128 mb of 72pin Ram - Remember, Back in 1994, What it cost?

[uniserver]

This ram for my LC475 just arrived.

I did some google searching,

I can't find how much a 128mb 72 pin Simm would have cost in 1994.

My guess is 1000 Dollars.

Its so easy to forget how much these things cost!

Paychecks must have been quite healthy back in the late 80's early 90's!

 

[24bit]

Can´t even guess.

But I know that two 16MB bricks were about DM 1700,- in early 1995.

Healthy paychecks indeed.

Simply by multiplication one might get to $ 1700 for 128MB, but then high capacity bricks had exponentially pricing.

 

[Gorgonops]

My guess is 1000 Dollars.

Skimming through the December 20th, 1994 issue of PC Magazine on Google Books I found an ad listing 64MB SIMMs for $2600 each. (Page 302.) It looks like at the time the going rate for 16MB was about $600. 128MB SIMMs may well have not existed yet, or at least may not have been widely available.

We are completely spoiled by how cheap computers are now, even premium machines like Apple's products. 1979, page 15: $3,300 for 32k and two floppy drives, for one of the cheapest if not *the* cheapest turnkey computer system on the planet at the time. Factor in inflation and that's about $10 grand. That'll easily outfit an office with half a dozen computers, a network copier/printer, a server, and all the gubbins to tie them together. These kids today, sheesh...

Simply by multiplication one might get to $ 1700 for 128MB, but then high capacity bricks had exponentially pricing.

I'm not sure I follow your math, there. According to a currency table I just googled up in 1995 1700DM was equal to about a thousand bucks, which means they paid about $500 for each 16MB SIMM. 128/16=8. 8*$500=$4000. (Or if you prefer, 128/32=4, 4x$1000... etc.).

 

[Blessed Cheesemaker]

I wouldn't think 128 mb of any kind of RAM (well, for home computers) existed back then. Maybe by 1996...

I had dumped a bunch of my catalogs and magazines a while ago.

I remember being really happy about getting two 8MB 72 pin simms for my Performa 6117 in 1997ish for about $45 each, and being happy.

I also remember being really happy and jumping on a sale for 8MB of RAM for my Powerbook 5300 back in 1996 for "only" $200 (it was a sale!).

Ahhh...another great trip down memory lane!

 

[uniserver]

I installed just it.

Had to remove the heat sink for the CPU, and use another one.

This 128mb Simm is rather fat and tall.

 

[Cory5412]

We are completely spoiled by how cheap computers are now, even premium machines like Apple's products.

Yes. And it always bothers me a little bit when people talk about how expensive some software that's downright cheap to get is. Faculty members complain to me on a regular basis about how expensive Office Home & Student is at $139. A quick glance at my favorite PDF ever, the 1993 Apple catalog, suggests that in 1993, Word 5.1 was $300 on its own.

Anyway -- I would generally agree that it's possible (probable, even) 128mb SIMMs didn't even exist that early on.

 

[uniserver]

I found this link to memory prices,

Memory Prices (1957-2012)

http://www.jcmit.com/memoryprice.htm

 

[beachycove]

The other thing to remember here is that the prices were generally lower in the US than other markets.

 

[krye]

I bought a 128MB stick from CompUSA for my PII box back in 1998/1999. It was on sale for $99. Normally about $130, so ~$1 a Meg. I remember my Dad telling me how the price had really come down. Back in the day when he bought his 486 Gateway, the 32MBs of RAM he bought was $3200. $100 a Meg!

 

[Gorgonops]

I recall there being some sort of "memory shortage" in the 1993-1994 time range that for at least a while actually *increased* the price of some commodity RAM. But yes, prices collapsed *immensely* in the 1995-1996 ball park. (The introduction of EDO roughly coincided with this. Whether there was actually casual relationship like more plants coming online I don't know.) A 16MB SIMM that might have still cost almost $500 in late 1995 was suddenly $120 by the end of 1996. I also remember devices like "SIMM Savers" cropping up in droves around that time, my theory about them in retrospect is they existed solely so people who got nailed by the high pre-'96 prices for RAM could feel like they were getting more mileage out of their investment rather than just admitting they got scr**ed and moving on.

(I never really understood them myself because prior to the Pentium era I'd always made do with measly amounts of RAM (my 1992-ish 486 didn't have enough to bother "saving"), and when Pentium-class machines got cheap enough for me to get one (also in the 1996 ballpark) a decent amount of RAM barely cost any more than an empty SIMMsaver.)

 

[onlyonemac]

Had to remove the heat sink for the CPU, and use another one.

Why is there a heatsink on your CPU? My '475 doesn't have one!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Memory production Ramp-Up for Windows 95? }

Yup, I got nailed for 32MB for the Rocket due to that shortage back in the day, It was real, but I can't remember why offhand.

My problem was fixed in software, it had been a memory leak all along . . . ouch!

More RAM is always good though, my system one-upped the Sign Industry Computer Guru's as a direct result. [] ]'>

@ O1M: His 475 has a full '040 that is overclocked to 33MHz, IIRC.

 

[uniserver]

Good news with the 128megs of ram,

I'm more motivated to get a rom simm working,

Maybe disable the memory check at boot. It sits there testing memory for a good amount of seconds before it even shows some video

 

[olePigeon]

Obligatory xkcd.

 

[Anonymous Freak]

I know I bought two 32 MB SIMMs in 1994 for about $500 - then a 128 MB PC-66 DIMM in 1997 for about $250. (I've always had way-more-than-average RAM for my systems.)

 

[Gorgonops]

I know I bought two 32 MB SIMMs in 1994 for about $500

Looking through the prices in 1994 computer magazines you must have stolen them even if it was $500 *each*. Looking in the December 1994 issue a decent price would have been around $1200 bucks. (Again, EACH.) Likewise, in December '97 a fair price for a 128MB DIMM would have been around $700.( I remember being pretty stoked when somewhere in 1997 I was able to snag a pair of 32MB ones for $80 each at a store closing. If you check the contemporary prices you'll see why.) You don't happen to have dated receipts, do you?

 

[Anonymous Freak]

Hrm, finding my old "computer history" spreadsheet, I had each year off by one: 1995 and 1998. And of course I had remembered wrong, it wasn't a pair of 32 MB SIMMs, it was a pair totaling 32 MB... (Damned memory - mine, not the SIMMs...) So I upgraded my system from 16 MB to 48 MB for $500 in mid 1995.

In early 1998, I built a brand-new Pentium II system, even buying everything except the CPU and RAM, waiting for the Deschutes 333 MHz Pentium II to become available. And looking at my spreadsheet again, the $250 128 MB DIMM was a year later to bring me to 256 MB total. Yup, in 1998 I paid $500 for that first 128 MB DIMM!

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

xkcd! :lol:

That engineer would be Wally, and that's why he still has a job . . .

. . . Wally is my hero . . .

. . . I just hope Catbert never finds out what kind of tea he's been drinking all these years.

ROTFLMFAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :lol:

 

[beachycove]

Some more prices to peruse.