Why is PC RAM so bl**dy expensive?

[whowhatwhy]

Hi, I have 2 sansa 4GB solid flash MP3 players and they cost me $130 each when I was in the US recently....I also have a crappy Dell Inspiron 9400 Laptop with 1GB RAM which I need to boost to 2GB RAM for Windows Vista to run....

This is where I get MAD since everyone wants $110-$150 PER 1 GB of blinking rubbish RAM module! That's just ludicrously priced for a pathetically small amount of poxy RAM. As you can tell I ain't best pleased at the prospect of being forced to pay out �200+ for effectively 1GB more ram than I have now, especially since that we can all buy a 1 GB SD or Micro SD / CF/ XD/MMC...etc....for about �10 and a packet of cheese and onion crisps. WHY are we being bent over a barrel and........I digress.....does anyone know where I can get RAM without feeling I've been violated?! Thank you :o(

[Llamatron]

SD cards are not particularly fast and there are countless devices out there that take them. So they're relatively inexpensive.
RAM for laptops needs to be a hell of a lot faster and can only ever be used in a laptop. Plus I would guess that laptop RAM upgrades are a great deal rarer than someone buying a SD card.
Law of economics.

Have you tried searching at www.pricewatch.com or Froogle?

[fo3nix]

llamatron is entirely correct for the price reasons. If your laptop has 1GB of RAM on one stick, then another will cost you about �90 or just under (crucial.com).

It's only �200 if you have two sticks of 512MB to make up the 1GB, because you then need two 1GB sticks, not just one.

However, why are you upgrading in the first place? Why are you even changing to Vista? What does it do that XP doesn't do that you need to upgrade for?

Even if for some reason you really really need to upgrade to Vista, then it doesn't require 2GB RAM and 1GB will be more than adequate for most uses of it.

[mikeyp]

Laptop RAM won't cost you �200 for 1Gb. It should't be more than �100. If you search for laptop memory in google it'll bring up a link to www.crucial.com who are selling 1gb for about �90.

[Barbega]

fo3nix is right on all parts. that extra 1gb REQUIERED is only really giving you the glassy look for the start menu (which can be disabled) and loads up the photo thumbnails a bit quicker in the new media centre function (which can be disabled or just never used) and then you will have XP but with some exra security.

[vehelpfulguy]

In fact to get the glossy look in Vista (AERO) it is just as important to have the right graphics card.

Some older graphics card do not support AERO, no matter how much RAM you have in your laptop (or PC). And most laptops only have fairly basic graphics support.

Also note that there may not be drivers for Vista for your laptop. Some components in a laptop often require special drivers, and it may be they will not written for Vista.

Also some applications will not work under Vista. I ran the Vista upgrade program from Microsoft and it told me Nero 6 would not work under Vista.

I agree with fo3nix, unless you have a VERY good reason to upgrade to Vista I would stay were you are.

You are only giving yourself a load of hassle moving from XP to Vista.

[Llamatron]

I have no intention of downgrading to Vista until bl00dy Microsoft leave me no choice ie games that require DirectX 10 which Microsoft are only releasing for Vista. Which isn't fair.

[mmq2004]

talkin about vista...
vista lets one use flash memory as actual system RAM, cool eh ?

whowwhatwhy..u can use ur 4gb mp3 playa as RAM if u have a vista machine :-)

[fo3nix]

mmq: while that's true, it'll be hellishly slow. The idea is great (and in fact as you may expect Microsoft aren't the first to do it by a long way), but it's not something you're really going to want to do just yet.

[whowhatwhy]

Thanks all....first I am a professional digital photographer and I use this machine as a work horse when out on location (please no Mac comments!). I am a Heavy user of photoshop and really could do with 4GB RAM if my sh*t box dell could take it...but it can't. So the upgrade to vitsa is a solution to this problem since I will be able to plug in USB / Express Card flash to use as RAM effectively. Thanks for the advice on the economics, I know that normal CF and SD cards are slower and are produced in vast quantities but I still would have thought that the economy of scale would have reduced the price on laptop RAM as well, they are still produced in the same factory and alot more people are upgrading RAM these day than 5 years ago. As Dell are a pain inspite of my request, they have installed 2x512MB modules so i'm screwed! It will effectively cost me �200 for a 1 GB RAM upgrade. I am not a fan of vista...and I will be stripping it down to absolute bare graphic basics in order to maximise productivity, however I have been running beta versions of this software (back to longhorn day) for 2 years now and am pretty impressed with the OS so I plan on giving the legit version ago too soon! Cheers.