, good old RAMageddon. And yes, okay, this is just a rumor, but we have already seen huge price hikes for existing Surface models, and those are very real. When they happened last week, they were taken as a sign that next-gen Surface hardware would also be a lot pricier, so that adds weight to this week's rumor.
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