>I've also heard that the ram factory (& come on surely one factory does NOT
make the worlds entire RAM supply!) was nowhere near the quake zone.<
Yeah, the quake destroyed the plant that manufacturers 50% of the supply of
resin that the chips are in (the black stuff).
>For about the last four or five years now there has been one myth after
another about why Ram prices have remained high (or even gone up). Personally I
have my suspicions that we're all being conned.<
Every other piece of hardware in the industry has decreased in price except
memory. Back in 1989 you could buy a 100MB Quantum HD for $999, for that price
you can get a 4.3GB model today. Memory back then was $35/MB for ZIPs for my
Amiga 3000, today a 4MB SIMM is still $125.
I think it is the bastards at Micron. They are the only American manufacturer
of RAM, if I remember correctly, back in the late 80's they put the government
on the Japenese for "dumping" RAM below US prices. So tariffs were mentioned
and prices have stayed at a steady level since then. It is ridiculous.