User:Gordon/Memory Wall Maintenance

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, 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.

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				DDR2 4 slot				4
8	DDR 2 / DDR2 2 slot	OK			2	2		none			2	2
9	DDR 4 slot	runs all RAM as DDR266 and 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						DDR3 board					3-4
F	DDR 4 slot	OK			4			none			4
G	SDRAM 4 slot	2 slots marginal		4				SDRAM 4 slot		4
TOTALS			4	14	29	10	0		4	8	30	18	3-4

Summary

Combi slots are listed in parentheses.

Existing 4 slots RAMBUS capacity 11(4) slots SDRAM capacity 23(6) slots DDR capacity 8(2) slots DDR2 capacity

Proposed capacity after replacements 4 slots RAMBUS capacity 8(4) slots SDRAM capacity (8 from replacements) 20(6) slots DDR capacity (8 from replacements) 12(2) slots DDR2 capacity (8 from replacements) 3-4 slots DDR3 capacity (3-4 brand new, replacing board E)