What to pay for your desktop DDR3 RAM in late February 2009

by Tarinder Sandhu on 25 February 2009, 14:36

Tags: Crucial Technology (NASDAQ:MU), Kingston, OCZ (NASDAQ:OCZ), Corsair, G skill

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DDR3-1,800 and DDR3-2,000

DDR3-1,800 (PC3-14,400)

2GB kits (2x 1GB)

Crucial Ballistix DDR3 PC3-14400 - 8-8-8-24 latencies - Ballistix heatspreaders - EPP - 1.9V - £79.34 @ Crucial.com/uk (£ 93.14 - Jan '09, £119.91 - Nov '08, £90.34 - Sep '08)

3GB kits (3x 1GB)

Corsair DOMINATOR PC3-14,900 TR3X3G1866C9DF - 9-9-9-24 latencies - DOMINATOR heatspreaders - XMP - 1.65V - £152.94 @ Scan.co.uk

4GB kits (2x 2GB) 

OCZ Platinum PC3-14,400 - 8-8-8-27 latencies - XTC heatspreaders - 1.9V - £167.67 @ memoryc.com (£173.36 - Jan '09, £230.39 - Nov '08, £186.34 - Sep '08 )

6GB kits (3x 2GB)

OCZ Platinum PC3-14,400 - 9-9-9-28 latencies - XTC heatspreaders - 1.65V - £179.99 @ ebuyer.co.uk (n/a)

DDR3-1,800+, too, continues to drop in price, but you'll be paying a tasty £180 for a 6GB kit.

DDR3-2,000 (PC3-16,000)

DDR3-2,000 remains the domaina of the enthusiast that, well, isn't motivated by value for money.  We've seen a few kits validated for Core i7, including Corsair's DOMINATOR GT.

2GB kits (2x 1GB)

OCZ Platinum PC3-16,000 - 9-9-9-28 latencies - 1.8V - EPP2.0 - XTC heatspreaders - £98.33 @ memoryc.com (£101.60 - Jan '09, £88.92 - Nov '08, £122.96 - Sep '08)

3GB kits (3x 1GB)

G.Skill PI Black PC3-16,000 - 9-9-9-24 latencies - PI heatspreaders - 1.65V - £185.27 @ memoryc.com (n/a)

4GB kits (2x 2GB) 

OCZ Platinum PC3-16,000 - 9-9-9-28 latencies - 1.8V - XTC heatspreaders - EPP2.0 - £154.73 @ memoryc.com (£176.41 - Jan '09, £241.51 - Nov '08, £224.18 - Sep '08)

6GB kits (3x 2GB) 

Corsair DOMINATOR PC3-16,000 TR3X6G2000C7GTF - 7-8-7-20 latencies - DOMINATOR heatspreaders - XMP - 1.65V - $579.99 @ Corsair Direct

Kingston KHX16000D3ULT1K3/6GX PC3-16,000 - 8-8-8-24 latencies - Ultra heatspreaders - XMP - 1.65V - £343.05 @ More Computers

Again, these modules are hard to recommend to anyone other than a very select niche of users who value - or not, as the case may be - the last ounce of performance. 

Stock of these modules is extremely limited, sensible given the price.

Summary

Pricing has dropped markedly on pretty much all DDR3 memory. You can now pick up a 6GB DDR3-1,333 kit for around £80, making AM3 and Core i7 rather more attractive than they would have been if released in September 2008.

The price-drops are largest for the volume-selling parts, of course, but even enthusiast-class memory - DDR3-1,600+ - isn't prohibitively expensive.

However, a lack of observed performance improvement when moving from DDR3-1,066 CL7 to DDR3-2,000 CL7 means that buying ultra-expensive DDR3 is, for most, marginally pointless.


HEXUS Forums :: 4 Comments

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Prices are really falling lol. It be nice if you made a few graphs comparing the prices from month to month.
Good thing I have been holding myself back from purchasing an unnecessary upgrade, I think I will hold off until June/July before I commit to buying an AM3 system.
Although it's falling in price, DDR3 is still quite pricey in most places relative to DDR2.
Don't hold off too long, prices of anything not made in the UK are going to whoosh up again in April.