DDR3 DDR4 RAM price trends thread.

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BLinux

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Jul 7, 2016
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I thought I'd start a thread here for us to discuss DDR3/DDR4 ram prices.

I'm currently finding PC3-12800R 2Rx4 16GB RDIMMs around $60 individually, but as low as $55 in bigger lots >=8.

That said, the faster PC3-14900R 16GB 2Rx4 RDIMMs are not that far off at around $62 individually, and occasionally in the $50~range in larger lot auctions >=16.

Unfortunately, this is a bit higher than last year when I was able to find PC3L-12800R 16GB RDIMMs at around $35~$40 (in pairs), or the slower 4Rx4 PC3-8500R 16GB for around $25 each (lot of 16) which is now hovering around $40 individually.

To help anyone with ebay searches, these are some of the searches I use:

for single DDR3 PC3-12800R, buy-it-now only, sorted for lowest $ to highest:

16gb (ddr3,pc3) (12800,1600) -(8GB,4GB,2GB) | eBay

the same search above, but looking for larger lots:

16gb (ddr3,pc3) (12800,1600) (lot,set) -(8GB,4GB,2GB) | eBay

I usually scan those for anything that comes out to under $50 or less per 16GB DIMM. So, for a lot of 16 DIMMs, I look for something $800 or less.

The keywords in parenthesis are logical OR. the -(8GB,4GB,2GB) helps to exclude 16GB kits made up of smaller DIMMs. Adjust accordingly for whatever you are searching for.

here's for single DDR3 PC3-14900R, buy-it-now only, sorted by lowest $ to highest:

16gb (ddr3,pc3) (14900,1866) -(8GB,4GB,2GB) | eBay

similarly, searches for larger lots:

16gb (ddr3,pc3) (14900,1866) (lot,set) -(8GB,4GB,2GB) | eBay
 
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T_Minus

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Feb 15, 2015
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Probably best to post quantity available at those prices too.... as 1 or 3 or 5 may not be useful to many.
 

Danic

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I've been able to pickup up DDR3 8GB PC3-10666 RDIMM for about 20-23$ a module. Most are from lucky accepted best offers.
 
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Evan

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DDR 16gb and 32gb seem still to be the sweet spot but 64gb seems to make more sense with limited slots like on the new d-2100 SM boards or some intel scalable boards where your only getting 6 or 8 slots per cpu.

Still surprised that prices staying so high.
 

pricklypunter

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RAM prices are just crazy now. I was paying $18 per shipped, for HP branded Micron 8GB 2RX4 10600 RDIMM's last year, now it's like $40 per :)
 

Evan

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I have some ddr3 available, will send you guys a message.

The ddr3 going up in price makes little sense to me as I would have imagined almost all he E5 v1/v2 is being removed now from usage... then again it’s far from bad equipment and with the high clocks compute wise is not too far off v3/v4 systemsz
 

anomaly

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Jan 8, 2018
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I need 16-32GB sticks (DDR3 1866), 8 in total. So I will be watching this thread, as my eBay scouting did not turn up much of use. Buying as US business for a temporary location in Europe is a major issue as we still pay VAT while registration goes on, and afterwards I don't have much faith we get our money back. And eBay's GSP has a habit of massively overestimating import duties.
 

mmk

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Oct 15, 2016
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I need 16-32GB sticks (DDR3 1866), 8 in total. So I will be watching this thread, as my eBay scouting did not turn up much of use. Buying as US business for a temporary location in Europe is a major issue as we still pay VAT while registration goes on, and afterwards I don't have much faith we get our money back. And eBay's GSP has a habit of massively overestimating import duties.
Agreed that the import charges in GSP are very significantly higher (often multiple times higher) than the real customs fees. I think someone, probably both eBay and Pitney Bowes, are just making a bunch of money off of this system.

I was surprised when I had something delivered from US to Europe via Fedex: in the end the total price was pretty much the same as with GSP and the delivery took a couple of days instead of over two weeks via GSP.
 

Sable

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Oct 19, 2016
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I need 16-32GB sticks (DDR3 1866), 8 in total. So I will be watching this thread, as my eBay scouting did not turn up much of use. Buying as US business for a temporary location in Europe is a major issue as we still pay VAT while registration goes on, and afterwards I don't have much faith we get our money back. And eBay's GSP has a habit of massively overestimating import duties.
What prices were you looking for? I have 16gbs 14900r regularly but there is no sense in selling ram be market value. Beside, the prices in Europe are usually higher, even now with the value of the usd being quite low for us so I think the US still has the lowest prices.
 

frogtech

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Jan 4, 2016
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Is there any possibility that the upward trend in prices has seen a surge that can be correlated with an increase in interest in the homelab market segment and not anything that has to do with other random market trends or circumstances?

I can't imagine that -too- many businesses buy their equipment from ebay but I could be wrong. It seems like when stuff moves really fast it's from resellers who buy and flip or people in the homelab hobby.
 

alex_stief

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May 31, 2016
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My take on the price increase for used DDR3: it is linked to the price increase for DDR4.
People like me who occasionally build workstations for (semi-)professional use might actually be tempted to delay DDR4 platforms due to the prices and use DDR3 instead. Considering prices for RAM and CPUs combined you get a result with maybe ~80% of the performance for less than half the price. This would have been a DDR4 platform were it not for the ridiculous prices of DDR4 https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/yet-another-cfd-build.18412/
 
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Stereodude

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RAM is commodity. As the price of new RAM chips and modules go up due to the laws of supply and demand, so do the prices of used RAM. This isn't that hard to figure out.
 

pricklypunter

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I think the price may be being driven by a multitude of factors, here's some quick thoughts off the top of my head:

Market demand for DDR3 is generally higher than that for DDR4, most likely due to cost
World economies are being perceived as unstable, large business is being very cautious with investment
Enough crossover mainboards are available to satisfy new builds, folks are opting for DDR3 over DDR4, again likely price driven which lowers demand for DDR4 and drives the cost of it higher due to economies of scale.
Smaller to medium sized business is driving the market at the moment, rather than the usual top down "everyone gets to upgrade 1 step", trend we have seen over the last 5-10 years, therefore tighter margins and highly cost conscious buying decisions
E5 v1-3 based systems are still the backbone of the majority and very well understood, as such, all but the really power sensitive have their needs mostly met by that platform, with headroom to spare, therefore there's no obvious requirement to transition to newer platforms.
There may be some decisions affected at the larger business end of the market, by the recent news of CPU security problems
Supply of DDR4 might be limited due to manufacturing output being maintained at an artificial low, creating demand at higher cost
Other manufacturing difficulties affecting yield, again limiting supply and driving costs

Insert other excuse here for the crazy prices... :)
 

Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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Only reason i can see for the ddr3 demand is increasing memory in existing e5 v1/v2 systems as cpu wise they are pretty good, now is that smaller business or home labs I don’t know.

DDR4 price is pure supply / demand issues but I just can’t see that new build systems using ddr4 should really have any impact on ddr3.
While I appreciate some people may sit on the existing servers they have I don’t think everybody is suddenly looking for memory upgrades.
 

BLinux

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i think there might be another factor that influences DDR3 supply, which is mobile devices that often use DDR3. that affects the supply of new ddr3, which can influence used ddr3 market as well. the volume of mobile devices is usually much higher, although i don't think there are any "new" systems shipping with ddr3 anymore, but there are plenty of new phones that ship with ddr3. this can cause shortage of supply for new ddr3 dimms, increasing prices, causing those seeking upgrades to look at the used market, which increases used market prices.
 

pricklypunter

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Not forgetting the very strong and getting stronger green recycle/ reuse market now. That is almost certainly having an effect across the board. I see lots of smaller businesses and small groups/ organisations opting for refurbished/ new-use equipment :)