On the forum of a big webshop, I've just read that the owner expects DDR3 ram memory prices will possibly increase ~50% by the middle of April - they're already increasing rapidly at the moment, so if you're planning to build a computer with DDR3 ram, perhaps get that memory now instead of waiting. Other types of ram may also increase in price (and current prices are already 50% more than before last Summer).

There's new stuff coming out like nVidia DX11 graphics cards - probably followed by AMD cards, and cheap AMD 6-cores, ... so you might (rightly) be inclined to wait for the effect of those on the market but get the ram now if you can.

That's interesting I was hoping it would follow the trend of ddr2 and become inexpensive as it became more widely used. Is there a reason for the increase in prices such as raw material cost?

everything going up built a new pc few weeks ago and price are more than last year i guest they want to boost THERE PROFIT

I think the global crisis made them cut down on production to sell their stocks and now that demand is picking up again, the stocks are inadequate and production is still too low. If I'm not mistaken, the memory sector was/is a fiercely competitive one with very low profit margins so maybe some manufacturers haven't survived, further lowering production capabilities.

I was kinda lucky last year, as I built my computer in June just before prices went up 50%. DDR2 and DDR3 prices were pretty much equal back then and that was also the case when they shot up from €60 to €90 over the Summer, but nowadays, DDR3 is already a few euros more expensive than DDR2 and prices are still rising, apparently. A 50% price increase would add €45-50 to a 2x2GB 1066Mhz set and push it into the €134-145 range for mainstream sets.

AMD may very well benefit from this, as their AM3 processors (Athlon2 and Phenom2 series) have both DDR2 and DDR3 controllers whereas Intel only has DDR3 controllers on their Core i3/i5/i7. I'm not sure but I think even AMD's new 6cores may continue that dual use -- but I don't think that's been confirmed yet. Intel may have to drop the prices of their old socket775 (DDR2) chips to compensate.


EDIT :: this is the kind of topic that fits better in the HardFloppy forum, so I'll move it there now

Thanks for tellin everyone!!

Good thing i bought a computer with 6GB of it

THXs ADL not looking to up grade yet but now go look at the prices from my FAV shop and see.

Well checked now to get sim Cosair would have to go for 1066 not 800 and that would cost me $239 AU as I paid $83 AU for 4GBt of 800
But can get Kingston 4GBt set for $109 AU so prices have gone up alot.

my ram: OCZ Gold Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 last april @ $50.99
now: $104.99

i saw that and my jaw dropped as i was thinking about upgrading to another 4gb recently

Yeah, here too: the ones I bought last year at €65 are now listed as €120 -- for ram, the secondhand market may be interesting now as most non-techy folks tend to forget that stuff can go up in price too

just paid £110 for a 1gb and 2gb of ram

For my Christmas build, I got G.SKILL 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600, and that cost me a smidgin over $200... I couldn't imagine spending more than that on RAM, but you are saying that DDR3 is actually getting more expensive instead of cheaper?!?!

I will definitely be sticking with this rig for a looong while!

thanks for the info I am getting ready to build a computer my self

Went out yesterday and helped someone buy 512MB of PC3200 from PC World - their own brand of RAM. Cost £32.

About this time last year I bought 4GB of PC6400 for about £60.

That's one hell of a price jump!

Yeah, new DDR1 is now getting into the legacy/expensive zone too -- there should be much better deals for it on the secondhand market.

The overall hike doesn't seem to have been as much as the predicted 50%, I think, but still a good 20% or so My 2x2GB set of DDR2-1066-CL5 would now cost me €130 instead of the €65 I paid last year.

Bloody hell, that's a big price hike! Surely it should be getting cheaper? Supply and demand and all that.... Unless we are dealing with a cartel of suppliers, of course...

Wish I had bought memory last year when prices were low. I just shelled out $99 dollars for two 2gb ddr2 800 sticks. Oh well 6gb of ram should set me up quite nicely for another 2 years.

Same boat, My Crucial Ballistix DDR2 1066 2x2gb ram was only 40$ when i bought it last year, now its up to 109$ plus. Really wanted to upgrade to 8 gigs

Welcome to the Darkside, subman

Yeah, DDR3 prices have gone back down quite a bit, but I don't think they'll replenish the DDR2 stocks enough to see a similar drop in prices

I just had me a look on amazon and the prices of RAM seem to have dropped off dramatically. 4gig of DDR3 would have cost somewhere around £100 this time last year and now you can get some for about £40

Prices for RAM here have seem to hit a stabilized point, my 4GB (2 x 2GB) kit of OCZ DDR3-1333 set me back $89 now they have a DDR3-2000 4GB kit for the same price.

However it does seem that DDR2 is not going to be getting any cheaper I remember when it was $7 for a 1GB stick after the price hike it was $30 and has lately declined to $17 and been there a while. Manageable but still expensive as sin

it all depends on where you purchase, we picked up a set of pc133 in sizes of 128mb and 256mb for about 3$ per stick

Just how many RAM slots do you have Mazuki?

DDR2 just isn't being stocked as much Even if I were to buy an extra 2x2GB for my system (PC2-8500 CAS5), it would still cost me about the same as I paid for new ones 2 or 3 years ago And if I want an exact match with new sticks, I'd pay €125 compared to the €65 back then.

DDR3 on the other hand is very cheap. A while ago, I heard that harddisks might go up but I've not seen any evidence of that. And the Japan quake doesn't seem to be having a big effect (yet) either.

If the rumour of a soon to be released AMD HD7xxx graphics card series is true, then the regular and secondhand market for graphics cards is gonna get even more interesting. I'm already tempted to bid on secondhand HD5870s and HD6870s @ €120-130.

AMD did a special deal with their wafer supplier (Global Foundries) just for this year: GloFo is gonna supply them with chips at a fixed price so AMD won't have to worry about chip yield costs. That makes me think that AMD could take the opportunity to flood both the gpu and cpu markets: that HD7xxx series, Llano and Bulldozer cpus coming out this Summer, and I wouldn't be surprised if they do an extra stepping for the Thuban cpus on 28nm.