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Will RAM continue to fall in price

seems good, i order a gig stick for my ibook G4 from their recently for $112, go for it!
 
iBookG4user said:
This Patriot RAM seems to be the exact same as I bought back in October for $140 for 2 x 1GB.
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OMG:eek: that is $60 cheaper than crucial!

That 139 for *2* 1GB sticks yes? could I have seen that right?

and you used this and it is fine? Im putting it in my c2d intel iMac.
 
Father Jack said:
Ram for Mac Pro's doesn't seem to be coming down by much !! :eek: FJ
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thats because everyone (esp the ram makers) is waiting for the next MP update/revision, to see if they will still use the same kind of ram. If they do, then the demand for it will continue to rise, as will production, and that normally equates to lower prices........

If Apple changes the ram type or specs, then don't get your hopes up !
 
SmurfBoxMasta said:
thats because everyone (esp the ram makers) is waiting for the next MP update/revision, to see if they will still use the same kind of ram. If they do, then the demand for it will continue to rise, as will production, and that normally equates to lower prices........

If Apple changes the ram type or specs, then don't get your hopes up !
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What about heat, high latency, and very little acceptance of Fully Buffered DIMM? :rolleyes:
 
Eidorian said:
What about heat, high latency, and very little acceptance of Fully Buffered DIMM? :rolleyes:
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FB ECC RAM has been accepted within the industry; all of the current generation of Xeon servers use it. It's not expensive for server RAM, it's just unfortunate that Apple choose to use it on a workstation. Maybe you'll see a price drop if they move to Core 2 and stop using the Xeons, but I doubt they'll do that.

At work we are constantly ending up with 2x 1 GB kits left over from server orders, it's a shame that the Mac Pro is just so expensive here or I'd buy 1 and chuck 8 GB of RAM in it straight away.

Oh well for now God bless eBay! :)
 
Eidorian said:
What about heat, high latency, and very little acceptance of Fully Buffered DIMM? :rolleyes:
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Errr... FB-DIMMs are now standard on Xeon server motherboards industry wide... latency is no worse than other DDR2 DIMMs.

The heat is primarily the byproduct of the buffering chipset that shoulders some of the load of forwarding the memory requests to the right chip on the right module. Without a buffer, you wouldn't be able to run more than 4 Gb of high performance RAM without a much more expensive motherboard. (that's an oversimplification, but for all practical purposes it's true)

Yes, with newer technology we'll see a next generation memory buss. But its not here yet.
 
CanadaRAM said:
Errr... FB-DIMMs are now standard on Xeon server motherboards industry wide... latency is no worse than other DDR2 DIMMs.

The heat is primarily the byproduct of the buffering chipset that shoulders some of the load of forwarding the memory requests to the right chip on the right module. Without a buffer, you wouldn't be able to run more than 4 Gb of high performance RAM without a much more expensive motherboard. (that's an oversimplification, but for all practical purposes it's true)

Yes, with newer technology we'll see a next generation memory buss. But its not here yet.
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I know it is Intel server standard introduced for the Xeon 5000/5100 Series for the long term as of now. That still doesn't mean the entire computer market is flooded with motherboards that use it like standard DDR2 memory.

I also know that the buffering controller in the center is the cause of most of the higher power usage and heat. I've also seen memory benchmarks that show latencies being much higher then standard DDR2 as well.

Did I miss anything for you? :p
 
On that link to Newegg you can get Crucial RAM for $69.99 per 1 Gb stick....

I think it is the correct type...

Bob

PS-I used 2x1 Gb Patriot sticks in my G5 iMac with zero trouble.....
 
Eidorian said:
I know it is Intel server standard introduced for the Xeon 5000/5100 Series for the long term as of now. That still doesn't mean the entire computer market is flooded with motherboards that use it like standard DDR2 memory.

I also know that the buffering controller in the center is the cause of most of the higher power usage and heat. I've also seen memory benchmarks that show latencies being much higher then standard DDR2 as well.

Did I miss anything for you? :p
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Reference for the tests showing higher latency?

DDR-2 667 and DDR-2 FBDIMM 667 MHz both run at CAS Latency 5.0
(Expensive lower latency, high voltage (2.0V - 2.2V) RAM used by PC overclockers is a non-issue on Macs. )

Granted, when you address the second pair of RAM on a particular riser, (say, DIMM3) the request passes through the buffer of the respective module in the first pair (DIMM1), adding a tiny bit of latency, but we're talking about RAM over 4 Gb that a conventional DDR2 based system would never access in any case.

Back to the OP's question; yes, overall RAM is on a downward trend in price, but still expect fluctuations both up and down without notice.

I still recommend going to a reputable, Mac-friendly seller rather than saving $5 on the cheapest generic RAM at a PC discounter who provides no support or compatibility guarantee for Mac users.
 
CanadaRAM said:
Reference for the tests showing higher latency?
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http://www.anandtech.com/printarticle.aspx?i=2816

It took some digging around but I do remember at least two articles on FB-DIMM latency Vs. Standard DDR2. This is one article that I found. I believe the other one was Kentsfield (DDR2) Vs. Clovertown (Mac Pro w/FD-DIMM DDR2) latency benchmarks. I'll keep looking for that.

Edit:
http://anandtech.com/mac/showdoc.aspx?i=2832&p=16

I thought it was a CDnet article. I'll STILL keep looking.

CanadaRAM said:
Back to the OP's question; yes, overall RAM is on a downward trend in price, but still expect fluctuations both up and down without notice.
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Prices were going down until last October. I remember the $75 1 GB SO-DIMM jump up to $109 until after the holidays. It's finally back down to that price again. It'll keep going down until the next bit of demand pull inflation, faster DDR2 requirements, or DDR3.

CanadaRAM said:
I still recommend going to a reputable, Mac-friendly seller rather than saving $5 on the cheapest generic RAM at a PC discounter who provides no support or compatibility guarantee for Mac users.
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I agree when purchasing it online. I've bought my RAM for my iMac locally. I think that 9 months without any stability issues due to RAM proves that Patriot DDR2-667 SO-DIMMs work fine in the Core Duo iMac.
 
I've never had trouble with Corsair RAM in any PC or Mac I've ever used it in going back several years, including their Value Select line.
 
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