What makes ram so expensive?

rezwitsrezwits
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
I have been looking at ram price and it just dawned on me, I have no idea why ram is so costly. Apple List getting 16 GB for there machines at around $3,000. Then OWC list for about $1,500. But if you look at the ram and the price f a new computer the ram should be cheaper. Is it supply and demand? Like if 16 GB was $800 everyone would go for that? Then the prices would go up? Just seems like it should be cheaper if not 1/4 of the price of a computer that is $2,500. Is it the gold? Something seems fishy or wierd. Like its just to screw people over and make money.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    rezwitsrezwits Posts: 902member
    If you look at how much Titanium it cost to build a Mac Pro versus those sill like green chips with a little gold it doesn't equal in value to me. Like I said unless its the gold, but a mac pros motherboard has gold ... hmm
  • Reply 2 of 6
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,486moderator
    ink shouldn't cost as much as it does either, nor should plumbers or lawyers but that's the way the world is. I suspect one of the prices involved in Ram is that they come with a lifetime warranty. If computers were like that, they'd have to be extremely expensive in order to keep the market alive.



    I hope that in the near future though, both Ram and flash prices come down significantly.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    joe_the_dragonjoe_the_dragon Posts: 931member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by rezwits View Post


    I have been looking at ram price and it just dawned on me, I have no idea why ram is so costly. Apple List getting 16 GB for there machines at around $3,000. Then OWC list for about $1,500. But if you look at the ram and the price f a new computer the ram should be cheaper. Is it supply and demand? Like if 16 GB was $800 everyone would go for that? Then the prices would go up? Just seems like it should be cheaper if not 1/4 of the price of a computer that is $2,500. Is it the gold? Something seems fishy or wierd. Like its just to screw people over and make money.



    The FB-DIMMS have high cost next to other ram and apple is ripping you off on laptop ram $750 on go from 2gb to 4gb? They must be making you pay for 2X1gb and 2X2gb but they only give the 2x2gb of ram + a high fee to install it.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    plasmaplasma Posts: 74member
    Apple memory like all other Apple products are usually priced at 50% markup. Regular 2GB SDRAM DDR2 is $80 but Apple sells this for the Macbook for $175 upgrade. For the the Mac Pro 2GB is $299 and 16GB is $4499. But this is EEC RAM FB-DIMM. Apple says...



    Apple created a more robust thermal specification for the Mac Pro FB-DIMM heat sinks that provide more efficient cooling than many other FB-DIMMs. These FB-DIMMs require less airflow to stay cool and allow the internal fans to spin at slower speeds, improving system acoustics. FB-DIMMs made by other manufacturers that do not include a sufficient heat sink may cause the fans to run faster (and louder) or the memory chips to run slower so as not to overheat.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    plasmaplasma Posts: 74member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Joe_the_dragon View Post


    The FB-DIMMS have high cost next to other ram and apple is ripping you off on laptop ram $750 on go from 2gb to 4gb? They must be making you pay for 2X1gb and 2X2gb but they only give the 2x2gb of ram + a high fee to install it.



    Whats weird is that 4GB upgrade is $750 for Macbook Pro DDR2 but 4GB for MacPro is $699 for ECC RAM FB-DIMM.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    feartecfeartec Posts: 119member
    Go generic, I got 3Gb, generic for 300$. It was a special, but not that expensive.
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