How to buy old DRAM?

[Davej]

I went to the A-Data website expecting to be able to be able to look up historical data on devices no longer sold, but they don't seem to have it. Thememory sticks I currently have in my old desktop read "DDR2 800(5)" and are 1GB per stick. There are also several other numbers on them including "M20AD6GI4170I1E58" and it doesn't help that they seem to use o O I and 1 but all I know is that the memory was supposed to be 5-5-5-18. How can I look on Ebay and find something that is close enough to work? I would like to addtwo more sticks so that I have 4GB.

Thanks.

 

[John Doe]

If you can't find them, or if the price is extreme, it's time to
upgrade. That's what I did last time, when the cost of older slower
memory was 200 to 300% more than current memory.

Good luck.

 

[Davej]

If you can't find them, or if the price is extreme, it's time to
upgrade. That's what I did last time, when the cost of older slower
memory was 200 to 300% more than current memory.

Well, that is the thing, you can't find old parts new but you can find old parts. The problem is decoding whether an non-exact match is close enough to work.

 

[Chris S.]

Well, that is the thing, you can't find old parts new but you can find old
parts. The problem is decoding whether an non-exact match is close enough
to work.

Copy the part number from your existing "Old" RAM and do an eBay search with
it.
Chances are good that somebody has listed it. Or something close. Worked for
me
for my elderly MBs...

Chris

 

[Paul]

I went to the A-Data website expecting to be able to be able to look up historical data on devices no longer sold, but they don't seem to have it. The memory sticks I currently have in my old desktop read "DDR2 800(5)" and are 1GB per stick. There are also several other numbers on them including "M20AD6GI4170I1E58" and it doesn't help that they seem to use o O I and 1 but all I know is that the memory was supposed to be 5-5-5-18. How can I look on Ebay and find something that is close enough to work? I would like to add two more sticks so that I have 4GB.

Thanks.

They seem to keep a pretty horrid web site.
You can use archive.org to go back in time, assuming
the web site actually has some information of value.

https://web.archive.org/web/2009021...y.php?ProductType=DRAM Module&TypeUse=DeskTop

A typical part number might look like this.

AD2U800B2G5

The "2" would mean DDR2. The "U" means UDIMM or
Unbuffered DIMM. The 800 is the speed. The B2G5
would specify some specific characteristics, like
maybe 2 ranks, CAS5 ? (The word "Banks" is used
for the innards of a DRAM chip, while the word
"Ranks" is reserved for arrays of chips on the
DIMM itself.)

I would go back to the module, and look for
another number to work with.

In this Ebay example, if I look at the picture
I can see an M20... part number on the sticker,
but that is not the AD2... number used to buy
the stuff with.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ADATA-2GB-D...Memory_RAM_&hash=item33867b85cb#ht_2393wt_975

When Micron/Crucial does this sort of thing,
they might include two stickers. One sticker
containing an internal part number (which
you can eventually find a datasheet for), as
well as a number you can use to shop for one.
I'm not seeing this feature on the ADATA products,
but maybe I missed it.

I'm guessing this is one product, where you would
want to "keep the box it came in".

You can use CPUZ, to dump the technical data.
For whatever that is worth.

http://www.cpuid.com/downloads/cpu-z/1.67-en.zip

http://www.cpuid.com/medias/images/en/softwares-cpuz-04.jpg

Paul

 

[Motor T]

I went to the A-Data website expecting to be able to be able to
look up historical data on devices no longer sold, but they don't
seem to have it. The memory sticks I currently have in my old
desktop read "DDR2 800(5)" and are 1GB per stick. There are also
several other numbers on them including "M20AD6GI4170I1E58" and it
doesn't help that they seem to use o O I and 1 but all I know is
that the memory was supposed to be 5-5-5-18. How can I look on Ebay
and find something that is close enough to work? I would like to
add two more sticks so that I have 4GB.

Thanks.

Is Crucial's memory advisor any help? http://www.crucial.com/

 

[Flasherly]

How can
I look on Ebay and find something that is close enough to work? I
would like to add two more sticks so that I have 4GB.

-

You'l be paying premium prices - everybody is going to want 1G
modules.

Be careful you don't buy the cheaper extra-chipped -parity- DDR2
generaly for server environs. Home use PC memory don't use it. You
want non-parity. Believe I bought some, an extra stick last year,
after cursorily running a software PC parts identification program --
which indicated I had DDR of another sort than what I actually had. No
excuse, on my part, for not opening and pulling that stick, and cross
checking the WEB for nomenclature on it until I knew exactly what I
had.

I bought it twice, IOW, once more after I got it right.

Think what I bought the first time fits for another computer, though,
whereupon I just stuck the extra stick somewhere in that case;-
somewhere else in the case would be aside from already being fully
populated. To be sure, in case memory goes bad. ...Fat chance.

Easier, price wise, sometimes just to update. There's a point when
what's new catches up to a certain multiple past your present
situation, when so much faster, being so much cheaper, coincides with
a participle for the "what I want" now.

I wouldn't personally do anything involving substaintail parts for an
update off Ebay, though.

 

[Don Phillipson]

The memory sticks I currently have in my old desktop read "DDR2 800(5)"
and are 1GB per stick
. . . . . How can I look on Ebay and find something that is close enough
to work?

If this PC boots and has an Internet connection, log to
www.crucial.com and run its diagnostic utility. This will
tell you all your options for maximising RAM.

 

[Davej]

I went to the A-Data website expecting to be able to be able to look up historical data on devices no longer sold, but they don't seem to have it. The memory sticks I currently have in my old desktop read "DDR2 800(5)" and are 1GB per stick. There are also several other numbers on them including "M20AD6GI4170I1E58" and it doesn't help that they seem to use o O I and 1 but all I know is that the memory was supposed to be 5-5-5-18. How can I lookon Ebay and find something that is close enough to work? I would like to add two more sticks so that I have 4GB.

I bought chips marked M20AD6G31417011E58 and they seem to work fine with nochange to anything so I am happy. Thanks to all who responded.