For the second week running the only line on Dhaka’s computer price lists that moved was memory, and it moved up. Traders across the markets report RAM rising by Tk 500 to Tk 2,000 per module depending on brand and capacity, and they give the same reason: supply is short of demand. Processors, motherboards, monitors, drives and graphics cards are where they were in October.
How far RAM has come
In September a Corsair Vengeance LPX 16 GB DDR4 3200 kit was Tk 6,000 and the 8 GB stick Tk 4,000. Today they are Tk 10,000 and Tk 7,000. Kingston Fury 8 GB DDR4 is Tk 7,000 and 16 GB Tk 9,500; G.Skill Trident Z 8 GB DDR4 Tk 8,000. DDR5 has gone further: Corsair Vengeance RGB 16 GB 5200 MHz Tk 19,500; G.Skill Flare X5 16 GB 5600 MHz Tk 21,600; Kingston Fury RGB 16 GB 6000 MHz Tk 21,000 and the 32 GB kit Tk 40,000 — the price of a whole budget PC in the spring.
Why
The cause is global. The three companies that make almost all DRAM have shifted production lines to high-bandwidth memory for AI data centres, where margins are far higher, and ordinary DDR4 and DDR5 output has fallen behind demand. Spot prices have climbed worldwide since mid-year; Dhaka, importing every module and paying in dollars, sees the increase with a few weeks’ lag and a little extra. Nobody expects relief before the second half of 2026.
The rest of the list
CPUs: Core Ultra 9 285K Tk 72,000; Core i9 14th gen Tk 55,000; Core i7 14th gen Tk 44,500; Core i5 14th gen Tk 29,000; Core i5 13th gen Tk 22,500; Core i3 13th gen Tk 13,500; Ryzen 9 7900X Tk 42,000; Ryzen 7 7700X Tk 30,000; Ryzen 7 5700G Tk 19,000; Ryzen 5 5600G Tk 14,800.
Boards: Asus Prime H610M Tk 10,500; TUF Gaming B550M-Plus Tk 18,900; Prime Z890-Plus Tk 37,600; Gigabyte B760M Gaming X Tk 20,000; Gigabyte B450M K Tk 8,900; MSI B450M-A Pro Max Tk 8,000.
Storage: Samsung 990 EVO Plus 1 TB Tk 14,000; 990 Pro 1 TB Tk 15,500; Corsair MP600 1 TB Tk 15,000, 500 GB Tk 8,000; HP EX900 500 GB Tk 6,000; Team MP33 256 GB Tk 4,800. HDD: Seagate Barracuda 2 TB Tk 10,000; Toshiba P300 2 TB Tk 10,000; X300 4 TB Tk 17,500. Portable: WD My Passport 1/2/4 TB Tk 8,000 / 10,000 / 14,500.
Monitors: HP M24f 24-inch Tk 17,000; Dell Pro 24 Plus P2425H Tk 26,000; Asus VY249HGR Tk 15,000; MSI Pro MP223 Tk 11,200; LG 24MS570B Tk 17,500; LG UltraFine 27-inch Tk 46,500; Samsung Odyssey G5 27-inch Tk 40,800.
Graphics: RTX 5080 16 GB Tk 190,000; RTX 4060 Ventus OC 16 GB Tk 66,000; RTX 3060 12 GB Tk 42,000; RTX 3050 6 GB from Tk 28,500; GT 1030 Tk 11,000.
How to build around it
If you have a DDR4 board, buy the minimum now and add later — one 16 GB stick, not two. If you are choosing a platform, DDR4 is still cheaper per gigabyte than DDR5 despite the rise, which keeps the B450/B550 Ryzen build the value option. Do not buy 32 GB for a machine that will use 12. And treat any second-hand RAM at half price with suspicion: the shortage has brought counterfeit and relabelled modules into the market, and a stick that fails MemTest is worth nothing at any price.
