Why is RAMbus so expensive?

sunrunner20 · Mar 15, 2007

I'm wondering if anybody knows why rambus is so expensive. Is it like SODIMM in that not a whole lot of people are demanding it so the prices go up, or is it like the licensing fees? Because I've been looking around and I haven't found anybody with it up for sale really cheap. Even on eBay its like $50 for a 256meg stick.

Goshawk · Mar 16, 2007

sunrunner20 said:
I'm wondering if anybody knows why rambus is so expensive. Is it like SODIMM in that not a whole lot of people are demanding it so the prices go up, or is it like the licensing fees? Because I've been looking around and I haven't found anybody with it up for sale really cheap. Even on eBay its like $50 for a 256meg stick.

It's rather scarce in comparison to DDR or DDR2, shortage = price jump.

RAMBUS is a little before my PC building time, so i have no idea if this was always the case... or if it was relatively common back in the day and pricing much lower.

~ Gos

JLK03F150 · Mar 16, 2007

RDRAM has always been ridiculously expensive. I bought a motherboard, psu, case & 2x512mb of PC3200 for the same cost of 2x512mb of PC800 RDRAM several years ago.

Jon · Mar 16, 2007

I have a board that requires it as well. That board is new-in-box and has never been powered because I refuse to pay the price premium for memory that never even made a place for itself.

g0dM@n · Mar 16, 2007

Jon said:
I have a board that requires it as well. That board is new-in-box and has never been powered because I refuse to pay the price premium for memory that never even made a place for itself.

my STUPID friend paid $400 for a gig... on his slow p4... like a 1.4ghz or something... he asked me numerous times on what i thought... i told him over and over to NOT pay and just get a new pc instead... makes me wonder why he kept asking me...

he just didn't feel like going through the hassle, and instead got RIPPED off... i coulda taken his pc, sold it, built him something MUCH faster, and ended up with cash in the end...

i hate rambus... biggest waste of technology (well, maybe not entirely, but i just hate it)

sunrunner20 · Mar 16, 2007

I'm finding it a pain as well, this stuff is the most expensive crap I've ever dealt with. Not to mention you have to install special blanks in all the banks you don't use

This stuff was definitely not designed to be user friendly. I'm just hoping that I get as lucky with this as I did my SODIMM for my laptop. (I got it for the cost of shipping for my laptop- a company ordered it for a repair then the customer decided to buy a whole new laptop. For some reason they dumped the SODIMM on me

)

Jon · Mar 16, 2007

Well, I have an old Dell Dimension 8200 with a 2.53GHz P4 that I was going to strip for parts and place on an Intel board I had bought for a new HTPC. Turned out I wasn't able to strip the Dell, so I was stuck with the board. No problem...CPUs are cheap and relatively quick for that purpose. Once I saw how much the RDRAM was still going for, the boxed-up board was quickly placed in the back of my spare parts cabinet and has been there ever since.

I'm just going to wait for one of these systems at work to get graveyarded and strip it from them. I've got an old test box right now with 512MB in it that I'm going to claim shortly.

Techno Pride · Mar 19, 2007

g0dM@n said:
my STUPID friend paid $400 for a gig... on his slow p4... like a 1.4ghz or something... he asked me numerous times on what i thought... i told him over and over to NOT pay and just get a new pc instead... makes me wonder why he kept asking me...

he just didn't feel like going through the hassle, and instead got RIPPED off... i coulda taken his pc, sold it, built him something MUCH faster, and ended up with cash in the end...

i hate rambus... biggest waste of technology (well, maybe not entirely, but i just hate it)

I think an AMD X2 + GF6150mobo + 1gb DDR2 is cheaper than USD$400.

Moto7451 · Mar 19, 2007

We were looking to upgrade the ram in a computer at my work. Turned out it had RDRAM. Just build a new computer (Pentoum D 805, Intel 945 Mobo, 1GB memory, etc). Came out cheaper than putting 1GB of RDRAM in.

greenmaji · Mar 19, 2007

IIRC.. there was an adapter to make the CPU's in those systems socket 478 (DDR1) compatable.
OOS example http://www.shentech.com/42to47cpusoc.html
It just made the mobo's useless.

>HyperlogiK< · Mar 19, 2007

Goshawk said:
It's rather scarce in comparison to DDR or DDR2, shortage = price jump.

RAMBUS is a little before my PC building time, so i have no idea if this was always the case... or if it was relatively common back in the day and pricing much lower.

But surely RDRAM chips themselves weren't all that scarce, at least not low density ones because Rambus was churning out loads of PC1600 for the Playstation 2, and before that for the N64.

JLK03F150 · Mar 19, 2007

greenmaji said:
IIRC.. there was an adapter to make the CPU's in those systems socket 478 (DDR1) compatable.
OOS example http://www.shentech.com/42to47cpusoc.html
It just made the mobo's useless.

Green, that adaptor lets you run a s478 in a s423 board. I have one in an old Dell 8100. Upgraded from a 1.5 Willy to a 2.6a. It made a nice improvement back in the day.

g0dM@n · Mar 19, 2007

>HyperlogiK< said:
But surely RDRAM chips themselves weren't all that scarce, at least not low density ones because Rambus was churning out loads of PC1600 for the Playstation 2, and before that for the N64.

those systems use rdram? i never knew that.

Jon · Mar 19, 2007

greenmaji said:
IIRC.. there was an adapter to make the CPU's in those systems socket 478 (DDR1) compatable.
OOS example http://www.shentech.com/42to47cpusoc.html
It just made the mobo's useless.

Mine is already a S478...I just didn't want to go buy a board and memory. The way it looks, it's actually cheaper to anyway.

I'm sure I'll just let it go the way of the dodo.

gangaskan · Mar 19, 2007

i know a Help desk person at my college, and he said they we're looking to upgrade a whole computer lab with 1gb rambus and i think it came upwards to 16 grand

crikey

hafa · Mar 19, 2007

Jon said:
I'm sure I'll just let it go the way of the dodo.

Assuredly, RDRAM will do just that and good riddance. Rambus shot themselves in the foot way back when due to corporate greed that makes Microsoft look like Mother Theresa. The PC industry today would have been very different indeed had their lawsuit claiming ownership of DDR ram been successful.

Gatech04 · Mar 20, 2007

Oh how I hat RDRam, let me count the ways.....

Years ago I bought a Dell 8250 and while going through the customizing stages while ordering I saw that they wanted $X00.00 for ram upgrades and I though to myself "boy are they trying to rip me off, I'll just get the 256 stock min and by more Ram for cheap when I get it!!!"

Then when I went to order more ram I saw that 512 (PC1066) would run me $230 and 1G was closer to $500. I ended up getting 512 (total of 768) and that is what Ive had until present day.

Now I of course needed an upgrade and given the option of shelling out hundreds on RDRam + at least $100 for a better AGP card I have decided to build a new C2D system. After buying all my new pieces I will have a MUCH faster system for only $100 more than I would have spent on the new AGP card and Ram. I plan on selling my 512 RDRam on either Ebay or Craigslist - used has been going for almost $200 still, so at least Im not out much of my initial investment.

To sum up, I hate RDRam.

/firstpost

Vulcan · Mar 20, 2007

Wasn't Rambus supposed to be introducing XDR for desktop use at some point?

>HyperlogiK< · Mar 20, 2007

That is what I had heard.

Korndog · Mar 20, 2007

hafa said:
Assuredly, RDRAM will do just that and good riddance. Rambus shot themselves in the foot way back when due to corporate greed that makes Microsoft look like Mother Theresa. The PC industry today would have been very different indeed had their lawsuit claiming ownership of DDR ram been successful.

LOL, that brings back memories..
I was fortunate enough to have bought 4 sticks of 128mb of rambus for 30 bucks each, then sell them for 70 bucks each when all the lawsuits and problems started coming up. It made up for that stupid willy p4 i had to sell for chump change. I'm glad its dying out, i never want to see anything like that again.

Why is RAMbus so expensive?

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