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Work has bequeathed me with a box of old low-capacity RAM (desktop/server 256-512MB DDR and DDR2 of varying speeds) because they were throwing it out and said "hey I bet Duct Tape Dude would get a kick out of these." Well, they're not wrong, but now what?

You know that itch you get where you realize you're just a couple parts away from a new machine you really don't need but are TOTALLY TEMPTED TO BUILD ANYWAY? So far that's the feeling this box of RAM has given to me, except I don't even have compatible spare parts to build something with. I keep thinking there has to be some way of making something fun like a dedicated RAMdisk out of it, but everything seems too expensive:

Gigabyte made an iRAM thing for awhile but it seems to be hard to get:
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... id=2180#ov

Same thing with this gizmo:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001NDX6FE

I was also thinking of finding a low-power server board with a bunch of memory slots, but that appears to be an oxymoron.

So what do I do? Recycle it? Is it even worth going through the trouble of eBay? Duct tape them together into photo frames?

I haven't made the attempt yet, but I have a bunch of high-density-low-latency DDR1 and DDR2 that I'm going to be selling on Ebay. If the "sold" listings are any indication, (some) people are paying a premium for old crap.

Low capacity modules probably wouldn't do as well though.

Drill a small hole at each end of several DIMMs, then use wire or twine to build a dream catcher.

Then tell people it's your DRAM catcher and wait for the blank stares.

The Egg wrote:

Low capacity modules probably wouldn't do as well though.

Yeah, I think they kept the decent stuff. I have a lot of 512MB DDR2 in this box but I'm not sure they're even worth the shipping cost.

ludi wrote:

Drill a small hole at each end of several DIMMs, then use wire or twine to build a dream catcher.
Then tell people it's your DRAM catcher and wait for the blank stares.

LOL.
This is so bad, but so good!

Use them as targets for skeet/trap?

whm1974 wrote:

Use them as targets for skeet/trap?

That's a damn small target.

DancinJack wrote:

That's a damn small target.

I think the aerodynamics are the bigger problem...

The biggest problem with reusing them is obviously the maximum number of slots on anything you'd plug them into. Most RAM disk type gizmos have maybe 4 slots, right? 2GB won't do much for you, and since a lot of them are going to be limited by the SATA interface (older ones are likely even 3gbps rather than 6gbps), you'd probably not gain anything over a standard SSD with many times the capacity and a fraction of the cost.

Honestly, I'm "small time" when it comes to reselling and reusing PCs and I rarely have uses for 512MB DDR2 sticks any more. I have a pile of them but generally anything that I'd be passing off with 2GB of RAM also only has 2 DIMM slots, so these 512MB sticks are then useless. If anything has 4 slots its generally a better board\CPU\system all around and I end up putting 4x1GB sticks in it to step it up to the next tier of basic computing. 512MB DDR sticks are slightly more useful, since 2GB of DDR in an older system is about as good as you're going to get without overspending on outdated memory, but 256MB sticks aren't worth bothering with (for the same reason as 512MB DDR2, only worse).

I certainly know the feeling of "I GOTTA DO SOMETHING WITH THIS!" since I do it constantly (I'm currently surrounded by several boxes of PC parts from the 80s and 90s...) but in this case you'd probably be best off hanging onto a few of them "just in case" you need them if you don't already have some, and putting the rest in a big lot on ebay with a carefully worded title that will get the most interest from scrappers and bulk buyers.

EDIT: One minor exception to all of this would be ECC\Registered memory, since workstations and servers that can use it generally have tons of slots (6, 8 or more). If you could pick up an old Socket 771 board that doesn't need FB-DIMMs and a dirt cheap Xeon (they are amazingly cheap for the performance) and have a basic, respectable system with the DIMM slots loaded for 3GB of RAM (or more if you can snag a couple larger sticks). You can get a pair of low wattage L5240 Xeons (similar to E8400s... two of them is like a Q9650.. sort of) for a measly $20. Just an idea. I did something similar two years ago and my wife uses it for basic gaming with a GTX 660 its a monster for what I paid for it, and that was two years ago. The boards are even cheaper now. A pair of heatsinks\fans will add a bit to the cost, but with the 40W CPUs you may be able to get away with passive cooling depending on case air flow and the size of the sinks.

... I'm just thinking out loud! This isn't a simple project by any means, but it was fun. Hope you find a good use for the RAM!

Glorious wrote:

DancinJack wrote:

That's a damn small target.

I think the aerodynamics are the bigger problem...

If I had more time and capacitors I'm sure we could design a RAM railgun.

ozzuneoj wrote:

The biggest problem with reusing them is obviously the maximum number of slots on anything you'd plug them into. Most RAM disk type gizmos have maybe 4 slots, right? 2GB won't do much for you, and since a lot of them are going to be limited by the SATA interface (older ones are likely even 3gbps rather than 6gbps), you'd probably not gain anything over a standard SSD with many times the capacity and a fraction of the cost.

Honestly, I'm "small time" when it comes to reselling and reusing PCs and I rarely have uses for 512MB DDR2 sticks any more. I have a pile of them but generally anything that I'd be passing off with 2GB of RAM also only has 2 DIMM slots, so these 512MB sticks are then useless. If anything has 4 slots its generally a better board\CPU\system all around and I end up putting 4x1GB sticks in it to step it up to the next tier of basic computing. 512MB DDR sticks are slightly more useful, since 2GB of DDR in an older system is about as good as you're going to get without overspending on outdated memory, but 256MB sticks aren't worth bothering with (for the same reason as 512MB DDR2, only worse).

I certainly know the feeling of "I GOTTA DO SOMETHING WITH THIS!" since I do it constantly (I'm currently surrounded by several boxes of PC parts from the 80s and 90s...) but in this case you'd probably be best off hanging onto a few of them "just in case" you need them if you don't already have some, and putting the rest in a big lot on ebay with a carefully worded title that will get the most interest from scrappers and bulk buyers.

EDIT: One minor exception to all of this would be ECC\Registered memory, since workstations and servers that can use it generally have tons of slots (6, 8 or more). If you could pick up an old Socket 771 board that doesn't need FB-DIMMs and a dirt cheap Xeon (they are amazingly cheap for the performance) and have a basic, respectable system with the DIMM slots loaded for 3GB of RAM (or more if you can snag a couple larger sticks). You can get a pair of low wattage L5240 Xeons (similar to E8400s... two of them is like a Q9650.. sort of) for a measly $20. Just an idea. I did something similar two years ago and my wife uses it for basic gaming with a GTX 660 its a monster for what I paid for it, and that was two years ago. The boards are even cheaper now. A pair of heatsinks\fans will add a bit to the cost, but with the 40W CPUs you may be able to get away with passive cooling depending on case air flow and the size of the sinks.

... I'm just thinking out loud! This isn't a simple project by any means, but it was fun. Hope you find a good use for the RAM!

Oh god you linked to eBay. The temptation multiplies.... I couldn't figure out what chipset/CPU pair would run cool enough to make anything worthwhile and you found it. Next comes the slippery slope: if I get a server motherboard, I just need a server chassis, and then a server power supply.

...I wonder if work has any of those lying around too.

If I end up with a working server out of this I blame you, ozzuneoj.

I'm so sorry!

For what its worth, I fit that motherboard into a $15 case from Tigerdirect. As long as there is some additional clearance to fit the width of that board (in many cases the drive cages are too close to the board or overlap the area where the CPU heatsinks would be) it will fit standard ATX cases. It is just a hair too long to fit in a MicroATX case sadly. You'll have to choose carefully but you certainly don't need anything fancy or specific to servers. I also found the cheapest IO plate I could that was somewhat similar and just cut it a little to fit the board. I think the OEM ones were like $15 at the time... more than I spent on the CPUs!

Also, it won't let you run a PSU with only 4 of the 8 12v pins used, but if you get a 4 to 8 pin adapter you can use anything. It certainly won't need a ton of power with low wattage CPUs installed. I ran mine with 2 L5240s, 8GB DDR2 and a Radeon HD 7750 on a used Seasonic 350W 80Plus unit I picked up for $18 on eBay, I just needed the adapter. Now its running on an Antec Earthwatts 430W with the GTX 660 and it works beautifully.

I have zero server experience and dove into this headlong... and it worked out fine. I did have to get creative with the cooling though. I bought plain old Supermicro aluminum and copper coolers with no fans, and I bought a bunch of good old Panasonic Panaflo 80mm fans and screwed them into the heatsink fins. I have a similar fan that's been cooling my Athlon XP since 2003, so I know they last and stay quiet. Once I realized just how cool it could run I used a fan controller to throttle them down as low as they'll go. I could probably go passive with a bit more case airflow.

Keep in mind, it isn't a perfect system. The PC speaker is insanely loud so you'll want to put a little tape over it. You'll probably need to update the BIOS as well. Mine blared a terrible temperature warning siren all through a BIOS update because it couldn't read the temps on the newer 45nm CPUs. After the update it was fine and it runs super cool (though you'll need to adjust the Tjmax in Coretemp to read properly... mine read 30 degrees high until I adjusted that). Also, it has PCI-E 1.1, not 2.0... but it doesn't seem to matter much honestly.

Funny thing, I had just built two of these on a whim right before the peak of the Bitcoin\Litecoin mining boom and once that hit, I was a few clicks away from filling all of the PCI-E slots (even the x8 slots... modded) with high end Radeons. Thankfully I decided against it and avoided a lot of senseless headaches. Still, they would have worked well for that...

Ozzuneoj, is this score at passmark for your wife's PC?
http://www.passmark.com/baselines/V8/display.php?id=20898651414
Edit: Clicked the ebay links and looked up the cpu via duckduckgo then to passmark

Some businesses and charities need extra RAM to refurbish old machines, one of them might want it. 512MB sticks would be usable, anything less is impractical.

biffzinker wrote:

Ozzuneoj, is this score at passmark for your wife's PC?
http://www.passmark.com/baselines/V8/display.php?id=20898651414
Edit: Clicked the ebay links and looked up the cpu via duckduckgo then to passmark

Certainly looks like it! Funny thing, I think that system is providing the lone score for dual Xeon l5240 systems in passmark's CPU list.

Can't beat the bang for the buck though if you can make use of all four threads. 4400 is pretty respectably for what would be a $45 CPU and motherboard combo.

ludi wrote:

Drill a small hole at each end of several DIMMs, then use wire or twine to build a dream catcher.

Then tell people it's your DRAM catcher and wait for the blank stares.

Hah

Duct Tape Dude wrote:

So what do I do? Recycle it? Is it even worth going through the trouble of eBay? Duct tape them together into photo frames?

If they are bigger for their type of ram minimum 2GB they are worth something.
256MB and 512MB and 1GB are not worth much.
Think that people buying are trying to get an extra year out of an old machine that is now RAM starved.

If you don't want to be bothered with mailing single ones after selling on eBay, advertise them in lots of N modules. You could even sell the whole bunch together.