DDR Prices

[BujinZero]

After receiving my Christmas bounty, I've decided to upgrade to a DDR platform. I wandered the 'net and found the mobo I want (EPoX), and then looked for some decent (i.e. Crucial, Infineon) DDR to go with it. I was stunned over what I saw--when did these prices jump? I didn't pay more than $80 for the 512MB of Crucial DDR I used in a friend's system but three months ago. At Newegg.com, two sticks of 256MB Crucial DDR costs $136 with shipping to MN. Can someone tell me what I missed here? How the hell did DDR get so much more expensive? Usually, the cost of technology decreases as it ages, but apparently this isn't the case with DDR. Let's hope a 128MB stick of DDR doesn't cost $4000 in 2003! Any ideas as to when DDR prices might return to their original/wonderful lowness?

 

[Utterman]

Welcome to the business of memory. Memory is a piece of hardware that will actually go up and down in price unlike other items. What happened the past months to my understanding is that some memory plants have closed down and since Intel is starting to use DDR mem with their P4 processors, there has been a tighter supply of memory. So right now, memory prices are up due to the higher demand for DDR memory, but there are rumors that the prices should settle down aroudn Jan. or Fed.

 

[Moohooya]

Memory prices have been below a healthy cost this year. They had to go us becuase too much money was being lost. The strong survived, some of the weak ave fallen, and the string want to try and regain some of their losees. Prices will go back down, perhaps not by Jan/Feb, but they will.

 

[ChrisADuffy]

Just buy one 256mb stick now and buy another identical one later when prices fall.

 

[ctk1981]

I was going to post something about this a couple nights ago but figured most people already knew. It has been just recently, like a week or so, that the price of ram jumped on crucial from 30 some dollars to 60 something now. I usually check often so I know what to charge when I custom build a computer for friends or family. I was so bummed that it jumped, but it doesnt really matter now. Ive decided to splurge and get mushkin ram 2-2-2 256MB DDR stick for now and later on another stick of the same style.