Alternative idea for the adventurous lot - or extreme self-hosters: Buy an old Xeon datacenter server with 1.5tb ddr3 ram (separately). Ddr3 still costs around a dollar pr gig (a month ago), so this rig with two xeon and 24 * 64gb ddr3 ram will cost ~1900$ + transport: ~2k.

(OR an older pc motherboard with 4*64 channels or similar)

DDR3 is a bit slower, use more power, and the server is big/noisy, but the difference in price is unbeatable, and it's a hell of a KVcache (for ai) if you put a gpu in it.

Note though, that power expenses are going up in the West.

I'd been putting off upgrading for like 8 years until I recently built a new machine. Looks like I lucked out. This sucks.

i'm glad i got ram when i did. i picked up 128gb about a year and a half ago. cost me $535.98. right now on amazon the exact same amount is $2159.98. it felt like i was going unnecessarily overboard at the time but i was trying to future proof and for once had the money. i always feel like i'm missing out on deals usually and it finally feels like i got a win, even if it is only because of corporate greed.

ram shortage, and Samsung pulling out of consumer sata production. they want AI everywhere and everyone to use it, but frig you if you need a computer to run it.