Re: Memory costs

[Larry Bolhuis <lbolhuis@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Years ago IBM priced memory 'flat' meaning so much per MB no matter what 
size you were purchasing. This largely had to do with the fact they they 
took trade ins then (Give them back your 8MB board and get a 16MB Board 
for the 8MB Price).  Also back then they had lots of room on the memory 
boards so the price was much more linear for IBM too.  Double the memory 
was just double the number of chips. I have some old memory from 3xx 
machines and it's pretty neatly done. Four rows, 8 rows, or 8 rows 
double stacked but all the chips are the same. 

Back then we would often by the biggest memory features leaving open 
slots. It didn't cost any extra and gave us flexibility for the future.

Today real estate on memory DIMMs is minimal. Memory speeds are 
*WAYUPTHERE compared to the old days so things need to be much closer 
together limiting DIMM size. So IBM must purchase higher density chips 
for the higher capacity DIMMs and greater density costs more. Hence the 
range Mike describes here in pricing from a little over $500 to nearly 
$5000 per GB.  Also IBM no longer takes trade ins on memory (hasn't for 
some time) so you are paying a price more relative to IBMs cost than in 
the old days.

Today we must do more thinking on memory configuration, not where to put 
it but how to size it. A POWER5 520 can take only two memory features so 
if you put in two 2GB features it's full and the next upgrade leaves 
some memory on the table. Another example is an 8 way 570 full of 16GB 
Memory DIMMS. On that machine it is actually cheaper to upgrade to a 
12-16 way machine (doubling the available memory slots) and put in more 
16GB DIMMs than it is to replace the current 16GB DIMMs with 32GB 
DIMMs!!  Your business partner needs to understand this.

All in all today's set up is much better but I still wouldn't call i 
memory 'Cheap'

 - Larry

Crump, Mike wrote:
> It will be a miracle if this thread doesn't spawn a life of it's own.
> The costs will vary depending on size, server, and whether or not it is
> DDR1 or DDR2.
>
> You will see some fluctuation in pricing ranging anywhere from $550 per
> gigabyte (typical 1GB modules) to $1300/$1500 (typical 4GB or 8GB
> modules) up to $4700 (32GB DDR2 module).  These are list prices and your
> mileage may very depending on your system, your available slots, and
> your memory needs.
>
> In theory our pricing should be close to what our P counterparts are
> paying but I've heard some rumbling that it isn't.  I don't speak that
> language so I won't even attempt to interpret.
>
> Michael Crump
>  
> Manager, Computing Services
> Saint-Gobain Containers, Inc.
> 1509 S. Macedonia Ave.
> Muncie, IN  47302
> 765.741.7696
> 765.741.7012 f 
>
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Joe Pluta
> Sent: Monday, March 05, 2007 11:14 AM
> To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
> Subject: Memory costs
>
> The last time I looked, memory for the System i was about $4000 per
> gigabyte
> (I'm not even sure how much DASD is anymore).  Is that number still
> close to
> the current cost?  I have to believe it's come down some, but how much?
>
> Joe
>
>