[ale] Why is RAM is so expensive?!? Anyone know an inexpensive source?

[Derek Atkins]

Hey Alers,

I was looking at buying some RAM for my 3+-year-old server to try to
give it a boost over its current 16GB.  But when I was searching for RAM
(on crucial.com, where I've always had good luck) I found 16GB (2x8GB)
but it cost almost $400!

What's up with that?  I was seriously expecting half that, or less.

I know there were the floods in Thailand and such a couple years ago but
I thought that those factories had come back online.  So why is RAM so
freaking expensive?  It feels like chips are 2x or 3x (or more!) what
they were a year or two ago.

Is it just crucial?  Maybe there is a better/less-expensive source?

-derek

-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available