RAM is so expensive, it comes with a free Intel Core 9 CPU | usagoldmines.com

How can you even build a PC these days, with component prices rising faster than the price of gas? As often happens when in-demand products get scarce, we’re starting to see bundles, as both retailers and consumers look for relief. One such example? Buy 64GB of desktop RAM, get a free Intel Core 9 285K processor.

This particular bundle comes (or came) from Newegg, a seller that likes wrapping up commonly paired purchases at the best of times. Shoppers spotted a 64GB set of G.Skill Ripjaws DDR5 RAM (that’s two 32GB 6000 DIMMs) going for the terrifying sum of $885 USD. For comparison, I’m looking through my personal email at a receipt for RAM with identical specs from July of 2024 for $164. Pardon me while I scream into a pillow.

To sweeten the “deal,” Newegg was temporarily throwing in an Intel Core 9 285K desktop CPU. That is, at least for the moment, the top-of-the-line Intel chip for consumers: 8 cores, 16 threads, retail price of almost $600. That wouldn’t exactly make the RAM it was bundled with affordable—again, the RAM has gone up more than 500 percent based on that previous figure. But in the most recent sense, getting almost six hundred bucks’ worth of parts for free is hard to sneeze at.

Alas, it seems like the bargain deal discount retail coping mechanism has run its limited course. A screenshot captured by VideoCardz said it was a “limited offer,” and that limit seems to have been reached. Looking at the Newegg listing now, you only get a free copy of 3D Mark. No hardware bundles to be seen.

It’s often said that “we can’t have nice things,” and if you’re not quick on the draw, it looks like you can’t even have slightly-less-horrible things.