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Damn. The two 16GB kits of DDR5 RAM in my PC that I built back in 2023 are Crucial; they've been unavailable for months, I noticed. Between that, and the two 2TB SATA SSDs from Crucial I've bought in the past two years, I really lucked out not needing to buy any components this year.

Crucial was a good brand. This is absolutely a shitty situation for consumers.

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Quoting: mr-victoryThey believed they were doing HDD optimizations, but they figured out the optimizations had no effect because loading speed was not I/O bottlenecked. So they chopped off all duplications. A lot of them apparently.

The age-old mistake of premature optimisation...

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@Eike

Quoting: Eike

Quoting: ElectricPrismIn the near future, possibly the year 2030, you will not be allowed to own a modular computer as we know it now.

That's nonsense.
I offer a bet for 100€ to be paid on 1.1.2031.

"as we know it now."

2005 is unlike 2025

Gone:
☑ Removable Batteries on Laptops and Phones
☑ Optical CD/DVD/HD/BluRay Drive on Laptops
☑ Ethernet Port in many cases gone necessitating USB-C Hub
☑ Anything outside a single USB-C
☑ Removable MicroSD Storage on Phones
☑ Ability to open devices with a screwdriver, Screens are glued.
☑ Increasing un-affordability of Modular PC Parts eg: after 29 years in business, this article: "The RAM price and availability situation is going to worsen as Micron pull their Crucial consumer business"
☑ RAM Soldered to Silicon
☑ Phones, Tablets, and Laptops as SBC where no parts are removable or replaceable, or difficult to repair

Some tech people have "Stockholm Syndrome" for Big G, Big A, or Big M.

If we don't demand moldularity, consumers will no longer able to mix and match hardware outside of niche hobbyist markets.

Now if you'd like to move the goal post, go ahead. The facts are the facts regardless of arguments, opinions and speculations -- things are not getting better, they're getting worse, again the compute world especially with regard to modularity in 2030 will not be "as we know it now."

The RAM situation is bad enough, just imagine what your power bill will look like as AI eats needs double the power output we currently have now and everyone got the genius idea to shut down their nuclear and coal.

The West is cooked.

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This has actually the potential to be the best news ever for Steam gaming - depending on what Valve has negotiated with their distributors.

Nobody is able to buy PCs & RAM usage of games must be frozen at status quo - the Steam machine suddenly looks interesting.

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Quoting: TightRope

Quoting: ChuckaluphagusI've bought Crucial RAM for decades, and quite a few Crucial SSDs over the past fifteen years. A shame to see it go.

I have bought Crucial products for decades and they were always reliable. Too bad I will have to switch to another brand.
How many people will go back to Crucial when the bubble finally bursts and they need real customers? This is probably a bad long term business decision.

Yeah I was thinking how I've always liked their products, I have a few crucial ssd

But when/if they come back into consumer market it will make me think twice about my purchase

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@Pyrate

Black Mesa is for fans who have already experienced the games for what they are.

Yes and no. I agree Black Mesa is definitely for fans of the series and IMO the superior way to play the OG campaign. I'd argue if someone had a mild interest in playing HL1 (they want to experience the story because they've always heard so much about it or they're new to gaming), advise they play Black Mesa. If they're the type of gamer who enjoys or tolerates older games, play HL1.

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strategic customers in faster-growing segments

So, try to make a quick buck and when these "strategic customers" stop buying, or outright won't honor existing orders/payments, blame whatever and disappear. Gotcha. Sounds like a great plan for a business.

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Quoting: ChuckaluphagusI've bought Crucial RAM for decades, and quite a few Crucial SSDs over the past fifteen years. A shame to see it go.

I have bought Crucial products for decades and they were always reliable. Too bad I will have to switch to another brand.
How many people will go back to Crucial when the bubble finally bursts and they need real customers? This is probably a bad long term business decision.

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Quoting: 3zekiel

Quoting: ExplosiveDiarrheaGood, x86 has to go away.

I know not many of us have to go that low, but for those who have to, x86 is nice.

Thanks for your interesting write up. From what I heard I always thought x86 asm is a mess. Nice to hear other opinions.

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Quoting: hardpenguin

Steam Phone? You mustn't be afraid to dream a little bigger, Steam Tablet or Steam Car.

Or even a Steam Locomotive!

Steam Yacht!

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I just pulled the trigger last week on the back of this news and spent £2k on a full new build before all hardware prices inevitably skyrocket. I managed to get a corsair 32GB (2X16) DDR5 CL30 kit for £200. This same kit was only £100 a week or so earlier and is now retailing for £389 as of this evening.

That reminds me, I need to update my system info. The system specs I built are below for those that are interested.

HVN HS 420 case
Artic Freezer 3 420 AIO with a set of Be Quiet Case fans.
9950X3D
ASUS Hero X870E
Corsair 32GB Ram kit.
1200w Power Supply
I migrated my current 7900XTX GPU to my new system

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Once games didn't need to come on disks developers basically stopped caring.

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Quoting: ElectricPrismIn the near future, possibly the year 2030, you will not be allowed to own a modular computer as we know it now.

That's nonsense.
I offer a bet for 100€ to be paid on 1.1.2031.

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I did hear criticism that you need MS Visual C++ Studio to build the binaries and that there is no guarantee pull requests are granted that allow you to build outside of Windows, fair argument. We'll see.

I try to be fair, credit where credit due, they seem to be pivoting to a direction via the MIT license that makes them grow into something valuable.

At this point my reaction isn't pessimistic, but not really more than mildly optimistic. If they get a good track record for a few years I will expect great things to come from this.

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"But I mean do we really need memory?"

In the near future, possibly the year 2030, you will not be allowed to own a modular computer as we know it now.

All data & compute will be centralized in the Mega Centers under central control and your device will only be a low powered screen you use for content consumption.

They will say it's for the environment, they will say it's for the children, they will say it's because scarcity and ewaste, but really it will be because centralized control means power, and is a means to an end.

I hope the RISC-V and HomeLab/Modders are paying attention, because compute is about to be dramatically reduced due to the strangulation on price of electricity, and economic warfare against the peasants.

I hope people have enough GOG, education materials & offline content stockpiled and are pushing the hardware frontiers that mean tech freedom for humanity.

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This crappy news makes me consider buying RAM "just in case!" 🙄

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Knowing my luck my ram next year will fail and I'll be unable to replace it :-/

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Quoting: XpanderWLets hope everyone who has their current PCs, don't run into any issues that they need to buy new SSDs/nvmes or RAM before the prices will get back to normal levels.

Yeah, that's the main thing that worries me. My PC's pretty ancient by now, and I've been thinking about doing some upgrades over the past few years, but I've had a string of family emergencies which have prevented me from even really having the brainspace to consider it. Now that things are stabilized the prices are just awful. Fortunately there's really not much that I'm even interested in which would necessitate PC upgrades, but eventually a component's gonna go. Ah well, c'est la vie! I suppose when we're all jockeying for a position in the water riots, system upgrades will be the last thing on our minds. :D

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I've bought Crucial RAM for decades, and quite a few Crucial SSDs over the past fifteen years. A shame to see it go.

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Quoting: AndrewWI was really hoping this year to get a ten-year gaming PC that can carry me happily through my backlog. Guess that's not happening.

Same, but I decided to just bite the bullet and get a new machine before RAM prices get insane (I'm actually getting 'high-performance' RAM with a discount compared to regular RAM for whatever reason, so I'm getting in while the getting's good).

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From their press release "Thanks to a passionate community of consumers, the Crucial brand has become synonymous with technical leadership, quality and reliability of leading-edge memory and storage products. We would like to thank our millions of customers, hundreds of partners and all of the Micron team members who have supported the Crucial journey for the last 29 years.”

As a thanks to their passionate community of consumers they're giving us the middle finger. Difficult decision my arse, they're simply focusing on securing AI deals before others. I'm aware it's just good business for them, I'm disappointed because I bought several crucial ram over other brands.

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Wonderful news... Thanks AI /s

Hope this bubble will burst soon enough and things can return to normal.
Lets hope everyone who has their current PCs, don't run into any issues that they need to buy new SSDs/nvmes or RAM before the prices will get back to normal levels.

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As a consumer, not only did I not notice getting chopped, I hadn't even realized I was made of liver!

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Quoting: RetroGamerCA

Quoting: EikeLet me take this opportunity...
Now, I want to get a Steam Frame next year, and I want to play HL Alyx.

Might I suggest the NoVR mod for HL Alyx. So, no VR equipment necessary. I used it to play thru the entire game, and it was fantastic!
https://github.com/HLANoVR/HLA-NoVR

That's the opposite of what I'm looking for TBH.

I want the best possible VR experience possible. I heared that's HL Alyx.
So I want to understand what's happening there.
If I would be looking just for Half-Life, I would have begun some years earlier. :)

Thanks nevertheless thank you of course!

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Quoting: GustyGhost

Quoting: 3zekielPoor x86, why so much hate ?

It is justified. The x86 duopoly have universally deployed what I would consider to be rogue silicon in the form of Intel ME and AMD Platform "Security" Processor, effectively extinguishing owner control and true device ownership under x86.

It used to be that you could have stuck with AMD, but then they followed suit and did their own "Intel ME".

It was once within reach to use me_cleaner script but Intel have continually pushed the feasibility of this out of sight.

Remaining on old, pre-ME/PSP CPUs was viable for high end gaming only a few years beyond the implementation of these anti-features.

Intel bought out VIA, eliminating any hope of real competition. VIA's last foray into performant x86 died with Isaiah II.

It is as though some force is railroading everyone into computers which ultimately answer to somebody other than the user.

A savior couldn't come soon enough. I'd lived on Open POWER for several years and am dabbling in the emerging RISC-V gear. The real shame is that projects like FEX and Hangover (who once supported truly free ISAs such as POWER) had dropped ppc64 support and currently no support for RISC-V.

The interim "solution" is to take a leap of faith that BIOS vendors of AMD boards are being honest in their PSP disable switches actually doing what they claim to do. Just a "trust us, bro. Communication with the PSP has been severed". And ARM is no panacea as they have their own "Trust"Zone rogue silicon. It is truly a dismal situation.

This is fair, but trustzone on arm isn't really any better in term of ring-10 than Intel/AMD.
I do agree w/ you that openpower is superior on that front. As for RISCV.... that will completely depend on the vendor. Implementing a "trusted core" is sadly all too easy (and not dependent on ISA either). If a RISCV vendor also wants to enable this in their system, they will. Fingers crossed that a fully open CPU might happen once again indeed, and I would believe in RISCV vendors more than in ARM for this.

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But I mean do we really need memory?
AI will make it we won't, it will solve it all, just wait!

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Quoting: SzkodnixPlease make that browser plugin for Epic Games Store as well!

Oh, wait. Tim Sweeney says that it's not necessary

Well, in the case of the Epic store it probably isn't. To need that, you'd have to be buying a game . . .

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I'm not really buying any new games. The most modern things I play are Dune: Awakening and FO76. My machine, of course, can't run Win 11. I was really hoping this year to get a ten-year gaming PC that can carry me happily through my backlog. Guess that's not happening.

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Quoting: TechnopeasantGame is still listed on GOG. I assume they are also getting the update?

Yeap! As it should be.
[https://www.gogdb.org/product/1761114940#changelog](https://www.gogdb.org/product/1761114940#changelog)

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What the...

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