Any Idea When DDR2 Latency and Prices Will Drop?

So I've heard from quite a few people that memory prices are being gouged by the manufacturers to ridiculous levels, and that the government is intervening, but when can we expect to see the prices fall back to a reasonable amount?

Right now, I'm running Windows XP MCE on my dv9000t with 1GB of RAM, but I do plan on using my Express Upgrade for Vista when it arrives. Later this year, since I have other things to spend my money on currently, I plan on upgrading to 2GB (1GB x2) to get the extra performance out of my laptop. This is the only upgrade I really ever am planning to do to my system, so I figure I better do it right. Unfortunately however, as most probably know, latency for DDR2 Notebook memory is horrible right now, on average at 5 clocks. Now I have absolutely no problem on waiting for the prices and latency to drop, but when do we think this is going to be?

Edit: Forgot to mention: My RAM speed is 667Mhz.

 

Well, RAM with 677MHz might drop when the new 800MHz DDR2 becomes more of the standard for laptops. As for latency, I think I came across some RAM on newegg with clocks of 4, but don't quote me on it.

 

I doubt that latencies will drop in any mass way. SODIMMs tend to follow pretty stock features. Even with matured DDR specs, SODIMMs never reached the low latencies of their desktop companions.

As for price, I doubt they will go down by much.

 

Newegg has some 1GB 667 memory starting at $74. I don't think you are going to see lower prices for a long time.

 

Memory prices are increasing...due to lobby from DRAM chip manufacturers. Latency would not change by much if not at all...

 

The latencies won't drop much, if at all, because DDR2 is a spec. They can't change the physical behavior or construction of the memory much, which is basically what is needed to lower latencies. Prices? Those will drop for a little while, and as soon as DDR3 is released, it'll shoot back up.

 

RAM prices follow their own rules. Unlike other hardware, which just gets cheaper, RAM goes up and down, up and down, almost at random. The best you can do is buy the RAM you need when the price is down, and do your best to manage without when it's high...

As for latencies, as Pitabred said, the DDR2 spec defines which latencies are valid. As I remember it, the lowest valid CAS latency is 3.0, or maybe it's 4.0, even. In either case, it's higher than what you got with good DDR RAM, and there's not that much room for improvement over current DDR2 modules.