Spot DDR2 SDRAM pricing plummeted Friday to levels below the DDR memory cost, according to Taiwanese largest memory exchange. This is likely to cause DDR2 memory modules quotes to get lower than pricing of modules based on DDR memory in a few weeks time, which may boost popularity of computer platforms designed for DDR2.

At press time average spot price on 256Mb DDR2 533MHz device was $3.16, whereas a 512Mb chip was quoted at $5.18, in average, according to DRAMeXchange. DDR memory at 400MHz was quoted at $5.20 and $2.42 in average for 512Mb and 256Mb chips respectively on Friday. Even on Thursday DDR memory chips were still a bit cheaper compared to DDR2 SDRAM devices.

Typically DDR2 memory at 533MHz is as fast as DDR memory at 400MHz.

Lower pricing of DDR2 memory may accelerate sales of platforms that support DDR2 SDRAM only, such as Intel 945- and 955-series chipset based as well as NVIDIA nForce4 Intel Edition-based mainboards. This may boost sales of Intel Pentium- and Celeron D-series processors in LGA775 package, as modern platforms do not support Socket 478.

At press time lowest price on 256MB DDR2 PC2-4200 (533MHz) memory module was $29, a 512MB DDR2 PC2-4200 module cost started from $49, according to Xbitlabs.Dealtime. 256MB of PC3200 memory cost began at $28, whereas a 512MB module cost $51, Dealtime.Xbitlabs claims.

In early April a report claimed that Samsung has significantly – by 20% – lowered DDR2 pricing for its customers, which might have catalyze the current situation on the market.