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Coming just a day after AMD bummed everyone out with its lackluster Bulldozer launch, Corsair announced what it claims is the world's first high performance quad channel 32GB kit. You know, just in case you want to err on the side of excessive when planning out your Sandy Bridge-E upgrade. The kit consists of four "rigorously-screened" 8GB memory modules sitting pretty with Corsair's trademark DHX+ heatsinks.
If your desktop system is sitting pretty with 24GB of RAM, you're either (A) really into Photoshop, (B) fully embracing the whole concept of a power user, or (C) dizzy on DRAM's rock bottom pricing and figured, 'why the hell not?' Whatever the rationale, boutique system builder AVADirect decided it would be a good idea to give you the same indulgent option in mobile.
Whether or not you think it's practical to outfit a system with 32GB of memory, Corsair is at least making the prospect possible by adding 8GB DDR3 modules to its Vengeance and Value Select memory lines. Slap four of these sticks into your dual-channel setup and you'll be sitting pretty with more RAM than most people know what to do with.
VisionTek of videocard fame is getting into the business of selling high end DDR3 memory kits. It's puzzling why a company not already selling RAM would want to suddenly jump in at this point in time, but VisionTek insists it's researched the memory market with due diligence and determined that it's a solid business to get into. The company says it will "only source and sell the best memory," referencing chips with tight timings for high performance and stable parts for overclocked systems. Bring it on.
Maybe you're aware that DDR3 memory is nearly as cheap as tap water these days. That means you can totally justify stocking up on gobs of RAM, but at what point do you stop? Long before 288GB, which is more than your motherboard or any consumer board supports, but is exactly the amount you can stick in Gigabyte's GA-7TESM motherboard.
We've been monitoring the sorry state of the DRAM market closely for some time now, and whenever there's an update, it's almost always bad news for manufacturers. In recent weeks, it's also been bad for consumers who've grown accustomed to rock bottom pricing. Seemingly faced with no other choice, DRAM makers have started to cut production, and it's no longer just one or two companies.
Powerchip Technology announced plans to cut its total PC DRAM output in half, and perhaps even more. The move is intended to slow, stop, or even reverse the massive slide in revenues that were recorded in August, and in the meantime, Powerchip will look to other markets as it tries to increase its bottom line.
You'd probably have a better shot at turning a profit selling ice cubes to Eskimos than churning out DRAM chips at today's prices. That's less of an exaggeration than you might think, and to cope with continually falling prices, some DRAM makers have decided to scale back operations until chip prices bounce back up.
The law of gravity dictates that what goes up must come down, and unfortunately for DRAM chip makers, there's nothing that says what goes down must also go back up. DRAM pricing continues to find new rock bottoms, and according to market research firm IHS iSuppli, things are about to get a whole lot worse.
The gluttonous system building gurus over at AVADirect just added a 48GB DDR3 RAM option to a handful of non-ECC setups, including two gaming machines, a recently launched silent PC, and a workstation system. Who in their right mind could possibly justify such a superfluous amount of system memory? The answer is not many, though it's nice to have the option, isn't it?








