User:Gordon/Memory Wall Maintenance
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Problems
- Many of the memory tester motherboards on the "memory wall" are in bad shape, with bad slots, missing or loose RAM clips, etc.
- The mixture of motherboard types may no longer reflect the stream of incoming RAM, as well as Free Geek's priorities in testing it.
- We have pounds (literally) of SDRAM in Tardis, (factcheck) last I checked. A lot of SDRAM still comes in, but it is being used less and less in build (check this fact with George). We already reject PC100 and the SDRAM keeps piling up. There is too much to sell in the store and the asking price isn't great. Thus, we may actually want fewer SDRAM testers and possibly to start rejecting some or all 256MB sticks in favor of keeping 512MB sticks.
- DDR volume is increasing, as is DDR2. DDR3 is just beginning to trickle in very slowly, but when we get it would be nice to sell for $$$ in the store whatever we don't keep for infrastructure.
State of the Motherboards, October 2009
At the beginning of October 2009, I took stock of the motherboards on the memory wall.
| board | capacity | status | RAMBUS | SDRAM | DDR | DDR2 | DDR3 | proposed replacement | RAMBUS | SDRAM | DDR | DDR2 | DDR3 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | RAMBUS 4 slot | OK | 4 | none | 4 | |||||||||
| 2 | DDR 4 slot | 2 slots marginal | 4 | DDR 4 slot | 4 | |||||||||
| 3 | DDR 2 / SDRAM 2 slot | OK | (2) | (2) | none | (2) | (2) | |||||||
| 4 | DDR 4 slot | OK | 4 | none | 4 | |||||||||
| 5 | DDR 4 slot | OK | 4 | none | 4 | |||||||||
| 6 | DDR2 4 slot | OK | 4 | none | 4 | |||||||||
| 7 | SDRAM 3 slot | 3 slots marginal | 3 | DDR3 board | 3-4 | |||||||||
| 8 | DDR 2 / DDR2 2 slot | OK | (2) | (2) | none | (2) | (2) | |||||||
| 9 | DDR 4 slot | runs all as DDR266; reports incorrectly | 4 | DDR 4 slot | 4 | |||||||||
| A | SDRAM 4 slot | 1 slot bad | 3 | DDR2 4 slot | 4 | |||||||||
| B | DDR2 4 slot | OK | 4 | none | 4 | |||||||||
| C | DDR 3 slot | 2 slots marginal | 3 | DDR 4 slot | 4 | |||||||||
| D | DDR 2 / SDRAM 2 slot | OK | (2) | (2) | none | (2) | (2) | |||||||
| E | nonexistent | immediate replace | DDR2 4 slot | 4 | ||||||||||
| F | DDR 4 slot | OK | 4 | none | 4 | |||||||||
| G | SDRAM 4 slot | 2 slots marginal | 4 | SDRAM 4 slot | 4 | |||||||||
| TOTALS | 4 | 10(4) | 23(6) | 8(2) | 0 | 4 | 4(4) | 24(6) | 16(2) | 3-4 |
Replacements Needed
- 1 SDRAM 4-slot board
- This must be a Pentium III or equivalent; Pentium II and slot-based processors almost never support PC133. Very old boards will not work. 1GHz bare minimum processor is a good rule of thumb.
- 3 DDR 4-slot boards
- If possible, before bringing from pre-build ensure that they support up to PC3200 (DDR-400).
- 2 DDR2 4-slot boards
- Must support DDR2-800 (PC2-6400) minimum, DDR2-1066 (PC2-8600) if possible.
- 1 DDR3 board, 3-4 slots
- Try to get a board supporting DDR3-1600, but 1333 or 1066 would do in the interim. The smaller heat sink the better. Good luck with this one.
This could be simplified to "show all 4-slot motherboards to a pre-build instructor" and then have the instructor check the boards based on above, no blown caps, etc.