Ram prices are crazy need help.

[Bugler]

Y'all had me curious about the memory price hike so I took a look at my build list from Newegg.

Gskill 2x2 Dual Channel kit - bought on 11-01-12 for $24.99, now $47.99.

Corsair 2x4 Vengeance - bought on 12-31-12 for $45.99, now $94.99

Good lord! They nearly doubled in just over a year.

 

[thebluebumblebee]

Y'all had me curious about the memory price hike so I took a look at my build list from Newegg.

Gskill 2x2 Dual Channel kit - bought on 11-01-12 for $24.99, now $47.99.

Corsair 2x4 Vengeance - bought on 12-31-12 for $45.99, now $94.99

Good lord! They nearly doubled in just over a year.

You are quoting prices from when RAM was at an all time low, actually below cost of production. It is just wrong to base our expectations on that aberration. I remember when I got 2x2GB for $60, with a MIR and I was thrilled at that price. Yes, I'm bummed that I can't get 16GB for $120 like it was a few months ago, but really, this is not hair on fire territory. The RAM that I'm talking about is at $160.
Today's PC's are a bargain. I remember when it cost ~$2500 to build a system that you knew you'd (gladly) throw away in 2 years. $1000 today will build a nice system that will still be relevant in 5 years. Maybe that is why PC sales are down. PC's are lasting longer and are usable for a longer period of time. I say this while using my A64 X2-4400+.

 

[Bugler]

I guess I got lucky.

 

[Ferrum Master]

You can risk ebay... I bought a wholesale of 8x2gb HP DDR3 ECC's with sasmung chips for around 80bucks... But I was rather lucky... Those server part queries are often unorthodox containing specialized things and I knew those samys clock good. I think it was a good deal.

 

[LAN_deRf_HA]

Wait........ NO-ONE should pay more than $100 for 16Gb of RAM. Unless of course your buying the gimmicky "fancy" type.

Doesn't work like that anymore. The "fancy" stuff and the bargain stuff are the same price now. 1333, 1600, 1866, 2133 kits are all intermingling. It's interesting now because it chucks out the old argument that performance kits aren't worth it. When it's all the same price get the fast stuff.

 

[krusha03]

I was going to upgrade my PC in 2 months with new Motherboard and CPU, out of curiosity I went to Corsair to check out some ram and prices are just crazy, same with newegg and the site I want to use to buy the parts in my country(Romania).

16GB Corsair Dominator Platinum over 230$, not so fancy ram still costs more than 160$.

So what should I do: Wait for prices to drop, wait for DDR4 or something else ?

I will make a new thread with my budget and other things some time before the actual buy.

As other people have said it, just buy the cheapest ram you can get. You save $70 for other stuff. Fast ram makes almost no difference in real life (except if you use the IGP which you dont) and its only for benchmarks. Also I don't think that you should wait since Maxwell and Haswell - E are still like 6+ months away. Just get a 1150 Haswell i5 and 780 / 290 for best price / performance in the high end

 

[remixedcat]

I need to upgrade my laptop's RAM (it only has 3GB) and this gives me a sad

My hubby really needs to upgrade his and his is DDR2 and it's even more expensive then DDR3 His only has 4GB.

 

[Bugler]

I need to upgrade my laptop's RAM (it only has 3GB) and this gives me a sad

My hubby really needs to upgrade his and his is DDR2 and it's even more expensive then DDR3 His only has 4GB.

If he's using a 32 bit OS then 4 gig's all he can use.

 

[remixedcat]

64 bit, Server 2012

he does gaming vids and he's running out and this is annoying. It will cost 120 bucks to get him to 8GB!

 

[Bugler]

$120 to get 4 gigs? I'd just get a motherboard with DDR3 slots that'll support his CPU.

 

[remixedcat]

8GB. all the sticks would need replaced as they are 4x1GB sticks. it would be the same amount either way it would need a new CPU too. since it's an AM2 phenom x4.

 

[4ghz]

I remember when I paid almost $200 for 4MB memory stick (72 pins 32-bits SIMM, 80ns) way back in 1994. With inflation, that would have been $315 in today's dollars. I also remember spending $500 for an 80MB hard drive in the same year.

 

[Silas Woodruff]

As other people have said it, just buy the cheapest ram you can get. You save $70 for other stuff. Fast ram makes almost no difference in real life (except if you use the IGP which you dont) and its only for benchmarks. Also I don't think that you should wait since Maxwell and Haswell - E are still like 6+ months away. Just get a 1150 Haswell i5 and 780 / 290 for best price / performance in the high end

Seriously I would but new tech seems to be so close it would make me just feel stupid. I also looking for top performance/watt which Maxwell seems to deliver plenty waiting for higher end stuff to appear same stuff with CPU(Broadwell or Haswell-E but at that TDP maybe not.

PS: Seems I managed to greatly increase my budget to 1500+$ equivalent.

 

[krusha03]

Seriously I would but new tech seems to be so close it would make me just feel stupid. I also looking for top performance/watt which Maxwell seems to deliver plenty waiting for higher end stuff to appear same stuff with CPU(Broadwell or Haswell-E but at that TDP maybe not.

PS: Seems I managed to greatly increase my budget to 1500+$ equivalent.

All indications for Haswell-E and Maxwell are Q3/Q4 2014. If that is ok with you by all means wait. However by then there will be something else new coming within 6 months and the cycle repeats.

With respect to performance / watt look at the current graphs. You will see always midrange cards. If you want to go high end you are far from the price / performance and watt / performance sweet spot.

 

[Hood]

Doesn't work like that anymore. The "fancy" stuff and the bargain stuff are the same price now. 1333, 1600, 1866, 2133 kits are all intermingling. It's interesting now because it chucks out the old argument that performance kits aren't worth it. When it's all the same price get the fast stuff.

I noticed that trend a while back, and it now encompasses 2400 kits if you shop around. I bought a 2 x 4GB HyperX Beast 2400 kit in Feb 2013 for $65 (now same kit is $110). Had a need for 16GB this year (the programs I have running sometimes max out 8GB), so instead of getting another Beast kit to add in, I bought 2 x 8GB Adata XPG V2 2400 for $140. The new kit turned out to be even better, it will OC to 2666 with a couple minor adjustments, the old kit wouldn't even boot at 2600 no matter what the timings and voltage. So it makes sense to go as high as 2400 if your board and CPU can handle it, especially since the cheapest 2 x 8GB 1333MHz kit on NewEgg is $136 right now.

 

[coconut wa te r]

buy used ram from the user nanoscale , he has a lot of 2x8 and a corsair 4x8

 

[Frag_Maniac]

1. 8GB is still plenty for a gaming rig
2. You might be able to actually find faster RAM cheaper

I just saw a 2x 4GB set of G Skill Sniper PC1700 for $75 at Newegg USA. Look for similar deals in your area.

 

[Wrigleyvillain]

Sigh remember when you could get 8GB of the Samsung Wonder RAM for like $25?

 

[4ghz]

Remember when memory used to be $200 for 4MB? Megabyte, not GB. 20 years ago

 

[Hood]

Remember when memory used to be $200 for 4MB? Megabyte, not GB. 20 years ago

Was that only 20 years ago? I only remember back to when I built my first system in 2001, a Pentium III 850 MHz with 256 MB RAM. If I remember correctly, it cost about $80 to upgrade to 512 MB. I thought that was outrageous, but it made that system a lot more responsive, as you can imagine. That comes to $320/GB, so my recent upgrade to 16 GB should feel like a bargain at $8.75/GB. We just got spoiled a couple years ago when the market was flooded and prices were $5/GB or lower. I don't think DDR3 prices will ever be lower than they are right now.

 

[Bugler]

When I first had my 386 I was buying 256K modules for $20 at the air force surplus.