RAM prices finally falling...

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Stereodude

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So, I've noticed that DDR2 and DDR3 has finally starting to drop in price in the past few weeks. It's still not quite as cheap as it was 18-24 months ago, but it's getting close. And it's about time!

I've got a PC just waiting to get another 4GB of DDR2-800 (my server), but the matching sticks to what's in it are still $100. It's almost cheaper to buy 2 new 2 x 2GB kits. Unfortunately going with 2 x 4GB DIMMS is still $$$$.
 
LunarMist

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My main machine only takes 24GB so there is no upgrade path. I'm not sure if it worth upgrading from 8->16GB in the old one that takes DDR-2.
 
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You've already got 24GB of RAM in your PC? :eek:

All of mine (including laptops) have 4GB except for my oldest Pentium-M laptop that has only 2GB.
 
LunarMist

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Sure. I need to keep all six cores of the 4.4GHz i7 busy. ;) My old system has had 8GB for over 1 1/2 years. 4x2GB was more expensive then and 4x4GB was not really an option. Each of my two subnotebooks only have 4GB, but they are running a 32-bit OS.
 
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Sure. I need to keep all six cores of the 4.4GHz i7 busy. ;) My old system has had 8GB for over 1 1/2 years. 4x2GB was more expensive then and 4x4GB was not really an option. Each of my two subnotebooks only have 4GB, but they are running a 32-bit OS.
 
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So this kit looks like the cheapest 2x4GB DDR2-800 kit out there right now at $167.49. This kit seems to be the cheapest 1.8V 2x4GB DDR2-800 5-5-5-18 kit at $182.99 (and one of the only).

Still, I don't think now is the right time to buy since prices will probably keep falling. :bomb:
 
LunarMist

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Maybe prices will fall for a couple of months, but won't DDR 2 eventually fade away and prices rise? How much do you miss by waiting?
 
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Stereodude

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LunarMist said:
Maybe prices will fall for a couple of months, but won't DDR 2 eventually fade away and prices rise? How much do you miss by waiting?
Click to expand...
Well, that's the million dollar question. If I knew the answer to that I would be wealthy playing in commodity markets.
 
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Dropped another $5 to $160.99 today. This makes buying RAM challenging. I guess you either 1) decide to buy at a price you're happy with and then block it out of your mind or 2) you watch it closely and try to guess when you've hit the bottom.

Interestingly the otherwise identical 6-6-6-18 DDR2-800 hasn't been dropping in price nearly as much as the 5-5-5-15 DDR-800. The two 2 x 4GB DDR2-800 kits are now only $1 apart whereas they used to be about $20 apart. :scratch:
 
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$158.99 today. The CAS 5-5-5-15 DDR2-800 is now cheaper than the CAS 6-6-6-18 DDR2-800 ($159.99) or the CAS 5-5-5-15 DDR2-667 ($159.99).
 
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It's too bad my mainboard does not have more memory slots. I could use 32 or even 48GB. :)
 
Mercutio

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I put 24GB of RAM in one of my quiet servers today, just because I could. I can't keep it like that but it was pretty sweet just to see it running like that on a commodity motherboard.
 
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That is what mine has, but it is in a basic ATX board rather than a server board.
 
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Oh. I thought a server had to use Xenon processors or something akin to that from the AMD.
 
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LunarMist said:
Oh. I thought a server had to use Xenon processors or something akin to that from the AMD.
Click to expand...

Kind of. You generally don't see desktop systems that support redundant PSUs or ECC RAM or advanced hardware RAID, but all that stuff gets too hot, uses too much power and makes too much noise for my application so these machines are just fancy desktops with nice parts.

I did discover that my Atom D510 is subjectively as responsive for the testing workload I have as my Q6600 and Core i5. I was really quite impressed to figure that out.
 
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Well, I jumped in and bought this 4x4GB DDR2-800 kit for $254.99 shipped free after the 15% off all desktop memory promotion Newegg is running now.

I had been planning to get two of the 2x4GB 5-5-5-18 DDR2-800 kits from Mushkin, but based on what I read it was most likely that I'd have to drop to 6-6-6-18 once I populated all 4 slots in the motherboard anyhow. So this way I can complain if I have problems getting all 4 to play nice together since it's a 4 stick kit and guaranteed for that.
 
Chewy509

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LunarMist said:
Why is the X58 limited to 24 GB?
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Why would it be a chipset limitation considering the memory controller is on the CPU?

As a guess, it would be more due to limits on the i7 IMC and what Intel is validating as the max number of DIMM slots vs DIMM size for the i7 and not the limitation on the chipset (unless there is an issue with the PCIe controller in the X58 and the max address space it can see for DMA transfers).

If you need more than 24GB I would be looking at the Xeon 3500 series and a motherboard based on the 3420 chipset, which raises the limit to 32GB for a single socket solution. Any more RAM would require dual-socket board + 2x Xeons, etc.
 
Mercutio

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Stereodude said:
DDR3 might get that cheap this time around, but probably not DDR2. Further, who cares about 2x1GB sticks of memory anymore. :p
Click to expand...

Me, since my budget systems are still Core2s and not i3s. I still have six G41M-ES2Hs to sell. But I'm going to buy a bunch of RAM regardless.
 
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