Memory prices

[cotswoldcs]

What's going on?

Back in October 2008 I bought 2 x 2Gb Corsair XPX2 TwinX memory for £40.99 + VAT. I've looked today and the same stuff is £64.64 + VAT! I'm used to prices going down not up! Mind you I also remember paying over £175 for 2 x 1Gb Corsair XMS memory in 2006 so maybe I shouldn't complain too much!

Are memory prices on the up or have I just found an anomaly?

[thestjohn]

I think DDR2 prices are on the rise due to the rising ubiquity of DDR3, I couldn't say for sure though. I know I had to pay a bit over £40 for 2GB of XMS2 the other month, and I'd swear it cost me £20 for the same ram when I originally built my machine.

[Blaineoliver]

ddr3 prices are still way too high! I paid much less for mine than its worth now..

[Champman99]

As above, as the switch to DDR3 happens the prices reverse, the same happened DDR-DDR2.

For quite a while now AM3 has made more sense than AM2+,

For example ebuyer were doing a 4GB Kit of high quality Crucial Ballistix DDR3 for £60. Which is a massive reduction in what DDR3 was a short time ago and quite a bargain I think.

Might not be any consolation if you need DDR2, but it's a fact of light if the manufacturers are devoting resources to DDR3

[TAKTAK]

The spot prices took a massive hike since the start of 2008.

In 2008 there was so much surplus DDR2 that the spot price fell dramatically (to around $1.00 IIRC), passing huge savings onto the consumer. However, when that subsided and the backlog was cleared, and production is phased out in favour of DDR3, the spot prices rose and carried on rising up to around $2.80, the prices are slowly on the way down again, hitting ~$2.60 not long ago and is currently tracking ~$2.2

Obviously we're not going to get back to ~$1.00 due to DDR3 taking over, but prices are slowly on the decline, i'd expect the spot price to be below $2 first quarter 2010.

http://www.dramexchange.com/

The same is true of NAND flash and the hikes we have seen in SSD costs.

[Terbinator]

I don't think it helps either that suppliers are trying to get rid of all there 'high' voltage DDR3 and can't really afford to sell it at a loss.

[Blaineoliver]

Worse when only amd can support the high voltage ddr3.

[Terbinator]

Worse when only amd can support the high voltage ddr3.

They support 'low-voltage' as well don't they? But theres issues when the speed goes above 1600MHz, IIRC.

Edit: Added image, id class 1.5v as low when compared to 1.9

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

The Phenom II can support both low and high voltage DDR3 and also only has official support for 1333MHZ DDR3 although 1600MHZ DDR3 will also work.

OTH,1333MHZ DDR3 at low latencies is still the optimal memory settings for the Phenom II unless you are overclocking the processors by increasing the HT speed.

[shaithis]

RAM will always fluctuate in price. Always has done, always will do.......especially when there is a transition happening between different memory technologies (i.e. DDR2 vs DDR3 atm)

The trick is to figure out when prices are close to rock bottom......the next time you go "wow, I can't believe how cheap memory is", I would suggest stocking up on some

[Pob255]

The spot prices took a massive hike since the start of 2008.

In 2008 there was so much surplus DDR2 that the spot price fell dramatically (to around $1.00 IIRC), passing huge savings onto the consumer. However, when that subsided and the backlog was cleared, and production is phased out in favour of DDR3, the spot prices rose and carried on rising up to around $2.80, the prices are slowly on the way down again, hitting ~$2.60 not long ago and is currently tracking ~$2.2

Obviously we're not going to get back to ~$1.00 due to DDR3 taking over, but prices are slowly on the decline, i'd expect the spot price to be below $2 first quarter 2010.

http://www.dramexchange.com/

The same is true of NAND flash and the hikes we have seen in SSD costs.

As TakTAk said
Also there's also been issues with the actual memory manufactors and production runs.
The combo of the economic troubles and the massive drop in prices we had has caused some of the actual chip makers to have finanical issues.
Hardest hit seem to have been the Taiwanese, who made big expansions and have now had to massively scale back production.

atm ddr2 prices should start dropping slightly but ddr3 still looks set to rise slightly.