Screwdriver set: users began to assemble memory cards on their own
Against the background of a shortage of RAM for PCs and rising prices for it, the Russian Federation began to assemble its modules from used components, sources in the IT market told Izvestia. Memory chips are soldered out of broken graphics cards, laptops, and so on, and then installed into new printed circuit boards. Such memory, assembled from improvised chips, can cost five times less than the original, experts say. Artisanal modules can satisfy the needs of some users, but the quality of such memory is unpredictable, they warn.
How to make artisanal memory devices for PCs
RAM modules for handmade PCs have appeared on the Russian market. This was told to Izvestia by two sources familiar with sellers and manufacturers of electronics. Assemblers of such components purchase printed circuit boards on Chinese online platforms, and then solder chips removed from broken video cards, laptops and seized from other equipment onto them.
One of the editors' interlocutors claims that he recently quite profitably resold a batch of about 5,000 used memory chips to a company specializing in the supply of PC components.
"By assembling ready—made modules from them, rather than reselling already assembled products, buyers could earn several million rubles in addition," he said in an interview with Izvestia.
Viktor Veklic, the founder and owner of the vik-on service center, spoke on his Telegram channel about how he assembled a 32-gigabyte RAM from improvised components. To do this, he used memory chips from two SODIMM modules (each costs about 8 thousand rubles) and a Chinese-made printed circuit board. The cost of the new self-assembled module, according to him, amounted to about 17 thousand rubles.
You can get memory chips either by buying them in China, or by removing them from used laptop boards or faulty memory strips, after separating the working chips from the non-working ones, he told Izvestia.
— The process is quite painstaking, especially when using non-standard chips. It takes about two and a half hours to produce one memory strip manually, and producing large volumes of modules from used chips is difficult, although individual steps can be optimized," he noted.
In his opinion, it is advisable to engage in self-assembly only as a hobby. Self-made memory modules cannot be sold at the full market value of new products, whereas factory-made products made from new components may well be sold at market prices.
New 32 GB memory modules were offered to Izvestia's correspondent at one of the Moscow radio markets for 30 thousand rubles. At the same time, the sellers assured that they did not know anything about the restored devices. Crafts of this kind have simply not yet reached the mass retail market, such RAM is currently mainly distributed in the corporate segment, according to one of the editorial staff.
At the same time, demand for the equipment needed to assemble electronics, including computer RAM, has increased in Russia. According to Wildberries & Russ, sales of special soldering stations needed for soldering microcircuits increased by 48% at the end of 2025 compared to the beginning of the year, and advanced devices of this kind, costing over 10 thousand rubles, by 72%.
In general, PC RAM is in increasing demand in the Russian market.
— In the last month and a half, from December 2025 to early January 2026, Russians were 71% more likely to buy RAM compared to the same period last year. This indicates a growing interest in updating and upgrading computers using ready—made solutions," said Pavel Komarov, head of Avito's Electronics and Home Appliances business line.
What are the dangers of components assembled "on the knee"?
The assembly of memory modules in Russia is really gaining momentum — this is an unprecedented phenomenon for the market, no one has done this before, says Eldar Murtazin, a leading analyst at Mobile Research Group. If prices for computer components continue to rise as they do now, "self-assembly" could overwhelm the mass market, he warns.
— In a situation where the cost of memory is steadily rising, there will be more and more such offers. It's like refining — only in this case we are talking about the extraction of scarce microchips from old broken electronics, not precious metals," says the expert.
It is still difficult to estimate the scale of production of homemade memory modules, admits Eldar Murtazin. According to him, the cost of such an artisanal RAM can be about 20% of the price of a new product, which makes such an assembly economically attractive. The main problem with such components is their unpredictability: the module may work correctly, or it may malfunction or even become inoperable. This is due to the fact that during the artisanal assembly of microcircuits and finished strips, they do not undergo full-fledged selection, testing and quality control, the expert emphasized.
Participants in the Russian and global electronics markets began to record a rapid increase in PC memory prices in the second half of 2025. According to estimates by the Commercial Times, from the beginning of 2025 to the third quarter, prices for memory chips increased by more than 170%, an unprecedented jump. For example, in September Samsung raised the prices of a number of memory chips by 60% at once. According to PC Part Picker, the cost of a set of DDR5 memory modules, which was about $125 in September, had already exceeded $250 by early November.
The price increase for memory and other PC components will continue in 2026, market participants told Izvestia. The reason is the boom of artificial intelligence all over the world. Servers on which AI services are based require more and more high-performance memory, drives and other components, and manufacturers' capacities cannot keep up with the growing demand, which leads to a shortage in the market and rising prices.
"The difficult situation in the RAM market will continue over the next couple of years, and I think prices will rise by 20-40%," Viktor Veklich believes.
In conditions of a shortage of components and rising prices, the emergence of semi-industrial production is quite natural, says Vladimir Zykov, editor-in-chief of the IT publication Runet. Craftsmen who assemble such products will increasingly satisfy the demand of some users for inexpensive PC memory, and if the current price dynamics continue, the supply will only increase, he believes.
A similar situation exists with refurbished used smartphones — as the cost of new devices increases, demand for them and their market share grow, while small sellers do not always consider it necessary to warn that someone has previously used the device, the expert concluded.
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