You can’t have missed that RAM prices are at an all time low. Contract prices for DRAM chips have namely dropped another 18 percent over the last two weeks, which lands them at the lowest yet. Contract prices are set between memory manufacturers and PC builders that consume about three quarters of the entire DRAM production. In other words, these prices affect the RAM market as a whole more than anything else. Price have dropped from 1.75 USD during the first half of September, to 1.44 USD per chip today.
“Prices of mainstream chips, 1GB DDR2 (double data rate, second generation) DRAM chips that run at 667MHz, have been in the doldrums for over a year. DRAM makers built too many factories to compete against each other and on hopes people would take to Microsoft Windows Vista, which requires more DRAM than Windows XP, much faster than they have.”
The over production of DRAM chips have caused a massive price drop and even if this may seem great right now, it may become a huge problem up ahead. Many memory manufacturers are reporting red numbers. It’s more or less just Samsung that keeps making money on memory circuits, something that might lead to more than the usual amount of acquisition and merges within the near future. Survival of the fittest.
Exactly how this will affect the store prices of the popular DDR2-6400 and 8500 modules remains to be seen, but the prices are pretty much as low as they can go and you can get quite a lot of ram just for a few tens of dollars..
