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To: combjelly who wrote (51234)	8/16/2001 8:57:31 PM
From: fyodor_	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 275872

combjelly: The cost differential is not all that much, it is not like it is going to cut $200 off the retail price, under $100 is going to be more like it. Well, let's look at the numbers: Dell charges $110 to upgrade from 128MB to 256MB SDRAM. Dell charges $100 to upgrade from 128MB to 256MB PC800 SDRAM. The prices for higher memory upgrades are skewed slightly in SDRAMs favor - but only slightly. Compaq charges $135 to upgrade from 128MB DDRSDRAM to 256MB DDRSDRAM. [But at the same time, they'll toss in another 256MB DDRSDRAM for free ("double your memory for free" special).] Compaq charges $100 to upgrade from 128MB SDRAM to 256MB SDRAM. [no double your memory special.] Compaq charges $140 to upgrade from 128MB PC800 to 256MB PC800. [no double your memory special.] The prices for upgrading to larger amounts of PC800 are... well... extreme... but then very few people buy systems with more than 256MB anyway. (Btw, Compaq's online shop needs some major reworking. Dell's is so much better it isn't even funny.) All in all, savings on memory probably isn't going to be substantial for the consumer. I don't know how much Compaq or Dell pay for DRDRAM themselves, but it doesn't seem to be that far from SDRAM - at least for the small modules. Could this be due to Intel subsidies? If so, DRDRAM system prices could well jump $100 once SDRAM systems are available (assuming Intel drops the Rambus rebates). That leaves the motherboard as the only new component and you can easily get an i850-based motherboard for $150 (lowest price on PW is $114). i845-based boards are going to be cheaper, but likely not by much. Still, even a $30 decrease from the board manufacturer would result in a $50 or so decrease on the consumer end. Conclusion: $200 is probably the upper limit of what would be saved for a system with no more than 256MB memory (for otherwise equally configured systems). Of course, that's not unsubstantial either ;-). Savings for VIA P4X266-based systems are likely to be even more significant, despite the slightly higher memory cost (compared to SDRAM). -fyo