RAM Price Hike?

I had been looking to upgrade my RAM with another 1gb of the same type and brand in it for maximum compatability.

The current RAM I have is one stick of this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145012

But, look at the price $114!!!

I remember that exact same product was $79.99 three weeks ago and had been for a while.

I will not pay $114 for 1gb stick of RAM, wtf is up?

 

Prices fluxuate....a LOT. It'll go back down soon enough.

If you want RAM for a lower price right now though, Newegg offers a nice low priced stick of OCZ RAM that I have my eye on. Let me find the link....(**** newegg for changing formats!!!)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227110

 

but will it be compatible well with my current Corsair value ram (PC5300) stick?

 

If its anything like how PCs work, it'd drop it down to 533 mhz I think.

 

if it fits and the motherboard accepts the clock speed, it's compatible

 

Mixed company RAM dont matter, ive done it plenty of times with Corsair and Mircron on my desktop. (Btw, I got that same ram for the 79.99 price in June, and im stunned that it went up so high).

 

RAM prices fluctuate like mad, and there's really no reason to expect that to stop any time soon, unfortunately... But guess I won't be buying any RAM for the next month or two...

 

I think that the price will become lower when Meroms will be sold in larger quantities. So where I live, that's near the end of September when they are sold here. Perhaps begin october the prices of memory will drop then... hopefully ...

 

Ok, well I guess ill wait and if not ill just get a another stick of PC5300 667mhz of a different brand...

thx guys, I was like WTF when I saw the price of the Corsair...

 

definitely match the speed of your sticks. otherwise youve wasted money somewhere

 

There have been many rumors floating that RAM was going to go up and stay up. This may be the first sign.

 

****, I hope not...

 

It won't "stay up" any more than it's going to "stay down".

RAM prices fluctuate for a large number of reasons.
It doesn't get obsolete as fast as other hardware, which means manufacturers and vendors and even investors can (and do) speculate in stockpiling RAM one day to lower supply and inflate prices, and then dump their stock the next day.

Second, RAM is manufacturered at a relatively small number of factories, and if one experiences problems, it is felt worldwide on prices.

Third, the capacity at these factories has to be divided between regular system RAM and flash RAM, and various other sorts (Well, atm, they have to manufacture DDR, DDR2, GDDR, GDDR2, GDDR3 as well as various sorts of flash ram). And regular PC ram usually has some of the lowest profit margins, meaning they often prefer to allocate more capacity to stuff like flash, which again lowers supply and raises prices.

And finally, most RAM manufacturers have long histories of forming cartels with each others and fixing prices.

It's a complicated market, and the only thing you can be sure of is that the prices won't stay where they are. When they're high, it's only a matter of time before they get dumped low again, and vice versa.

 

Any idea what time it will drop again? Are you thinking of a couple of weeks or rather 2 to 3 months?

 

could be anywhere between those... Doubt it'll be more than 2-3 months though. If you check hardware websites, they usually try to keep up to date with what's happening to RAM prices.

 

The cost of regular DDR will likely continue to go up or if it doesn't it will stay where it's at. I won't be dropping. Most of the production by manufacturers has been switched over to DDR2 now and it has been for several months. DDR2 prices will go up and down depending on availability and demand. Demand for DDR2 has spiked with the release of C2D and AM2.

 

I'm guessing that now being the peak time for laptop and PC sales aren't helping the prices either.