Tech Support Guy banner
Status
Not open for further replies.

How easy is it to find RD-RAM at a reasonable price?

2K views 23 replies 6 participants last post by  wgreene 
#1 ·
My nephew suggested recently that I buy some extra memory for my Dell Dimensiion 8250 computer, which is a couple of years old. Knowing that I have Rambus RD-RAM, he searched the Net and told me RD-RAM was both harder to find and more expensive than he expected.

He went to PrimeWatch and found only two websites which had RD-RAM available. Then he went to eBay and told me I could pay $400 for 1G of CD1066 RD-RAM or $256 for 1G of PC 800 RD-RAM.

I have two slots of 256 RD-RAM -- PC 1066, unless I'm mistaken -- which means I have two open slots. My nephew told me I could fill the two open slots with 512 PC 1066, which would give me 1.5 G total. Or, he said, my PC could hold up to 2 G of PC 800 RD-RAM. (All of this terminology is new to me, but my nephew appears to understand it quite well.)

I remember hearing a while back that the price of memory was dropping rapidly, but my nephew told me that seems to have changed. Is it possible that I could find better prices for RD-RAM than those shown on eBay?
 
#3 ·
1069 said:
I have to ask - why do you think you need extra ram? Is your machine running slow? Are you having problems?

To pay $256 + for ram I would need a very good reason for the outlay - unless your nephew wishes to play some serious games at your expense?
Thank you very much for your prompt reply.:)

I recently purchased a Nikon film scanner, and I've noticed that whenever I use it my computer slows down dramatically. A Nikon technician told me that the additional memory should clear up this problem. I mentioned this to my nephew and that's when he decided to look for the availability/price of RD-RAM.

I must admit that I, myself, have a limited knowledge of computers and how they work, so I often feel the need to defer to others who presumably know more than I.
 
#4 ·
Well those prices are right in line for what RDRAM costs, my question to you is what kind of PC do you have and are you sure you can put a gig in?

The catch with RDRAM is you MUST buy in pairs, so make sure you are buying 2 sticks of 512Mb for that gig set.
 
#6 ·
Using my Dell Service Tag Number, my nephew went to the Dell website and checked to see how much memory my computer would be able to accommodate. He told me I would be allowed either 1.5 G of PC1066 or 2 G of PC800, and that whatever I might buy would need to be purchased as a matched pair.
 
#7 ·
Good lad your nephew, did his homework!

How many slots was that through?

If you have four slots, you can buy another set of 256, upgrade it buy a total of 512, and get the gig of RAM you were looking for.

Might be able to make off with a good deal if you can go that route
http://www.upgrade-solution.com/detail.cfm?show=yes&PID=191&add=yes
 
#8 ·
Why don't you go to http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html and download and install EVEREST HOME EDITION.

You can check the physical memory utilization and see how much RAM you are using. After you install EVEREST click on motherboard, then click on memory and it will tell you the % of utilization of the physical memory.

My standard rule of thumb is if the utilization is 75% or less I don't add RAM. If it is more than 75% I add RAM. :)
 
#10 ·
loserOlimbs said:
Good lad your nephew, did his homework!

How many slots was that through?

If you have four slots, you can buy another set of 256, upgrade it buy a total of 512, and get the gig of RAM you were looking for.

Might be able to make off with a good deal if you can go that route
http://www.upgrade-solution.com/detail.cfm?show=yes&PID=191&add=yes
Yes, I have four slots in all. Thanks for the link.
 
#11 ·
win2kpro said:
Why don't you go to http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4181.html and download and install EVEREST HOME EDITION.

You can check the physical memory utilization and see how much RAM you are using. After you install EVEREST click on motherboard, then click on memory and it will tell you the % of utilization of the physical memory.

My standard rule of thumb is if the utilization is 75% or less I don't add RAM. If it is more than 75% I add RAM. :)
I'm not sure what it all means, but when I booted up my PC tonight and went straight to EVEREST > Motherboard > Memory -- without opening any programs -- the Physical Memory reading was 86%. And when I ran Nikon Scan the Physical Memory rate went up to 99%, at which point all four Nikon Scan windows turned solid white and then very slowly returned to their normal appearance.
 
#12 ·
wgreene said:
I'm not sure what it all means, but when I booted up my PC tonight and went straight to EVEREST > Motherboard > Memory -- without opening any programs -- the Physical Memory reading was 86%. And when I ran Nikon Scan the Physical Memory rate went up to 99%, at which point all four Nikon Scan windows turned solid white and then very slowly returned to their normal appearance.
Looks like you are using all your physical memory. Add another 512mb and you should be OK. :)
 
#14 ·
Glad we could help!
Hopefully this solves your problem here and gives you the performance you need.
 
#15 ·
Last night I went to eBay and used PayPal to pay for 1 G of RD-RAM from an eBay member. It appeared that all had gone well, but this morning I recieved the following e-mail from the member:

Hi
You pay for item-but you not registered user
What you want?

This is my very first experience with eBay. I had never used eBay at all until last night, but I am registered, both with eBay and with PayPal, so I don't understand the member's question. He/She acknowledges that I've paid for the item, so I can't figure out why I'm being asked, "What you want?" Very obviously, this person already knows what I want! Anyhow, I'll respond to the member and hope that the transaction will go through successfully. In the meantime, I would greatly appreciate hearing from anyone who may have an idea as to why I received this e-mail. Perhaps someone here familiar with eBay can understand exactly what this person is asking and why they're asking it.:confused:

Thank you.
 
#16 ·
Personally, eBay is the last place I would ever buy anything like memory. :down: Too much misrepresentation, then you get the product and if it's defective it may be nearly impossible to return. Just my opinion! :)
 
#18 ·
simpswr said:
eBay has a facility for contecting the seller . . go to the link to the product in the eBay notice you won and click on "COntact Seller" . . likley something went wrong in the payment advice . . you did pay via the eBay/Paypal system?
Thanks for the advice. I'll certainly do that.

I paid with Paypal, so I guess that means also thru eBay.
 
#19 ·
you bought two 512 right? like said above you need to buy memory in pairs for rdram otherwise it wont work.
 
#21 ·
Well, I contacted eBay about this potential problem with a seller, and received a reply from eBay's Fraud Prevention Group earlier today. eBay's advice was for me to get contact information and contact the seller by telephone, which is what I did.

Unfortunately, when I called, I was told there was no one by the seller's name at that number, and that I obviously had a wrong number. Actually, before making the call I first did a Reverse Lookup search for that particular number. I became suspicious immediately when the search returned a name different from that of the seller. So after being told that the seller wasn't at that number, I then mentioned the name I had found thru the Reverse Lookup. I was told that, indeed, that was the correct name of the person at that number. (I double-checked the number the seller had given and the number returned thru Reverse Lookup to make certain they matched.) This whole episode may eventually turn out well, but at the moment it's fairly obvious to me that something strange is going on.

By the way, here is an excerpt from the seller's ad which I found confusing:

Seller's payment instructions
Send only with registered mail Serios bidders only!!! Not send to Indonezia VAT included

Payment methods accepted
This seller, estimable3, prefers PayPal.


As noted earlier, the seller referred to me as not being a "registered user," whatever that means. After all, I am registered with both eBay and PayPal. Also, I don't know why the seller's payment instructions state "Send only with registered mail." I used PayPal to make the purchase since PayPal is shown as the seller's preferred method of payment.

As I mentioned earlier, this is my first time to use eBay. I never would have even considered eBay had I not been told that RD-RAM is both hard to find and expensive, and that my best bet for finding it -- and for saving money in the process -- might be thru eBay. Unless things turn out well, it appears that I have learned a hard lesson.

I guess my next step is to check my credit card's recent activity and to contact the credit card company. In the meantime, I'll be awaiting further word from eBay.

I would greatly appreciate hearing from anyone who might be able to make better sense out of all this than I can. Thank you.
 
#22 ·
Since the topic of this discussion has shifted in another direction, perhaps it now needs to be moved to another forum.

In the meantime, I have gotten several responses from eBay, and they claim to be as baffled as I am about the situation. eBay is supposed to be conducting an investigation.
 
#23 ·
Paypal should be able to give you a refund if no RAM ever maes it to your house, they will ask te seller to give them a tracking numberwithin (x) amount of days or the accout will be credited for a refund.
 
#24 ·
loserOlimbs said:
Paypal should be able to give you a refund if no RAM ever maes it to your house, they will ask te seller to give them a tracking numberwithin (x) amount of days or the accout will be credited for a refund.
Thanks for the reply.

I hadn't thought of it that way, but that certainly sounds logical. In the meantime, earlier tonight a credit card company representative assured me that I was fully protected against fraud, that I would not lose any money, which was obviously what I had been hoping to hear. (One of the eBay e-mails from this morning indicated that I "may qualify for partial
reimbursement through our Standard Purchase Protection Program.") If I indeed come out of this without having lost anything, I will consider myself lucky -- and I will most definitely have learned a lesson!

Thanks again.:)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.
Top