RAM Prices

[yamangman]

Does anyone know if RAM prices are going to continue to drop, or should I buy what I need today?

Cheers

[Firelord]

know one really knows as its such a fickle market, I would just do it ?

[Nomadd]

I guess The Inquirer and Digitimes might be the best places to look, as they sometimes quote stories from manufacturers/distributors/etc on where component prices are heading. Problem is, it changes so often, so what's scarce one month, can be followed by a glut the next, all with a subsequent knock-on effect to prices.

My advice: Buy what you need today. But, don't pay the crazy price premiums charged by the Corsairs/OCZs of this world for a miniscule improvement in system performance. Use the money you've saved on better a processor or graphics card.

Nomadd

[Firelord]

My advice: Buy what you need today. But, don't pay the crazy price premiums charged by the Corsairs/OCZs of this world for a miniscule improvement in system performance. Use the money you've saved on better a processor or graphics card.

Nomadd

What the hell do you have against Cosair and OCZ ffs! Their products are fantastic and push the bounderies! If your building a top end system why scrape on the products? If you want to have a top end system you have to pay those prices!

its no different from buying tescos finest and tescos value - value stuff may be cheap but it don't half taste like crap!

[Rabs]

Branded ram usually has extended guarantees, enhanced specification but at the same time has a premium price. As firelord says you get what you pay for, on some setups you can tell the difference (performance wise) between Cas 2 & 3 for instance or 200mhz and 250mhz.

In my experience I find cheaper ram doesn't last long before its RMA time, it doesn't usually have heatspreaders which again leads to a shorter life etc.

If I were building an 'uber ninja rig', one thing I would not skip on is the ram.

Unfortunately, the ram market is also very volatile - high prices at sometime and low prices at others, theres no set time/sales on it, which is the same as most computer gear.

[yamangman]

I'm buying another stick of 512MB PC3200 Kingmax SuperRAM to match the 512 stick of it I already have. It has caused me no problems and is pretty quick. I should be able to run it in dual channel. I'm gonna take your advice and buy it today, it's £20 cheaper than when I bought the first bank a year ago. It runs at CAS 2.5 at 200MHz and at CAS 2.0 at 100MHz, which roughly equates to exactly the same speed.

[Firelord]

Branded ram usually has extended guarantees, enhanced specification but at the same time has a premium price. As firelord says you get what you pay for, on some setups you can tell the difference (performance wise) between Cas 2 & 3 for instance or 200mhz and 250mhz.

In my experience I find cheaper ram doesn't last long before its RMA time, it doesn't usually have heatspreaders which again leads to a shorter life etc.

If I were building an 'uber ninja rig', one thing I would not skip on is the ram.

Unfortunately, the ram market is also very volatile - high prices at sometime and low prices at others, theres no set time/sales on it, which is the same as most computer gear.

Finally a man who understands

[Nomadd]

re: "What the hell do you have against Cosair and OCZ ffs!" and "Finally a man who understands"

Dude, chill. This subject of premium 'twice the price' RAM has been debated to death on these forums: do a search. We've all come to understand that you can buy *quality* cheaper brands of RAM that give near identical performance. Have a look at the conuntless benchies on Anand's. My 1GB of Kingmax cost me half what Corsair/OCZ were charging at the time, and the benchmarks I've got back from the stuff match up with Anand's: less than 1-3% difference in real world gaming: and even then *only* on older titles where the graphics card/processor isn't holding the system back.

The view I expressed may not be held by you, but that doesn't make it any a less valid view. The guy can make his own mind up, so let's have less of the 'ffs' OK? If you have a point to make, make it sensibly, and back it up with some real-world data. Don't just get excited and rant against other posts/posters, especially as I don't shop at Tesco. :-)

Nomadd

[Rabs]

I'm buying another stick of 512MB PC3200 Kingmax SuperRAM to match the 512 stick of it I already have. It has caused me no problems and is pretty quick. I should be able to run it in dual channel. I'm gonna take your advice and buy it today, it's £20 cheaper than when I bought the first bank a year ago. It runs at CAS 2.5 at 200MHz and at CAS 2.0 at 100MHz, which roughly equates to exactly the same speed.

Nice one, even the value lines of branded ram are good and usually include the same guarantees. If you buy PC3200 ram and your FSB is only 166mhz (PC2700) decrease your cas latency a notch (ie if 2.5 then reduce it to 2, if 3 reduce it to 2.5) for a nice performance boost.

It's generic (unbranded) ram you have to be aware of.

[Stoo]

If you read the hexus reviews then they tend to come to the same conclusion as Firelord, if you're building a high end system and you want the best, then you buy the best (which is currently the Corsair XL series iirc).

It's the rule of diminishing returns, the nearer the top end of quality, the more you have to pay for ever decreasing margins of quality, but if you want that absolute top quality then you have to pay for it, it's that simple.

I personally bought the Corsair XL because I wanted some top quality ram that's going to last me several years and still give me great performance no mtter what I do with it (The XL stuff is actually PC4000 rated when you slacken the insane timings off a little), in this way it actually saves money because I won't have to keep buying more ram further down the line.

As for the actual question in the thread topic, the only thing you can do is keep an eye on the prices at the time of when you need more ram, although historically ram tends to go up in price around christmas, and drop around the normally slack summer time, however, if the prices are obviously stupid then it'll pay you to wait a bit for them to drop a bit.

[Axxus V1.01]

IMO you get what you pay for. Corsair, OCZ, mushkin etc is generally higher quality ram. this is lovely if you can afford it. if not, its bad because you have to trawl through loads of manufacturers that could be really really crap and take a chance.. i couldn't afford the above but wanted some good ram so i bought used ADATA PC3200 (2x256mb).. when you consider it's Winbond BH-5 and will easily do 230fsb CAS2 11-2-2 @2.9v dual channel, that isn't bad for £75 (UK sterling)

EDIT: it did CAS2 5-2-2 on the previous owner's mobo, but that was P4 and i'm AMD/NF2 so i want to exploit the CAS2 11-2-2 sweet spot

[Firelord]

IMO you get what you pay for. Corsair, OCZ, mushkin etc is generally higher quality ram. this is lovely if you can afford it. if not, its bad because you have to trawl through loads of manufacturers that could be really really crap and take a chance.. i couldn't afford the above but wanted some good ram so i bought used ADATA PC3200 (2x256mb).. when you consider it's Winbond BH-5 and will easily do 230fsb CAS2 11-2-2 @2.9v dual channel, that isn't bad for £75 (UK sterling)

EDIT: it did CAS2 5-2-2 on the previous owner's mobo, but that was P4 and i'm AMD/NF2 so i want to exploit the CAS2 11-2-2 sweet spot

Did you know it was BH-5 when you brought it? It was the same as TwinMOS with BH-5 that sold out like wild fire once people knew how well BH-5 did!