Taoyuan Nights

Memory is what tells a man that his wife’s birthday was yesterday.
~Mario Rocco

In fact, the type of memory I’m thinking of just now is computer memory. In the last 2 months, the price of DRAM chips has more than halved. I hadn’t noticed, since I haven’t been particularly looking to upgrade my computer, but this means it’s now an excellent time to make your computer that bit faster under Macos or Windows.

Usually, the price of memory follows a predictable curve. It starts out very high, and continually falls towards a quarter or even a tenth of its original price over a year or two. After hovering at the same low price for 6 months, prices rise again, as supply is cut off, when new memory technologies begin to be produced in the DRAM factories.

To be honest, there is hardly any reason to have less than 2GB of memory in your desktop or laptop at present prices. It will have an incredible impact on system performance, especially if you leave your computer on, or in sleep mode, instead of restarting.

One of the best sources for computer memory is “Crucial” in the US. They have a fantastic track record for distributing very high quality memory, direct from the manufacturer Micron. High quality memory is important; a large percentage of unreliability found in computers, comes from having unreliable memory. Just one ‘bit’ that doesn’t work correctly can ruin the stability of the whole machine, since computing is a very precise science.

If you’re scared of choosing the right sort of memory for your computer, Crucial also offer a ‘memory selector’ which chooses the right type of memory for your computer or motherboard. I strongly recommend using this, to avoid incompatibility problems. You can find Crucial’s online stores in the US, EU and UK. Shoppers in Asia should use the US store.

As with most international retailers, beware of buying from the UK store. The $ to £ conversion rate is often unrepresentative of the real foreign exchange rate. Price drops usually hit the US long before they hit the UK, too.

2GB of DDR2, 667Mhz suitable for a MacBook is currently $145.99 at the US site.
1GB of DDR2, 667Mhz suitable for a MacBook is currently $73.99 at the US site.
These prices are as of 26 March 2007. In late January, 2GB was around $300.

You can also buy memory more cheaply (but of lower average quality) at NewEgg.com. However, I don’t recommend doing that.

(When buying memory for an Apple computer, or any laptop with an Intel motherboard, be sure to get a pair of ‘matching’ DIMMs. Memory access can double in speed for certain uses, if the timing to both chips is the same. In general this is a good policy for ensuring a stable, reliable computer anyway).