Is this ever going to end? Motherboards are going up in price too! I did the math, and building a PC now costs me at least three thousand more than last year.
Is this never going to end? Motherboards are getting price hikes too! I did the math, and now building a PC costs me at least 3,000 more than last year. RAM prices have doubled, SSDs have gone up, graphics cards are chasing new highs—and now motherboards are getting their slice of the pie. Behind this round of price increases lies a frustrating truth. Recently, I got the itch to upgrade my computer, opened up a shopping site, and was stunned. Last year, a 16GB DDR5 RAM stick that could be had for 200-300 yuan is now listed at
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Is this never going to end? Motherboards are getting price hikes too! I did the math, and now building a PC costs me at least 3,000 more than last year. RAM prices have doubled, SSDs have gone up, gra
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Is This Ever Going to End? Motherboards Are Getting Pricier Too! I Did the Math — Building a PC Now Costs Me at Least 3,000 Yuan More Than Last Year
RAM prices have doubled, SSDs are up, GPUs are climbing — and now motherboards are getting hit too. Behind this round of price hikes lies a truth that's hard to swallow.
I recently got the itch to upgrade my PC, so I opened up a shopping site — and froze.
Last year, a 16GB DDR5 stick that cost 200–300 yuan now goes for 900 to 1,200. A 1TB NVMe SSD that was 400 yuan last year now starts at 700. The B760 motherboard sitting in my wishlist has quietly crept from 700 to over 1,000.
And that's not even counting GPUs.
Then today I saw another headline: ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI — the big three motherboard makers — may all raise prices in Q3, with reports suggesting increases of no less than 50%.
A mainstream motherboard that sells for 1,000 yuan today could break 1,500 after the hike. The high-end Z-series? Don't even ask.
Why Are Motherboards Getting More Expensive?
The answer is actually simple — squeezed from both ends.
On one end, raw materials. PCB prices for motherboards are expected to rise at least 50% across 2026. Copper is up, SMD capacitors are up, power delivery components are up, and controller chips are up too. These aren't minor parts — they account for a huge chunk of a motherboard's cost.
On the other end, sales volume. Ever since RAM and GPU prices spiked, the DIY PC market has been cold for over half a year. Motherboard shipments have taken a big hit. But R&D costs don't shrink just because you're selling less — spread dozens or hundreds of models across fewer units, and the cost per board naturally climbs.
Squeezed from both sides, profits vanish. According to channel sources, the big three had been holding the line, but by Q3, they can't anymore.
✅ 2026 PC Price Hike Rundown
Here's a clear breakdown of this year's PC hardware price increases:
| Category | Increase | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| DDR5 RAM | +89% (Q2 alone) | AI data centers grabbing HBM capacity |
| DDR4 RAM | +50% (Q3) | Capacity squeezed by DDR5 |
| SSD | +10–15% (Q3) | Big three storage makers cutting production in sync |
| GPU | +30–40% (full year) | VRAM pricier, AI compute cards hogging capacity |
| Motherboard | +50% (projected) | PCB + components + declining sales |
The most painful part? CPUs are barely doing anything in 2026 — AMD released the 7700X3D and the 5800X3D anniversary edition, Intel's Core Ultra 200 series is just minor tweaks, and new platforms won't arrive until early 2027. With no new CPUs to drive upgrades, people have even less reason to swap motherboards, which only piles more pricing pressure on manufacturers. It's a vicious cycle.
How Much Does It Cost to Build a PC Right Now?
Let's do some simple math. Last year, 5,000 yuan could get you a mainstream build without a GPU. The same configuration this year:
- 16GB DDR5 RAM: 200 → 1,000+
- 1TB NVMe SSD: 400 → 700+
- B760 motherboard: 700 → 1,000+
- PSU and case: not much change, but still creeping up
The same stuff costs 2,000 to 3,000 yuan more this year than last. Throw in a GPU (like an RTX 5070), and the number gets even uglier.
It's not that I can't afford it — it's that it doesn't feel worth it. The same money buys noticeably less than it did a year ago.
So Buy Now or Wait?
There's no one-size-fits-all answer, but here's the most straightforward, no-nonsense advice I can give.
If you're definitely building a PC within the next six months, pull the trigger before the Q3 price hikes land. This round of increases from the big three isn't a question of "if" — it's a question of "when."
If you're not in a rush, don't panic either — when AMD's Zen 6 and Intel's Nova Lake platforms arrive in early 2027, older platform motherboards might drop in price. But the new platform boards will almost certainly not be cheap.
The most pessimistic scenario: you don't want to pay today's prices, and you can't wait until 2027. Then you might have to accept a hard truth — PC hardware in the AI era isn't going back to 2023 prices.
This isn't any single manufacturer's fault. From storage to PCB to packaging, the entire supply chain has been repriced by AI data center demand. Every yuan you spend building a PC carries the shadow of AI.
Did you already get in before the price hikes, or are you holding out as a patient waiter? Drop your build list and budget in the comments — I want to see who got burned the worst 😂
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