Trash!

Use OEM brands like Hynix, Samsung, Micron/Cruical, Elpida, etc.

Cheers, pentiumspeed

I agree with Pentiumspeed on the brand issue.

I don't see any reason to buy PC-2100 RAM. That is 266MHZ, which is only in the slowest of DDR systems. The fast stuff can always downclock, and it will be valuable if overclocking in a slower system.

gryffinwings wrote:

Hey guys, I was looking at a cheap upgrade and found Atech and Komputerbay 2GB kits of DDR PC2100 ram for pretty cheap, has anyone used these?

I have used Atech in the past a few times. It's usually when I am looking for obsolete RAM for a retro system, such as PC100, PC133, DDR1, etc. I have had no problems so far.

I bought a Komputerbay PC3-8500 kit off Ebazonegg(??), as it was the cheapest 8GB kit I could find for a non-mission critical machine. It's really bargain-basement stuff. Think ~1995 PC-Chips quality. I can't remember what chips are on it, but OS/X can't identify the manufacturer and I strongly suspect it's overclocked with hacked/modded SPD.

That said, it does what it's supposed to do & I haven't had any problems with it, but next time I'll spring the extra fifteen bucks for a cheap Crucial or Corsair kit. You get what you pay for.

When I buy cheap DDR1 from ebay I stick with the 400 mhz variety so it works with all systems. Generally the cheapest RAM tends to have the worst timings, but not always. For a game system you probably want the better stuff is memory timings matter much to you but most people would not notice a few percent here or there.

fitzpatr wrote:

I agree with Pentiumspeed on the brand issue.

I don't see any reason to buy PC-2100 RAM. That is 266MHZ, which is only in the slowest of DDR systems. The fast stuff can always downclock, and it will be valuable if overclocking in a slower system.

Brand issues huh, got it, I've never heard of Atech and Komputerbay, so that's why I ask, but I have found that Kingston DDR400 PC3200 is still listed on Amazon, that should still be decent memory.

fitzpatr wrote:

I agree with Pentiumspeed on the brand issue.

I don't see any reason to buy PC-2100 RAM. That is 266MHZ, which is only in the slowest of DDR systems. The fast stuff can always downclock, and it will be valuable if overclocking in a slower system.

Only because the computer I am have built for old games for cheap uses DDR memory. But you're right I should go for DDR400 at least.

Unknown_K wrote:

When I buy cheap DDR1 from ebay I stick with the 400 mhz variety so it works with all systems. Generally, the cheapest RAM tends to have the worst timings, but not always. For a game system you probably want the better stuff is memory timings matter much to you but most people would not notice a few percent here or there.

I'll keep this in mind, it does make since to just get DDR400 PC3200.

I have a couple 1GB DDR1 266 KomputerBay sticks that I pulled out of an industrial rackmount system because they were causing issues.

These pieces of trash actually have two RAM chips stacked on top of each other.

You can tell that that these are some sort of recycled sticks as the one chip on each of them obviously had some other sticker on them and they tried to rip the sticker off and place the Komputerbay sticker over them.

The white writing on the top layer of chips is also very obviously a remark because I can see the original engraving on the chips themselves. The top layer of chips are recycled Micron. Who knows what the bottom layer is.

STAY AWAY from Komputerbay !!!!!

Click for full-size

My question is.. why are you even looking at buying new sticks of RAM?

eBay is overflowing with good, used RAM for super cheap. I literally have boxes of RAM laying around from a few large lots I bought for cheap.

What in the world?
I did had Komputerbay ram before with Samsung chips, but they were fine, I had no issues with them.
I wouldn't use them in systems that I often use but they were always fine for me to use in retro builds or thinclients.

cyclone3d wrote:

These pieces of trash actually have two RAM chips stacked on top of each other.

I had some HP-branded ECC DDR1 sticks out of an EXPENSIVE dual-Xeon server that were built this way. I don't really know what that means. 😜

My Komputerbay DDR3 SODIMMs contain no such weirdness.

I'd bet anything they make "new" DIMMs by harvesting old chips from whatever they can get as e-waste. Nothing wrong with that in theory, as long as (a) your quality control is IRON-CLAD and (b) you're honest about it. Since they fail at (b), wanna guess how they score at (a)?