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So I guess this explains why ram prices have completely crashed, and SSDs are dropping pretty fast as well.

Good deal, IMO. What's funny about this situation is that Apple charges $200 to upgrade a MacBook Pro to 8gb. I just bought a new 15", and instead of giving that to Apple, I went and grabbed 8gb of ram from a local shop for $40.

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No, actually, SSD's are dropping in price because the flash memory chips they use have shifted from 35nm to 25nm (not 100% certain on those, but it has dropped). This means more chips from the same silicon wafer = lower cost.

Haven't RAM prices been 'crashing' since the 70s?

I'm always surprised when I buy new RAM but I just bought some a few days ago and I really was shocked. Almost exactly one year ago, I bought 2GB of Mushkin for $50. This week I bought 8GB(2x4) of Kingston for $40 ($30w/rebate). Both are DDR3 1333 so maybe it's just a large overstock near the end of it's cycle but that price drop is huge.

Well, since the mid 90s, every time I built a computer, a 'good' amount of ram landed somewhere in the $200-300 price range. So the cost of a modern amount of ram has stayed relatively constant in my experience.

But maxing out the ram in a machine for $40 certainly seems a hell of a lot cheaper than it's ever been.

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