http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/11/12/gb-ram-comes-cheaper

 

Price of DDR2 tumbles again

 

Cheap as chips

 

By Nebojsa Novakovic: Monday, 12 November 2007, 2:23 PM

 

THE TIME HAS COME time to finally break the 32-bit memory limit. You'll have noticed that, as DDR2 prices dropped further, there were more entrants offering inexpensive DDR2 DIMMs using denser 1 Gbit dies. This gives you 2 GB per standard unbuffered desktop DIMM, or 4 GB per dual channel kit.

 

According to the most recent die prices quoted by sources like Digitimes and others, you could the 16 dies needed for such a 2 GB DIMMs for as little as US$ 40 now, if you bought them in dozens of thousands of course. Add the PCB, assembly and other usual costs, and just look at online offers right now on, say, pricewatch.com: a dual-channel 4 GB kit of two 2 GB DIMMs is yours for around US$ 150. Make it double, and you got an 8 GB large memory monster for some US$ 300!

 

That's just some 10 per cent of the cost of a typical mid-high class PC that would use this memory - like a quad-core Yorkfield with Nvidia 780i SLI chipset, or quad-core Phenom with AMD 790FX basic Crossfire rig. And, this cost is expected to continue going down as the die price pressure persists due to lack of demand from the expected "golden resource hog", Windows Vista.

 

Now, there is use for this even you're still on 32-bit WinXP or Vista, that use only around 3GB: simply, declare the upper 5GB of that RAM as a RAM drive that, during the system use, has the whole XP and apps loading to and from there, saving you quite a bit of time. A proper RAM disk applet can always do a write-back of any OS or application code changes - which shoudn't happen too often on a decent OS, which Windows might not be anyway.

 

And, once you go to the 64-bit OS level, you got as much memory as any PC application out today could possibly managed then. However, don't expect the same high-density, low-price benefits on the DDR3 until later in next year, when it moves to even higher semicon processes, beyond 65 nm - right in time for the Nehalems? ?

that is good for me cause I am planning on buying here pretty shortly.

i noticed other things going down in price too,must be that time o' year

I might be upgrading my Laptop to 4gb, if I can find some 2gb sticks for cheap.

I picked up a HP 22" WS LCD today, it was $330 at Microcenter. I spent $699 for my 19" Sony LCD about 2 years ago, thank China.

 

I spent $230 for 2x1gb of OCZ DDR2 in Feb, I picked up 2 more gb of the same memory a month ago for $69 after the MIR.

I'm especially lame on this subject. What is the advantage DDR2?

I picked up a HP 22" WS LCD today,

I've got that same monitor.