Is RAM prices expected to go down?

[ricno]

Hello,

someone mentioned that the price for RAM could be expected to go down in some months time. Is this correct?

I am looking to to upgrade my system from 8GB to 16GB, but if there would be some noticable price reduction in the near future I could probably wait.

My spec now:

Memory: 2x4 GB Corsair XMS3 DDR3 1333MHz
Motherboard: ASUS P7P55D-E LX

Do you think two new 4GB modules for will be any cheaper in a few months from now?

 

[hell_storm2004]

I don't expect them to come down any time soon. Maybe after 5-6 months not before that.

But why in the world would you need 16GB? 8GB is more than enough.

 

[ricno]

I don't expect them to come down any time soon. Maybe after 5-6 months not before that.

Thanks for your reply. Someone said that the upcoming Intel Sandy Bridge CPUs with new motherboards should decrease RAM prices, but that is not reasonable?

But why in the world would you need 16GB? 8GB is more than enough.

Running Windows XP and sometimes surf the internet. Surely 16 GB is needed?

No, but I use the computer at home as a workstation for running multiple server operating systems inside virtual machines. Only for testing job related stuff, not production, but I sometimes hit the 8GB limit..

 

[hell_storm2004]

Even if the SB come out they are still gonna be on DDR3, so don't see any reason for a price cut. Maybe you would see some price cuts when DDR4 is in the horizon.

 

[ricno]

Maybe you would see some price cuts when DDR4 is in the horizon.

And that is not near now?

 

[hell_storm2004]

2012.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDR4_SDRAM

 

[ricno]

Thanks. A little to long into the future to save a small amount of money..

 

[jaquith]

The ONLY uses I can think of using 8GB or 16GB is for: Professional Photo editing, Video editing, or HUGE databases {millions of records}.

RE: DDR4 by then you'll be thinking of a new rig and initially there 'may' be a slight drop. It is all about Supply v Demand; what I do for a living - suggests that the economy will be in the poor house...

 

[ricno]

The ONLY uses I can think of using 8GB or 16GB is for: Professional Photo editing, Video editing, or HUGE databases {millions of records}.

However, I actually do have a need for 16 GB and not for the reasons above.

 

[jaquith]

Okay, what? I said all I can think of <care to think of this early anyway>.

 

[ricno]

Okay, what? I said all I can think of <care to think of this early anyway>.

It is in the 3rd post in the thread.

Early? Here the work day is soon over.

 

[jaquith]

Now that I am waking-up I also thought maybe Rendering / CAD, but running VM {Virtualization} off an 1156 make NO sense 'to me.' Also, when 'I' think Workstations I only think Xeon w/ ECC - etc; not a consumer PC CPU. I use i7 930's {consumer CPU} as 'pseudo' Workstations, and never would think to run them as a VM box nor think of them as Workstations or servers.

I did read "testing," but "testing" to me mean a similar environment & setup. All the environmental disparity attributes will tell you nothing; I guess the "How to set one up" question will be answered, but that's about the extent.

To each their own, and it seems to be a waste of $ RAM. I would never approve the expense in my office. On a cheap Xeon WS maybe.

 

[ricno]

Let us not get stuck into phrases that has no standard definition. A "workstation" could of course mean XEON processors and ECC memory, but in my case it is a somewhat high end computer that I do not use for gaming.

As for "testing" that could of course mean performance or stability testing for a production environment, but also just to test functionality. I run lots of VMs (on Vmware Workstation) with multiple Domain Controllers, CA servers, file servers, IAS/NPS, Win 7 clients, virtual Vmware ESX servers with running VMs inside them, iSCSI devices and so on. There is thousands of things to test which I can do perfectly inside a VM.

 

[jaquith]

I have room of Enterprise servers, but I test per Enviornment. Also, if indeed per your statements above then you know this already. You are testing nothing that should be used to evaluate a "Production Enviornment" - see my second paragraph above.

Let's say it fails on the 1156 -> what does that say about running it in a "real server" -> zip.

 

[ricno]

I do not know if it is because of language barriers we are having this strange discussion and I can not really express myself. However, I do still think it is a bit odd that I shall have to defend for you what kind of "tests" I do on my own personal PC in my "own" thread.

I do also belive I know which results from labs that are applicable to a real environment and which are not.

 

[ricno]

Best answer selected by ricno.