Rising RAM Prices?

[Gymnut]

Just got my '09 Mac Pro last month with the stock 6GB and had planned on eventually upgrading to either 12GB or 16GB, finances permitting; At the time when I priced out the RAM upgrades from OWC, it was $220 for the 12GB kit and $290 for the 16GB kit. Over the last few weeks the prices have risen dramatically to today where it's almost $100 over the previous prices; I've always known the RAM market to fluctuate, but is there a shortage of supply going on?

 

[geoffreak]

I haven't heard of one. Likely just an excess of demand or the retailers just seeing how high they can mark up prices before they start to lose money.

 

[Roy]

Just got my '09 Mac Pro last month with the stock 6GB and had planned on eventually upgrading to either 12GB or 16GB, finances permitting; At the time when I priced out the RAM upgrades from OWC, it was $220 for the 12GB kit and $290 for the 16GB kit. Over the last few weeks the prices have risen dramatically to today where it's almost $100 over the previous prices; I've always known the RAM market to fluctuate, but is there a shortage of supply going on?

Yelp! I went ahead and bit the bullet when the 3 X 4GB (12GB set) got down to $469. Now it's back up to $499. I guess I made a good decision after all. I was waiting until it dropped below the $300 mark. Glad I didn't wait.

I thought the 4GB modules would run hotter and make my fans runs faster, but they actually run slightly slower now. Go figure!

 

[Eidorian]

DRAM prices are climbing due to the back to school demand. I expect that P55's launch is going to pull the prices higher on DDR3 as well.

DRAM tends to bottom out in the summer and rise in the Fall/Winter unless there's a supply side drop or disaster.

 

[kellen]

I think the 2008 Mac Pro's ram prices are headed back up. Seems like coming upon the end of the bell curve for them.

 

[Gymnut]

Well that's somewhat comforting to hear, although I was a bit shocked to find such an increase for the 2GB modules. It's been awhile since I upgraded RAM for a computer, my last being my '07 SR MBP, and it was a relatively inexpensive upgrade, at the time, to go from 2GB->4GB. I just hope the prices come back down to what they were at, or lower, in the coming months.

 

[scoobs69]

Yup! I got caught for $40 around my ankles today. 4GB x 3 = $457 last friday. It's $497 today. I waited a day and got crunched. Oh well, my wife and I just won't go out to our favorite Mexican eatery (Jalapeño Loco) this Friday. LOL

Just got my '09 Mac Pro last month with the stock 6GB and had planned on eventually upgrading to either 12GB or 16GB, finances permitting; At the time when I priced out the RAM upgrades from OWC, it was $220 for the 12GB kit and $290 for the 16GB kit. Over the last few weeks the prices have risen dramatically to today where it's almost $100 over the previous prices; I've always known the RAM market to fluctuate, but is there a shortage of supply going on?

 

[localoid]

Quoting from a recent Reuters article re: memory chip industry

Investment cutbacks by cash-strapped memory makers have eased the supply glut, bringing more stability to the market for dynamic random access memory (DRAM) chips, widely used in personal computers.

Most analysts predict DRAM prices will continue to climb through the third quarter in the run-up to the holiday gift-giving season, then pause later in the year due to seasonally slow demand for electronics.

"2010 is likely to start with tight supply in the DRAM market, and end with hints of oversupply in the best case scenario," said Yoshihiro Shimada, chief analyst at SPI Analysis in Tokyo.

And, I can never remember RAM prices going down around the time when a new version of Windows is due to be released.

 

[nanofrog]

Quoting from a recent Reuters article re: memory chip industry

And, I can never remember RAM prices going down around the time when a new version of Windows is due to be released.

Potential sales coming up, and they want more money. Limit the supply (heavily reduce production rates) prior to the expected sales period and force an increase in price. Simple. Clears out the warehouses too.

 

[Umbongo]

Memory prices have been very low for sometime. There have been plenty of articles that said they would soon go up. The DRAM manufacturers have been losing money for a while now and it can't go on.

 

[shipra]

Yeah now RAM prices going down. 1 month before i purchased and it was $45 now its in less prices.

 

[nanofrog]

Memory prices have been very low for sometime. There have been plenty of articles that said they would soon go up. The DRAM manufacturers have been losing money for a while now and it can't go on.

Yep. Tends to run in cycles for some strange reason.

 

[Sputnik 1]

Please pinch me - someone's getting rich here

Yelp! I went ahead and bit the bullet when the 3 X 4GB (12GB set) got down to $469. Now it's back up to $499. I guess I made a good decision after all. I was waiting until it dropped below the $300 mark. Glad I didn't wait.

I thought the 4GB modules would run hotter and make my fans runs faster, but they actually run slightly slower now. Go figure!

Hi folks, i'm a little bit confused, pinch me if i'm dreaming here, but I was looking for a ram upgrade on Crucial (delivers quickly to UK), and had found the 4GB x 2 upgrade out of stock last week. I nearly fell off my perch when I saw the prices today; because I wrongly searched for the early 2009 model whereas I have a 2xquad core early 2008 beast.

Crucial : 8GB Kit (4GBx2) Part # CT942676 DDR3 PC3-8500
= £514.04 inc. VAT*
(That's 847.94 USD FYI)
Curcial : 8GB Kit (4GBx2) Part #: CT774462 DDR2 PC2-6400
= £189.74 inc. VAT*
(That's 312.86 USD)

I understand that's DDR3 vs. DDR2 but is the speedup increase actually worth that much price difference? I'm shocked at the price of the more recent ram.

Someone is laughing all the way to the bank here, besides seasonal fluctuations. Can anyone please explain these differences, and should I now be worried about redundancy of my Pro beast after 1 and a bit years????

 

[Tesselator]

I understand that's DDR3 vs. DDR2 but is the speedup increase actually worth that much price difference?

Can anyone please explain these differences, and should I now be worried about redundancy of my Pro beast after 1 and a bit years????

Everyone says they are NOT worth it.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2159834,00.asp
http://www.xbitlabs.com/articles/memory/display/ddr3.html
http://www.anandtech.com/memory/showdoc.aspx?i=2989
http://www.build-gaming-computer-guide.com/ddr3-vs-ddr2.html

And while the memory is faster it's the Nehalem CPU's embedded memory controller that makes the most difference (I think). Even still it's not so much faster over the 2008 models as to cause much or any droolage. Even the 2006 Mac Pros are still holding their own against the 2009 models - given their age.

 

[Umbongo]

Crucial : 8GB Kit (4GBx2) Part # CT942676 DDR3 PC3-8500
= £514.04 inc. VAT*
(That's 847.94 USD FYI)
Curcial : 8GB Kit (4GBx2) Part #: CT774462 DDR2 PC2-6400
= £189.74 inc. VAT*
(That's 312.86 USD)

I understand that's DDR3 vs. DDR2 but is the speedup increase actually worth that much price difference? I'm shocked at the price of the more recent ram.

The 4GB ECC Unbuffered DIMMs are a low demand configuration, Mac Pro users are probably the most common buyers. Couple with being new this means high prices. A 4GB (2x2GB) 667MHz FB-DIMM kit was over £600 from crucial around this time 3 years ago (just after the Mac Pro launch).

 

[Gymnut]

Thanks for everyone's replies. I think for the time being I'll just slowly upgrade with the 4GB modules, being that the consensus seems to be that prices won't go down until sometime next year after the holidays.