Owc Ram

I'm not sure what you've been waiting for. I ordered my ram and Mac Pro on the same day, paid 399 for 8 gigs (2 gigs per stick). RAM prices tend to fluctuate more than any other computer component, and can shoot up or down for months at a time. Eventually, all of these components (including ram) will get cheaper, but if you need it around the same time as your Mac Pro I'd hurry up and order some.

I ordered mine the same day mainly because I knew I wouldn't have to worry about fast shipping or backlogs. I figured at worst the ram would be here in sooner than 3-5 weeks.

Based on the fact that a lot of people have been waiting for this upgrade, I would anticipate ram prices to stay high or to keep going up for anywhere from 3-6 months. I do expect it to be cheaper than I paid within a year, however.

 

I dont expect prices to drop for the next few months. Maybe after the intial wave of adopters get theirs will you see a price reduction.

 

Same thing happened with the 06 mac pros. The prices didn't come down for months.

 

Yeah, this has to be a blip due to sudden demand for the new 2008 Mac Pro (Harpertown?) memory upgrades. If you're smart enough to not buy RAM from Apple, you should also see the wisdom in waiting a couple months for the market to stabilize. Unless you absolutely need more than the stock amount immediately... but then you would have already ordered it, wouldn't you?

The real question is: does anyone have another source for good RAM, or at least some OWC coupon codes?

 

We are holding the line as best as we can. Our prices are actually a lot less than a lot of the competition and maybe we should be higher. Our cost on both 667MHZ and 800MHz has risen this month because Memory manufacturers like Micron, Hynix, Elpida, and SAmsung have been increases their prices.

In case not aware - memory is in the realm of 1/4th or 1/5th what it cost a year ago. Micron has posted loses of over 1 BILLION Dollars over the past 3 quarters and lost around 400 MIL in the most recent reported quarter alone. DDR2 chip costs right now are way below what it costs for the memory producers to produce - it's been over supplied for the past 9 months which is why, for example, you can get 4GB for your MacBook from us for $99 today vs. 1GB costing over $100 just a year ago... oh, a year ago 4GB was over $1000 when buy 2 x 2GB....

At some point memory prices for DDR2 stuff is going to correct back up as the amount of losses happening can't continue indefinitely. It is a GREAT time to buy memory... And while there may be another dip before it goes back up depending.... We were at and/or are at bottom right now for DDR2 and it's really up from here.

800MHZ also costs more than 667MHz too, btw...

anyway.... Hope this info helps. If we were being opportunists, we'd be selling for 30-50% more... Apple charges more for adding an extra 2GB of memory than we charge for an 8GB kit. We always work to be competitive and fair with our prices. Quality Products at Competitive prices is our motto and mission.

As supply improves, I agree there will likely be less spread between some of the different other sources who sell the same memory we do.... but - it is much more likely to see higher prices in 2-3 months than lower with consideration to the current semiconductor cost situation.

that said - as a rule - buy memory when you need it, not because you're speculating. And with that said - if you spend the money on a new Quad or 8-Core Mac Pro.... you're not getting you're money's worth typically with less than 6 or 8GB installed.

 

Hi Larry,
thanks for the informative posts, it's good to see an OWC presence here on MR's.

I ordered my 2X2 from you guys a couple weeks ago and they are working great.

It's interesting to hear that the prices are somewhat artificially depressed due to market forces right now. Hopefully they won't skyrocket again once demand catches up to supply....(not that it's a big deal to me, the 6 gig i have will be plenty for what i do for quite a while, ha ha)

 

Very Impressed by OWC Larry taking the time to write. That's awesome you're on the Forum. I'm surprised to see someone who is so close to their own work, very cool. Thanks for the info

 

I also wanna thank Larry. OWC is great for doing stuff like this on xlr8yourmac all the time.

 

I bought as much extra OWC memory as I could afford at the moment for my new Mac Pro. I actually chose OWC from reading through several other of millions of available Mac Pro RAM threads [!!] and seeing that OWC was well-liked, and also saw Larry post in at least one of those, which I thought was great.

 

I bought the 16GB package from OWC. It's here, waiting on my new machine. They look impressive. Can't wait to try them out. I too thought OWC was great to deal with and would recommend them.

 

You probably won't answer this but what the heck...
Is there any reason to buy Netlist memory instead of OWC memory?

 

I bought my first 2x2gb RAM from OWC for $199 when I ordered my Mac. I should've just gotten 8 gigs at the time, but figured 6 was enough. So a week or so ago I ordered another 4 gigs, this time for $220, and it wasn't such a bad deal, but you gotta buy early or the price will just keep going up (at least while the mad rush for Mac Pro RAM is on...)

-Bryan

 

Just wanted to say thank you to OWC Larry, and the rest of the people working at OWC! You guys are the BEST!!! And you're helping a lot of Mac users save money! … as a student & buyer I can't thank you enough!