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The reason for RAM price increases...

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  • The reason for RAM price increases...

    Or so it was explained to me by my older brother who works at Micron (who owns around 20% of the memory market). This is a repost from another thread, but oh well.

    In the past year about 2 companies that produce RAM have decided to stop and a few more are quiting very soon. Why? They are losing big time money trying to compete with the likes of Micron, Samsung, NEC, etc. who have 1) Deep pockets and 2) Very efficient manufacturing processes that allow them to produce RAM at a lower cost. Since so many RAM producers are going offline, IT Analysts are expecting a short fall of RAM for the next year or so, until the big dogs can revamp their processes to increase output to meet the demand. Now since the demand is high and the supply is short, prices go up, up, up.

    And that just about sums it up. And to give you a hint as to how much some companies have lost from from the recent RAM price wars...around $300 million per QUARTER for the past year or two was the figure I was given. And the big dogs broke just about even. Eeks, and we thought AMD was taking a hit for low yields on the K6 line...ouch.

    Jammrock - Your source for the best rumors and insider news you can't find


    ------------------
    My computer can play all of my games well...except TA: Kingdoms, which I think you need a Kray to play.
    “Inside every sane person there’s a madman struggling to get out”
    –The Light Fantastic, Terry Pratchett

  • #2
    You also have to factor in that Intel is twisting the manufacturers' arms to make and stockpile rambus and stop making that "old fashioned" PC100 stuff. They also have to build some stocks of PC133 as well, so very little production is PC100 anymore. Thus, a PC100 shortage until there are motherboards available for PC133 and rambus.
    RAB
    AMD K6III-450; Epox EP-MVP3G5; G400DH32; Maxtor 10gig UDMA66; 128meg PC100; Aureal SQ2500 sound; PCI Modem Blaster; Linksys 10/100 NIC; Mag 800V 19"; AL ACS54 4 speaker sound; Logitech wireless mouse; Logitech Wingman Extreme (great for lefties)

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    • #3
      Also, the yen is at its highest exchange rate in 3-1/2 years. It was up to 103yen/dollar yesterday, considerably higher than a few months ago.
      Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

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      • #4
        3 largest RAM makers:

        Micron (US)
        Samsung (Korean)
        Hyundai/LG Semicon (Korean)

        So, Yen conversions shouldn't have too much to do w/ it.

        Wonder if they're still using that epoxy stuff that was only made in Kobe, Japan? (big earthquake there a few years ago)

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        • #5
          Sorry. I was using Japan as an example for the overall recooperation of the Asian market. I don't keep up on every currency.
          Gigabyte P35-DS3L with a Q6600, 2GB Kingston HyperX (after *3* bad pairs of Crucial Ballistix 1066), Galaxy 8800GT 512MB, SB X-Fi, some drives, and a Dell 2005fpw. Running WinXP.

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          • #6
            I hope to hell that these new PC-133 M/B's are going to be able to run a mix of PC-100 and 133 as I just spent a bundle on 256Mb of PC-100 RAM. Thankfully, that was about a month ago before prices went ballistic here in OZtralia.
            Intel P3/500, Gigabyte BX-2000 M/B, 256Mb PC-100, G400 32Mb (Non-DH),
            13.4Gb IBM DeskStar, 6.4Gb Fujitsu, AWE64, 5X DVD, 36X CD-ROM, 17" NEC Chromaclear, Canon BJC-7100 and Canoscan FB620P. Grey cat and a '63 MkII Jaguar.

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