Another option is a reboot onto a custom OS which is designed specifically to preserve memory (you get a safe few seconds of holdover). LiveKd is pretty cool (sysinternals)
There are PCIe cards which do processor/network and let you explore main memory -- WindowsSCOPE CaptureGUARD for PCIe or ExpressCard. Probably enough time to pop the case open and throw one in before memory degrades.
Countermeasures are numerous -- everything from doing memory encryption inside the CPU die (putting code in the cache, like TRESOR) and doing hypervisor tricks ("TresorVisor") (http://www1.informatik.uni-erlangen.de/tresor) to using Hardware Security Modules (like the SafeNet or Thales nCipher) to just keeping your servers physically secured from intruders who might memory-analyze them (although a software bootloader and remote-reboot could still be applied).
Forensics as a field seems to be a lot more interested in attacking mobile phones (which is one of the things I'm talking about at RSA 2013), but desktops and servers are still interesting targets.