Time to buy ram is... now?

Seems to me like ram prices have dropped incredibly in the last few months. I can buy a Kingston 1 GB PC4200 CAS 4 sodimm from tigerdirect.ca for $120 CAD - much less than back in december.

So my question is - does the wise upgrader buy now, or will this trend continue...?

Edit -

I was looking at the KVR533D2SO/1GR ram - there is a thread that discusses this ram vs other kingston ram, and that the O denotes registered vs unregistered ram. Kingston ram site notes my computer uses KTT533D2/1G. Does this make any difference really?

 

RAM was a lot lower last year around this time of year. It seems that prices went up (or at least sales weren't as frequent) as soon as people started marketing the laptops as Vista ready.

Seeing how much RAM is required these days, including those for Vista, I have a feeling RAM won't drop much in the next little while. As long as the prices is within reason, the brand you're buying is reputabl and you need the RAM, might as well go for it.

 

The best time to buy ram is always now. Intel, Samsung, Hynix, Amd etc are already looking at new memory interfaces like DDR3. whatever you buy for how much or how little, it is still going to be obsolete in a few years. It is going to lose value. The main thing to me is maximizing the amount of time I get out of the investment. Sure memory might get cheaper later on this year. But what if all that DDR2 I buy is obsolete by April 2008? If I wait a few months for a cheaper price I am also missing out on usable life.
Heck I have a shoebox FULL of old ram. just sitting there.

 

I think I heard prices are set to keep falling until May, and then start rising again.

 

I'll keep an eye out then. My 512 MB is just doesn't keep up with the rest of my notebook. I plan to add 1 GB, giving me a total of 1.5 GB. Doesn;'t seem worth it to buy only another 512 MB.

 

Making it worthwhile may not always be good. Most of the laptops these days can max out at 2 GB or higher. Just make sure your laptop can handle added RAM without a problem. Let's say your laptop can only handle 1GB, then adding over 1 GB would essentially be a waste as well.

Just double check on the specs of your laptop to see the maximum RAM capacity, and then try to at least meet 1 GB RAM total for smoother operations.

 

You should be able to get 1GB of pretty decent RAM for around $100.

 

It is less than that now Gator...go to www.crucial.com they now have both 1Gb 533mhz and 667mhz DDR2 for less than $70.00

I have been monitoring prices for the last few months and DRAM prices have fallen through the floor big time...infact the new price of $65.99 for 1Gb on crucial was $71.99 2 days ago and $105.99 early last month this is a massive drop in price!

There is a glut on the market thanks to vista, the DRAM manufacturers must have over estimated the lust for more memory to run vista and now that they are not seeing the numbers they expected they are selling off their overstocked inventories...

 

good to hear. picked up a 1gb 667 samsung stick for $50 shipped!

 

My notebook can handle up to 2 GB of ram, no issues there. I cannot forsee any circumstances where I'll need more than 1 GB probably, nevermind 2, but I think 1.5 GB will be a wiser choice for me.

Problem for buying ram here in Canada is that we don't see the same prices in the USA, even after the exchange is considered. Prices for most things are much higher (especially electronics and car parts), plus we get taxed more (provincial plus federal taxes, 15% total in my province). So a $70+tax/delivery USD stick of ram ends up costing you $80 USD, and me ~$100+tax/deliver or $127 CAD or $109 USD. This is a not a worse case example, some things are much worse (e.g. cars, cost on average 25-30% more in Canada than the US after exchange).

 

Not bad now, I just ordered some Corsair DDR2 PC5300 1GB modules for $65 each for my Acer . Cost me around $150 after shipping + GST from www.ncix.com

 

Thank you so much for informing me, I just called the store and they said they have TwinMOS 1GB DDR2 533MHz for $65 only!! It used to cost $115!! Thats a huge price drop!

 

For those who want dire RAM, Crucial has 2gb modules for $380, which is a pretty hefty discount from the normal $800 price tag heh.

 

you guys may laugh, but I just bought a mere 512 fo $30 over at mwave. I really should've bought more but I am already overpsent on computer parts right now. And I still need some new video cards for some desktops I am building!
Besides there doesnt seem to be point to get 1gb modules until I can get 2 of 'em! I am 92.3% sure my notebook does dual channel so I am hoping that will be worth it.

 

The reality of the electronics world (for all tech products) is that "buying tomorrow" will always be cheaper.

Of course, we can't always wait that long. . Keep your eyes peeled for discounts and rebates that come up for big purchases.

 

If the book uses DDR2, then it can use dual channel. But really there is little performance benefit to using dual channel, so buy what you need and add later!

 

Basically I was going to wait until I could buy a matched pair of 1 gb sticks. But thats like what, $150? Then i though about it and realized that for $30 I could do a decent upgrade to my notetop, I mean lapbook. So what, I'll have an extra pair of 512 lying around after I upgrade. All the better to put in someone elses notebook in the future.
BTW I am really not so confident in the statement "If the book uses DDR2, then it can use dual channel."
but maybe I am just ignorant of laptop chipsets.

 

hi i just ordered a compal hgl30 with 512 mb
I know it is cheaper to get ram by itself but i was wondering about the numbers of the ram
i googled it and i found a review of the hgl30 which said it has DDR2 667 PC2-5400

what do the numbers really mean? Do I have to get exactly those numbers or a variation of 667 to 553 and 5400 to 5300 work?

 

AFAIK, any recent notebook (2003+) should be able to run in dual channel mode. It is not necessary to have exactly the same size/type of dimms, but it will improve the efficiency.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dual-channel

If you're really curious, there is a lot of info on the topic if you care to weed through it.

 

by way of follow up, yeah its working in dual channel now. At first I thought not, but it turns out I had to restart for reals, not just hibernate as is my habit. So yeah now its dual channel, but so far my benchmarks have only gone up like 5%. I mostly got it so my lappy wouldnt keep hitting the disk so hard.

 

Have you tried to buy PC133 memory lately? It's not cheap RAM prices, when they drop on a modern type of memory, it's ALWAYS the best time to buy. You can't tell if it'll go back up or down. I got my laptop with 2GB of RAM over $100 cheaper than other people would have had they ordered the same thing just a week after I did, simply because of the memory.

 

LOL! PC133...get it on eBay for 5$...but you have to agree that unless its an ENIAC with nostalgia/antique value, it's gonna get cheaper. As the value of older technology drops when newer replaces it, the price must go down since demand falls. In PC133, some modules might be an exception due to low supply (thus increasing price slightly)

 

I hear ya. Adding my 7200 rpm drive helped, but of course it only speeds up the times it hits it - better to prevent the hitting in the first place I suppose!!!