DRAM Prices Drop Even Further

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
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If you are in the market to load up on DDR3 memory, now would be a really good time to make that investment. Prices on DRAM have been falling steadily all summer. Prices are approaching a record low, which usually means a reduction in production to reduce inventory and eventually result in rising prices. Get it while the getting is good. :cool:

Early July contract prices for 2GB and 4GB DDR3 modules averaged US$16 and US$31, respectively, down 7.25% and 7.46%, according to DRAMeXchange.
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Prices are pretty incredible, I agree.

Just bought two 8GB (4x2GB) G.Skill Ripjaws PC3 14900 kits for $69.99 each, with free shipping, and each kit came with a bonus 4GB Kingston flash drive. I'll probably save them for an Ivy Bridge upgrade; I think by then we may see that DDR3 prices have gone up.
 
Downside, is some of us who still are trying to squeeze some life out of an older mobo that uses DDR2 ram are screwed as those prices haven't been budging and probably won't ever go down again.
 
sfsuphysics said:
Downside, is some of us who still are trying to squeeze some life out of an older mobo that uses DDR2 ram are screwed as those prices haven't been budging and probably won't ever go down again.
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I am currently using DDR2 (system in sig). I've taken it as far as I can go, and it's certainly still competitive enough.

I look on this as the best first step towards a new upgrade. CPU prices are often very stable, as are mainboards. RAM though, can rise and fall. Best to get DDR3 when it's cheap, and then save for the next step. There will probably be someone else who could use your old CPU/mainboard/RAM combo, and that may make up the price of one of the three new components you'll need.
 
Thanks for the heads-up. I've been putting off more memory for my server.
$89.00 for 8GB ECC Unbuffered DDR3 1333 is a bargain.
 
Shoot, no edit; I meant 2x4GB kits earlier.

As for DDR2, now that it's no longer the standard, production has slowed, which will keep its prices higher. That's how things went with the DDR<-->DDR2 transition too.
 
I'm still waiting for the low-voltage DDR3 that's supposed to be released any time now
 
I noticed the nice decrease earlier when looking at RAM for my next system upgrade. It shocked me. I haven't looked at RAM in a while and was quite surprised with how far it has dropped.
 
Would it make any sense to get some for a future system, but not planning to buy an entire system until late 2012? Anyone expecting DDR4 out by this time?

Planing on getting an ASUS ROG series Mobo. Is it all 2 by 2 slots, or do they come in 3 by 3 as well already?
 
nakedhand said:
Would it make any sense to get some for a future system, but not planning to buy an entire system until late 2012? Anyone expecting DDR4 out by this time?

Planing on getting an ASUS ROG series Mobo. Is it all 2 by 2 slots, or do they come in 3 by 3 as well already?
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Is DDR4 going to be used or is going straight to DDR5 like with GPUs?
 
nakedhand said:
Would it make any sense to get some for a future system, but not planning to buy an entire system until late 2012? Anyone expecting DDR4 out by this time?

Planing on getting an ASUS ROG series Mobo. Is it all 2 by 2 slots, or do they come in 3 by 3 as well already?
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^ this is currently my ponderings as well. I'm sockin' away money left and right to build a new pc and doin pretty well so far. I hate to jump the gun and get memory now, only to build a pc in Jan/Feb and then my ram is obsolete/incompatible/incorrect for a new system. I mean, im still waiting for specs on Ivy Bridge as far as what its using(do i need enough for double channel or triple channel?). Plus im still waiting for official reviews on Bulldozer. Yea the ram prices are great, but you dont wanna be left holding the bag.
 
Back in my day...Good DDR2 was $100 a GB. You kids are spoiled with this DRAM. And get off my lawn.
 
spacing guild said:
Back in my day...Good DDR2 was $100 a GB. You kids are spoiled with this DRAM. And get off my lawn.
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Geesh, I remember paying out the nose for some 4x1GB G.Skill DDR500 sticks,

I wonder if 3x4GB sticks are worth it.... hmmm....
 
450 said:
I forgot about those cards. :eek:

Why didn't nVidia use GDDR4?
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I guess because by the time they needed to switch GDDR5 was already out. Their 8 and 9 series were stomping all over ATI's offerings with cheaper GDDR3.
 
ryan_975 said:
I guess because by the time they needed to switch GDDR5 was already out. Their 8 and 9 series were stomping all over ATI's offerings with cheaper GDDR3.
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If DDR5 is out, why would desktops/laptops use DDR4? Wouldn't it be better to go straight ot the newer stuff?
 
At one point during the 90s, 1 MEGABYTE hit $80, so that would have put 1 GB at $80,000 if such a module was available then. I remember long before that RAM prices could be measured in the thousands of dollars, but that's long enough ago to be somewhat historical in the timeline of PCs, so it's astounding sometimes to think how expensive it was still able to get relatively recently.

Do we sense another "fire" coming to a production plant sometime in the near future?
 
450 said:
If DDR5 is out, why would desktops/laptops use DDR4? Wouldn't it be better to go straight ot the newer stuff?
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because GDDRx and DDRx aren't the same things.. GDDR3 is based on DDR2, and both GDDR4 and GDDR5 are based on DDR3.
 
LoneWolf said:
I am currently using DDR2 (system in sig). I've taken it as far as I can go, and it's certainly still competitive enough.

I look on this as the best first step towards a new upgrade. CPU prices are often very stable, as are mainboards. RAM though, can rise and fall. Best to get DDR3 when it's cheap, and then save for the next step. There will probably be someone else who could use your old CPU/mainboard/RAM combo, and that may make up the price of one of the three new components you'll need.
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That or I can find a DDR3 775 motherboard, Gigabyte makes one with 4 ddr3 slots I believe. Hell it would be cheaper to go that route and buy ddr3 ram than to upgrade my existing... oh well, I'll hang on, 6GB should be more than sufficient for a while now.


Oh and my first "PC" I paid $200 for 8MB of ram. Before that on my Amiga... fuck I don't want to think about what I paid .. (close to $1000 for a 20MB SCSI drive!)
 
spacing guild said:
Back in my day...Good DDR2 was $100 a GB. You kids are spoiled with this DRAM. And get off my lawn.
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back in MY day, I remember buying a memory upgrade for my awesome Tandy 1000 SL with a 20 MB hardcard on it, I went from 512Kb of ram, to 640kb, and it only cost me about $150!

Thats only $1.2 million dollars per GB...
 
The most I ever remember paying for RAM was $85 for 1Gb of DDR-333. The cheapest was last year when I picked up a 4Gb DDR3-1600 kit for $50. I picked up another 4Gb set for the same price a couple months later. Now they have 8Gb sets for around the same price...crazy!
 
sfsuphysics said:
Downside, is some of us who still are trying to squeeze some life out of an older mobo that uses DDR2 ram are screwed as those prices haven't been budging and probably won't ever go down again.
Click to expand...

I bought my 2x2gb sticks when they were cheap...I think it was under $50 for the pair of them. One of the reasons I bought an AM2+ DDR2 board last time I upgraded.

I don't even have a PC with DDR3 in it, ha.
 
I paid $64 for an 8 megabyte 72-pin SIMM in 1996.

I paid $39.98 for a 4 gigabyte DDR3 DIMM several months ago.

512x as much for ~45% less in 15 years.
 
Excellent news. Just in time for me to buy some SO-DIMMS for my next laptop purchase. I was going to go with just 8GB, but maybe I'll go with 16GB.
 
Remember the early 2000's when DDR1 was going pretty much free after rebates all over the place? And then came the colluding between DRAM makers to raise market prices.
 
450 said:
I remember paying hundreds for some 64MB SIMMs.
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or before that hundreds for 4 then 8 then 16's and so on. It's pretty amazing how much faster and cheaper computer parts have become. I mean 12 years ago a computer that was about the equivalent of a mobile phone is today cost thousands.
 
We understand, computers are now a commodity. Now what do hardware geeks do? Me personally have little interest in PC's anymore. My phone does 80% of what i need a pc to do. I mean, i keep a decent gaming rig up to date for games, but its so cheap to do anymore its just not a bother. No need to overclock, hack, set this, set that to get decent FPS.

As far as everything else, i find it funny video encoding is brought up everytime, but who actually does that? Nobody. Maybe 1% of the people that yak about it.

MEH, PC's= toasters
 
Righty said:
We understand, computers are now a commodity. Now what do hardware geeks do? Me personally have little interest in PC's anymore. My phone does 80% of what i need a pc to do. I mean, i keep a decent gaming rig up to date for games, but its so cheap to do anymore its just not a bother. No need to overclock, hack, set this, set that to get decent FPS.

As far as everything else, i find it funny video encoding is brought up everytime, but who actually does that? Nobody. Maybe 1% of the people that yak about it.

MEH, PC's= toasters
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I for one can´t agree with this. Far from everyone is lucky enough to enjoy your limited needs for PC usage.

Personally I still find PCs too slow and welcome all improvements. And no, I don´t do video encoding either.

But sure if a phone can compete with your PC usage and cover 80%, it says something about the narrow scope of usage you have of your PC.
 
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