Memory prices bothering anyone ELSE these days???

SirKronan

Supreme [H]ardness
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Dec 7, 2007
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Look at this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227493

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227492

Granted, one is sold out, but look at how cheap 1GB SODIMMs are!! Lenovo is selling 1GB DDR3 SODIMMs on the cheap as well. I see sales popping up like this recently.

Why can't someone make a desktop motherboard that takes SODIMMs?? You could get 4GB on the cheap ...

I saw this on another forum with a logical explanation following it:

DDR-2 will continue to become more and more expensive.

The push to DDR3 was this poster's reasoning, and it makes sense, but why aren't prices going down? Obviously the demand for 1GB SODIMMs is going to be ridiculously low, which is likely the cause, but even DDR3 is much higher now then when I purchased both my 6GB kits of 1600MHz CAS 8 DDR3. The best sales on kits now after rebate are more expensive than the kits I purchased before the mail in rebate!! Are prices ever going to come back down? I work at Best Buy, and I have noticed that even the prices of retail computers have either come up, or had features omitted in order to apparently offset the latest increase in memory costs. For example, an Asus desktop retailed for $500 for just the tower. It had a decent dual core Intel processor, 6GB of ram, good sized hard drive, Windows 7 HP 64 bit, and a nice dual antenna wireless N card. The model that replaced it retailed for the same price, and had pretty much the exact same specs - minus the wireless N card. I noticed a Gateway and an HP model that had similar removals on the newer model, which replaced the older models at the same price point.

This is disturbing, and I am just asking anyone out there that is "in the know" more than me if there is a light at the end of the tunnel, or if the upgrade to 2GB from 4GB and from 4GB to 8GB will continue to no longer be such a cost effective way to upgrade performance on aged computers (or even new ones that are just seeing an increased workload).

What say ye?
 
DDR2 market was so saturated and prices so low that at least one large memory manufacturer went out of business. That combined with the move to DDR3 makes DDR2 a dead/dying market.

I do miss the days of 35~40 for 4 gigs though. Cheap builds were so much easier in 2009.
 
Yea the prices make me sick now. I'm going to keep my eye out for the best set I can find for the best price and just buy 8gb and call it done until my next system upgrade. My current system is running 2gb cuz I burned out a set for stupid reasons.

I'm glad to see others have noticed this.
 
Yea the prices make me sick now. I'm going to keep my eye out for the best set I can find for the best price and just buy 8gb and call it done until my next system upgrade. My current system is running 2gb cuz I burned out a set for stupid reasons.

I'm glad to see others have noticed this.

This is a helluva deal for 8GB, $125 shipped,
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1497855

But they are probably already sold.
 
Ram prices are still relatively cheap compared to 2004 when 2x512MB of good quality BH5 could run 350.00
 
Ram prices are still relatively cheap compared to 2004 when 2x512MB of good quality BH5 could run 350.00

Yeah, but remember that the number of computers in homes is WAY higher now compared to 2004, or even 2006. The stuff should be way more mass produced these days. Moore's law. MOORE'S LAW!!!! Come on!!!!
 
No, actually enthused about them as I need to get around to testing my old kits and putting them up on ebay. Paid $16 for some 2x1gig OCZ gold C5 800mhz and $20 after rebate for a 2x2gb kit of Crucial Ballistix C5 800mhz. Should fetch a decent profit for years old hardware.
 
I live in Boise (home of Micron) and they almost went out of business last year b/c of low memory prices. Laid off half their workforce, the entire town was freaking out.
 
I live in Boise (home of Micron) and they almost went out of business last year b/c of low memory prices. Laid off half their workforce, the entire town was freaking out.

I live in Nampa, and worked @ Micron for a short stint (when it was behind Wendy's on Benjamin St.). Micron needs to diversify their options of what to manufacture. I also think Boise needs to not rely so heavily on a single business. Didn't they learn with HP? :p
 
a few months ago it only cost me 67 bux for 6gb ddr3 1600 wintec ampx ram for my classified board, now its like almost doubled in price.

i probably wont bother building another desktop till the middle of the year.
 
Yup - in the uk a 6gb tri channel kit has more than doubled in price..in let say...the last 3 months? whats up with that? is it just because we are going ddr2-3 - and demand is high for ddr3 now?
 
Yup - in the uk a 6gb tri channel kit has more than doubled in price..in let say...the last 3 months? whats up with that? is it just because we are going ddr2-3 - and demand is high for ddr3 now?

I'm not saying I want a 6GB kit for $40 (although that's what I paid for my first kit after rebate!! and it was even good stuff!!!!) But I think prices are unreasonably high right now. I really hope they level off at least to $15-20 per gig. $90 or so for a 6GB kit and $60-65 for a 4GB kit would be good. I don't think that would be so dirt cheap they would lose money, like all the $25 AR 4GB DDR2 kits we saw a while back, but it would be reasonable enough that people could afford to upgrade.
 
I take it that the industry is intentionally limiting the supply to keep prices up:eek:

I think some "unofficial fixing" might be going on. The supply seems fine. Kits abound. But only the highest end stuff differs much in price, and it's quite a jump to get the most fancy pants superbodacious kits. Newegg has 77 3x2GB kits right now:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ark=False&ActiveSearchResult=True&Order=PRICE

Don't know if that list link will work for you, but notice that 85% of the stuff is somewhere roughly between 160 and 170. The cheapest kit is $140 after rebate, and there's one kit for $142. NO ONE seems to be trying to compete at all with price. I think there's some unofficial price fixing going on, without any communication really, at least that anyone could trace. I mean, memory companies really bled themselves when it was so competitive and cutthroat. But now the ones that are still alive are trying to recover. Instead of competition, all the prices are the same right now.

I mean, when Newegg's RAM prices are the same or higher than BEST BUY's right now, you KNOW something is awry:

Corsair:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Corsair...8128731209&skuId=9590597&st=9590597&cp=1&lp=1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145220

Kingston:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Kingsto...+Kit/9663659.p?id=1218141143056&skuId=9663659

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820104116


Corsair:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Corsair...+Kit/9590622.p?id=1218128732706&skuId=9590622

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145258

I mean, where's Transcend and Supertalent with the good budget stuff?? Where they part of the unit that went out of business or something? I know Supertalent is still making SSDs, but I couldn't even find their RAM on Newegg right now.
 
To me there is a good side of this. When I sell my used DDR2 this year. I will most likely get back more than I paid for it. Instead of the usual 1/4 to 1/8 of what I paid for it.
 
I was fortunate and got my 4GB G.Skill kit for free. My 6GB OCZ ram only cost me $70 after MIR last summer.

Seeing what these would have cost me now.. I would have probably delayed a few purchases. :eek:
 
I was fortunate and got my 4GB G.Skill kit for free. My 6GB OCZ ram only cost me $70 after MIR last summer.

Seeing what these would have cost me now.. I would have probably delayed a few purchases. :eek:

Yeah, at current prices I honestly probably wouldn't have gone to i7, and I certainly wouldn't have gone with 12GB like I originally did with this build. I would have had more into the RAM than into the CPU!!! WTF.
 
I was looking into upgrading my 6GB to 12GB the other day and was shocked that the same exact kit had gone up in price 60% in 5 months.
 
I'm building an I7 rig now that I'm financially stable, but you guys aren't kidding when it comes to ram prices. instead of saving the videocard for last, I think I'm going to save the ram...
 
I'm building an I7 rig now that I'm financially stable, but you guys aren't kidding when it comes to ram prices. instead of saving the videocard for last, I think I'm going to save the ram...

Right now that's wise. In fact, if I was going i7 right now from scratch, I would seriously keep my eyes peeled for a refurb brand name i7 rig with a 920 and six gigs of DDR3.

Yeah. Prices of memory are THAT BAD right now.
 
The article is full of rumor and ends with speculation on what the market might do, but it shines a hopeful light on the possibility of RAM prices prices later this year.

http://www.fudzilla.com/content/view/17838/1/

I think memory makers got themselves into a bad spot, accidentally. First they dropped prices to where they were probably losing money, or making single-digit margins on what was sold. Then the economy tanked and left them with consumers who were not only spoiled by cheap prices, but now really could only afford the dirt cheap prices they've been used to. Now the memory makers are left with consumers who are almost refusing to buy their products, until the products become cheap enough the producers arent making any money. Not a good spot to be in, and I wouldnt be surprised if another brand name or two disappears in the next few months.
 
I was looking into upgrading my 6GB to 12GB the other day and was shocked that the same exact kit had gone up in price 60% in 5 months.

shit i only use 4gb ram on most my rigs and im so lazy that i just use winxp32 and use 3.2gb why do people need 12gb ram? for virtual hd's? if there is a reason i will buy a i7 with 12gb 2marro. i just didnt realize what it would be used for. i encode on q6600's but not often and gaming seems fine. so?
 
I upgraded my C2D e4500 / Intel 965 system to a Phenom II system a month ago. I went with an AM3/AM2+ DDR2 board.

I got my 6GB of RAM pretty cheap. IIRC the first 2GB I bought some years back was $40. I picked up the other 2x4GB for $30 AR IIRC during the low price period...it was too good of a deal to pass up.

I preferred to keep the 6GB of DDR2 for now. 6 or 8GB of DDR3 is crazy money right now.
 
Agreed. When I built my i7 rig I toyed with the idea of 12GB but then realized that was not only excessive but overkill at least for me. 99% of the time 6gb is adequate for me. Its always fine for gaming and only once in a blue moon do I find myself using more than 5GB
 
Agreed. When I built my i7 rig I toyed with the idea of 12GB but then realized that was not only excessive but overkill at least for me. 99% of the time 6gb is adequate for me. Its always fine for gaming and only once in a blue moon do I find myself using more than 5GB

True. I ran with 12 for a long time, then used six of it to build my brother-in-law's rig. I really didn't notice much of a slow down.
 
While I think prices for memory is ridiculous right now, there's a silver lining to the marketplace.

The i7 920 is usually $199 at local Microcenter's. That's dirt cheap for such a powerhouse of computing and overclocking potential.
I've found the competition between power supplies and good deals popping up for them. This includes Corsair's, Antec's, BFG's and the like. Mid-end PSUs ranging from 500W-700W are still very reasonable.
Mid-end monitors are on the cheap too. Nabbing a quality brand-name 23" LCD for $160 isn't unheard of (I did it myself :))
 
If I knew how high memory was going to jump, I would have bought twice the ram (12 instead of 6). Still waiting for prices to settle down to a sub 200 level so I can get a matching set. LOL. It just seems wrong to pay such inflated prices for the memory.
 
I bought a 4GB G.Skill Ripjaws 5 months ago like $115 here in Australia, and now its like $150, WTF. Shocked and not pleased at all.
 
Try Germany. The prices were high enough a few months ago. Getting out of control now. Only good thing is HDD prices are dropping over here now.
 
Yes, I was just about to post a thread about memory price started going up recently. I bought a 4GB OCZ DDR2 kit last year for a mere $40ish and now, they are in the $100s! Wow...I can't believe it.
 
True. I ran with 12 for a long time, then used six of it to build my brother-in-law's rig. I really didn't notice much of a slow down.

95% of users would be fine with 2GB as they are only using their PCs for word processing, web browsing, chat, email, flash games, listening to music, watching videos, and burning CDs and DVDs.

It took me a long time to go from 1GB to 2GB, and my newest build in my sig only has 4GB in it because I figured it would last me a good long while before I'd need anymore.
 
Kicking myself in the ass when I bought 3 not 6 gigs of ram a while back now :(
 
I got my EVGA X58 in a combo with 6x1GB DDR3-1866 1.5V in February '09. After rebates, the total for the board and RAM was $340, essentially making the RAM $40. In December '08, I picked up two 2x2GB kits of XMS2 DDR2-800 for $15 each AR ($30 for 8GB).

My parents are buying my brother a new PC for graduation this summer, so I've started picking up the parts for it. If I don't find some good deals or significant price drops in the next few months, the RAM could end up being the most expensive part in the rig.
 
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