According to Tom's Hardware, the idea surfaced on Russian YouTuber PRO Hi-Tech’s Telegram channel, where a local modder known as "Vik-on" already performs VRAM upgrades for graphics cards. He reckons blank RAM PCBs can be bought from China for as little as $6.40 per DIMM, then you populate them like you are running a tiny, extremely questionable factory.

The snag is the memory chips, because the so-called spot market is basically not a market right now. The thread claims manufacturers either cannot make enough extra DRAM or would rather sell what they have to better-paying AI customers.

Still, the modders say SK Hynix and Samsung chips can be hunted down on Chinese marketplaces if you know the correct part numbers. That is doing a lot of work for the word “hunt”, given how murky grey-market silicon can get.

They ran the numbers and landed at roughly 12,000 Russian rubles ($152, about €129) for a single 16GB stick with "average" specs, which is roughly what you would pay retail anyway.

A ZenTimings screenshot in the thread even shows CL28 timings, suggesting you can build something fairly spicy if you have the kit and the nerve. It still does not look cost-effective unless retail pricing gets even uglier.

If you are desperate, there is another route: salvage chips from used kits, or strip laptop memory since it uses the same ICs. That means desoldering donor boards, reballing the chips and reattaching them to fresh PCBs, which is the sort of “hobby” that ends with either a working DIMM or a pile of expensive regret.

The thread notes DDR5 ICs are showing up on AliExpress, and GDDR6(X) seems even easier to spot, so the parts pipeline is there if you are willing to roll the dice. With RAM prices still climbing and system builders flirting with bring-your-own-memory options, the DIY crowd is already practising for whatever comes next.