Why is RAM so expensive

[harryj1995]

Last year I bought 8 GB of Kingston HyperX genesis memory for £23.99 from overclockers.co.uk it was on offer. But now when I try and buy the same kit it costs around £50.
What has happened that has made the price go up?

[kalniel]

That's still really cheap.

Ram prices vary on supply and demand. 8GB at £24 will have been sold at no profit, possibly even a loss, but if it's just sitting in a warehouse then that's definitely a loss.

[harryj1995]

Well at least the price of hard drives has come down it sort of balances the price out

[dacads]

Chinese new year so like kalniel said it's supply and demand because people aren't working which means less supply and increased prices

http://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/com...your_ram_asap/

[kompukare]

The memory manufacturers have all been making loses for years. But Elpida just went bankrupt (although Micron bought them, or bough parts of them) last year so that means less supply, hence higher prices. Prior to that Infineon went. Which leaves only Samsung, Hynix and Crucial as major suppliers. Prices are unlikely to nose dive again too soon.

[shaithis]

I expect a lot of them have shifted some of their production to flash due to the demand of it at the moment.

Plus as others have said, supply/demand changes and less competition.....and it's still cheap.

[Funkstar]

I remember working in a local computer store and we were selling RAM at £1/MEGABYTE as a loss leading special offer.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I can remember the time when the RAM companies were price fixing(which we later found out),and 4GB of DDR2 cost me around £150 to £200. That was in late 2006.

[Bonebreaker777]

I remember my first PC (Celeron 300A etc) when we had to choose between 32MB or 64MB of SD-RAM and that was like 30% increase of the PC (or so).

[Bluecube]

Eeeeee. I can remember paying £60 for an extra 16Mb. Those were the days!

[Jonatron]

Remember computer magazines where they had prices for everything except RAM? Jonatron Remembers.

[abaxas]

16 mb (yes mb) in 4x4mb 30pin simms.

Just over £400 in ~94 and all for the chicago beta.

[pipTheGeek]

Only a few years ago a friend at work bought a 512MB stick as an upgrade for his dads PC. I believe it cost over £400. The joy of RAMBUS memory.

I've always thought memory prices were pretty good. Unless you want an 8GB stick, then its outrageous.

[deejayburnout]

I bought 4GB of 2nd hand DDR2 memory and it cost me £40.

Was worth it as it was exactly the same as the 4GB I already had. A chance search on eBay.

[Demonwar]

Last year I bought 8 GB of Kingston HyperX genesis memory for £23.99 from overclockers.co.uk it was on offer. But now when I try and buy the same kit it costs around £50.
What has happened that has made the price go up?

Probably because it's now limited supply. New/old RAM is very cheap compared to around 5 years ago.

[Bonebreaker777]

Only a few years ago a friend at work bought a 512MB stick as an upgrade for his dads PC. I believe it cost over £400. The joy of RAMBUS memory.

I've always thought memory prices were pretty good. Unless you want an 8GB stick, then its outrageous.

Ahh RDRAM. Did anybody managed to get burned with the modules? I got singed until I learned that they are still hot even if you turn the PC off. Most I ever seen was 1GB in 4 x 256MB. A sad end to a possibly great technology?