cost of RAM these days

I am buying one of these iMacs this week. These machines have Core 2 Duo and therefore (I presume) dual channel memory. I would really like to have 2GB RAM since I am going to be doing lots of big CAD work on the machine, however I am temporarily on very tight budget and cannot select the $175 option for 2GB (2x1GB) rather than the standard 1GB (2x512) right now.

The problem is that when I go to Crucial I see that getting a 2GB kit would cost me $334! Is there any hope that the price will drop a bunch any time remotely soon (like in next 6m-year)? Having dual channel with only 2 slots is a real pain in the *** it would appear. Are there any other memory vendors I should be considering over Crucial -- Crucial was my favorite back in the day when/2 I was gamer/overclocker but Ive kindof been out of computers for the last 5 years or so. I do notice that individual 1GB sodimms at newegg are only like $110 rather than $334/2, but I dont know if buying two of those would be the same as buying a 2GB kit.

You could hold out for a 2x1GB kit in the refurb section of newegg.com. I snagged a G.Skill kit for $150ish shipped and have been very happy with it.

Why do I need a kit rather than just buying two individual sodimms? The kits are way more expensive.

A kit guarantees they work together (pretty sure I am right here)
With two sodimms they should still work together though I think. Should be identical.

Try Patriot though. Good stuff too.

I have a 2 gig G.Skill kit right now, but prior to this, I mixed Corsair performance ram with a random stick of value ram and it worked fine in dual channel. I just had to run at CAS 2.5 instead of CAS 2.

Hmm, it's a bit of an expensive gamble to take buying two 1GB sodimms if there's a possibility they wont work. But the kits are like $330+ !!! Why are they so damn expensive exactly? Anyone know?

Marketing!

That and ram prices have skyrocketed.

DDR2 prices went up once the C2D came out. Since it's the memory to have for good Intel OCs. It's simple supply and demand. There are just not enough DDR2 chips out there. The sad part is that the prices are not going to drop anytime soon, high demand, holiday season, plus there are not that many good DDR2 manufacturers.

I have no clue if you can OC an iMac. If you need the ram to run at default timings only, than I would go with Patriot, GSKILL or TeamXtreem. They tend to be a little cheaper than Corsair, OCZ and Mushkin.

Or you can wait until March or so when RAM prices historically decline. Other than that, keep an eye out on the used market.

Or you just don't buy the top of the line ram they are putting out. There are plenty of places that sell cheaper versions of the ram if price is a big concern.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141017

Thats right around $200 for the sticks. Sure you might beable to find single sticks that aren't in the packages but as said above you just might not beable to run them at that latency togeather. I've had mixed ram work before maybe I was lucky but it has worked.