Sixteen gigabytes is where most current DDR5 desktops start, and for a large share of buyers it remains the right amount. A machine that runs one game at a time, handles office documents, browses and plays video will rarely reach the ceiling. The tier only feels tight when several heavy things happen at once: a title with large streamed environments, a browser holding dozens of tabs, a voice overlay and a capture tool all drawing from the same pool.

How the 16GB is bought matters as much as the number on the box. Two 8GB modules populate both channels; a lone 16GB module leaves half the memory bus idle, which shows up as rougher minimums rather than a lower average. Filling both slots on a two-slot board also means any later increase is a swap rather than an addition, so decide early whether this tier is the destination or a staging post.

DRAM supply has been unsettled since manufacturers began redirecting wafer capacity toward high-bandwidth memory for AI accelerators, and the entry capacity tier is where that pressure lands hardest. The practical response is to buy the capacity a build genuinely needs at the time of purchase instead of banking on a cheap top-up later. Evetech dispatches memory nationwide from its Centurion warehouse, with the major centres normally seeing delivery inside one to three business days.