VIK-On, a Russian modder we’ve already talked about for his mod of a 24 GB RTX 4090 into a 48 GB card, is back in the news. With the current absurdity of memory prices, he has created his own RAM. How? By salvaging DDR5 chips and soldering them onto another PCB. Then, he flashes the kit with XMP profiles from another manufacturer, and voilà! And he saves a lot of money in the process!
VIK-On is making its own RAM at affordable prices!
RAM prices are crazy, and some people are finding clever ways to lower the bill. This is particularly the case for VIK-On,a talented Russian modder. He creates his own sticks simply by cannibalizing memory chips from other RAM modules. To do this, he buys SO-DIMM laptop modules, which cost him around $100 each. He desoldered the memory chips and then repositioned them on a blank PCB purchased in China for less than $10. All that remained was to install a heat sink, which he found for peanuts on AlieExpress (around $5), and voilà!
But it doesn’t stop there, as the modder even goes so far as to flash custom firmware from ADATA. This allows the motherboard to recognize a 6400 MT/s XMP profile and apply it with a click from within the BIOS. The worst part is that it all works fine.
However, while you might be tempted to try this yourself, keep in mind that you need the right equipment and skills in electronic soldering. Once the chips have been removed from their old module, they must be cleaned and the solder balls on the memory modules must be redone using a special station. This is clearly not something that just anyone can do. But for anyone who has the equipment and skills, there are significant savings to be made. As it stands, his 32 GBDDR5 6400 MT/s kit will have cost him “only” $218, compared to €485 in France for basic memory. Even putting currency conversion and VAT aside, it’s clear that the savings are significant.
