what the hell RAM prices...

[supaidaaman]

Ive built a few i7 rigs for friends and work over the past year, and now im finally able to build one for myself...but lo and behold!

the same 12gb kit of DDR3 is almost $200 more than what I bought them for months ago.

Its so infuriating because that $200 is the difference between a nice SSD...or better GPU...anything really.

Now I feel like im getting ripped off if I buy it today. I can play the waiting game a bit longer...do you guys think prices will drop back down soon? or at least get $100 within what they used to be....?


:*(

 

[modestninja]

Ive built a few i7 rigs for friends and work over the past year, and now im finally able to build one for myself...but lo and behold!

the same 12gb kit of DDR3 is almost $200 more than what I bought them for months ago.

Its so infuriating because that $200 is the difference between a nice SSD...or better GPU...anything really.

Now I feel like im getting ripped off if I buy it today. I can play the waiting game a bit longer...do you guys think prices will drop back down soon? or at least get $100 within what they used to be....?


:*(

What do you need 12GBs of RAM for? Anyway, I don't think anyone has a definite answer to when or if RAM prices are going to go down. I keep thinking they won't go any higher and they keep going higher.

If it were me, I'd build the rig with 6GB of RAM, get the better GPU and/or SSD and get more RAM when it comes down in price.

 

[jjmIII]

If it were me, I'd build the rig with 6GB of RAM, get the better GPU and/or SSD and get more RAM when it comes down in price.

this.

Actually, prices seem to have taken a small dip if you can believe it!

 

[alfa147x]

Why are the prices so high right now? I'm looking for 2gb of DDR2 and it's $15 more than how much I bought it for 2 years ago!

 

[modestninja]

Why are the prices so high right now? I'm looking for 2gb of DDR2 and it's $15 more than how much I bought it for 2 years ago!

As I see it there are two competing theories:

1. RAM manufactuers hate you and jacked up their prices to piss you off.
2. They were selling it unsustainably low prices due to supply far exceeding demand and have now gone through that excessive supply which caused prices to rise.

Personally, I think theory 1 makes more sense.

 

[pjkenned]

Personally, I think theory 1 makes more sense.

I get the sarcasm, but those memory guys have been convicted in both the US and the EU of price fixing.

 

[Auric]

I get the sarcasm, but those memory guys have been convicted in both the US and the EU of price fixing.

Which brings us to theory the third: they're doing it again 'cause they're just that cheeky.

 

[schenley101]

Demand for computers last year was significantly lower than most of the ram manufactures had planned for so they had tons of ram chips with very little demand which equated to very low prices. Mow the supply of ram is more inline with the current demand so the manufacturers can charge more.

 

[Idontcare]

Why are the prices so high right now? I'm looking for 2gb of DDR2 and it's $15 more than how much I bought it for 2 years ago!

If you search the forums there were some threads from last year that detailed the fact that companies were not investing enough money in fab buildouts and capacity expansions to stave of the impending rebound after the recession.

The short of it is that because they didn't spend billions last year during the recession we are now in the midst of a supply shortage while demand is returning to normal levels. It takes about 2yrs for this cycle to come full circle. So expect another year (if not slightly longer) of this, and it will get worse before it gets better unless demand slacks off again. Supply is hard-contraint at the moment.

This is us: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supply...supply_curve_.28perfectly_inelastic_supply.29

 

[supaidaaman]

What do you need 12GBs of RAM for?

Media Production!

Photoshop and AE can see all 12gb...and with rendering HD resolution assets I need at least 12GB to feed all the cores enough juice!

 

[modestninja]

Media Production!

Photoshop and AE can see all 12gb...and with rendering HD resolution assets I need at least 12GB to feed all the cores enough juice!

Ok, just wanted to make sure. There's plenty of people who want 12GB for gaming or just to have the best system possible. Sounds like you could really use it.

 

[fleshconsumed]

Media Production!

Photoshop and AE can see all 12gb...and with rendering HD resolution assets I need at least 12GB to feed all the cores enough juice!

Adobe RAW certainly can't. If I load more than 300 RAW images and try to save them as JPEG's it gives me "out of memory" errors and can't save files. Have to load them in batches of 200 at a time... /rant