Why is DDR2 so expensive?

Anyone know why this is? I got myself a new, old iMac and unfortunately it's only sporting 2GB of RAM. OS X Mavericks' memory compression keeps it running smoothly for average use but should I try to use Xcode for Dev then I literally run entirely out of RAM even if nothing else is open.

Looking around, 4GB of RAM (2x2GB) is about £40 which isn't too bad but still out of my pathetic budget. I know that this Mac I have unofficially supports 6GB but a single 4GB stick can be anywhere up to £100!!!

It's a total mystery to me and it's put me in a difficult catch 22 position, I need the RAM to earn money but can't buy the RAM unless I earn money.

I assumed that DDR2 was going to be cheap!!

 

Low demand -> high price.
Buy used.

 

On old obsolete hardware its the other way around dude. OP where exactly did you look? I just checked eBay quickly and it looks like you can get 8gb of DDR2 for around £35.

 

Ddr2 isn't that old. But its not made any more but still in demand so its more expensive compared to ddr3.

 

6400 Laptop sticks aren't as cheap.

As for low demand = high price. That doesn't make sense to me, surely if it were in low demand the prices would be lower just so people could move it on.

I dunno, I just expected by now that there'd be loads of it sitting around at a low price because nobody wants it anymore.

I know it's not a huge issue for most but as someone who only earns £90 a week at the moment, it's a big spend for me.

 

People still want ddr2 (so highish demand) but most places have stopping making up (low supply)

This is why it's higher priced.

 

Makes sense, I'm keeping an eye out for second hand stuff around my local are. Annoyingly I have more 1GB sticks than I know what to do with but nobody seems to want them so it's not as if I can sell them to make cash to buy larger modules. Sadly I don't have an eBay account or access to one (on the account of my dad abusing it and never paying the fees) and I live too far away from anywhere meaningful for people on Gumtree etc to care.

 

I might have some, will let you know

 

I've got a single 2gb stick I can't do much with. My desktop has 2x2gb and 2x1gb and I'd like to swap the 1gb sticks for a matched set of 2gb sticks so this one is sorta useless to me.

 

Pretty sure he wants sodimm if I'm reading his posts right

 

Yeah I do. PC6400 800mhz SODIMM

 

Took me forever to find 2x2gb DDR2 sticks of SODIMM at a reasonable price, good luck.

 

Back in those days 4GB modules were almost unheard of unless you had a super laptop. So they weren't in big supply to begin with. I suggest you look around on ebay, you can usually find some hynix stuff fairly cheap.

I paid almost $200 for 4x1GB PC133 sticks for a server that couldn't be replaced with newer hardware.

 

I've seen only one stick of 4GB recently and it wasn't cheap, around £60. I could probably manage on 4GB to be fair but seeing as Xcode is my most used tool and it's fairly resource hungry I'd like to go to 6GB. Heck even three would do right now, I'm constantly running completely out of RAM and my disk is constantly swapping.

EDIT: There are few on eBay now actually: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Crucial-M...erComponents_MemoryRAM_JN&hash=item53fe5f96b9

 

Yeah, you didn't mention it was a laptop or 800MHz! Laptop RAM is more expensive and yes, as stated the larger sticks were rare so will command more.

Why 800MHz? Surely it would accept slower RAM? You're only looking at around £25-30 either way, though.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Corsair-V...erComponents_MemoryRAM_JN&hash=item461727ba39

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/4GB-2-x-2...erComponents_MemoryRAM_JN&hash=item3cd9031bc5

Or try a bid...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Nanya-4GB...erComponents_MemoryRAM_JN&hash=item3f2d4ae66c

 

imac use sodimm and he said later on laptop ram.

 

Yeah sorry, I just naturally assume that people know that iMac's take laptop ram, that's what happens when you spend too much time on the MacRumours boards :-/

 

The real question is why have DDR3 prices risen so much? example: http://camelcamelcamel.com/Kingston...0C9D3K2-8GX/product/B0037TO5C0?context=browse
Using that as an example, the price is more then twice what it was a year ago.

 

I've been wondering why we're still using DDR3 and not DDR4 or something else newer and faster than DDR3. It's been around since 2007 - we're due for an update.

Why not just make a new one? You only have to pay fees if you've sold something.

 

DDR3 prices have risen because supply has dwindled but demand hasn't changed. There was a fire recently at one of the big memory factories in China. Also Microsoft and Sony must be hoovering up a fair amount of DDR3 for their new consoles.

DDR4 will be out next year.