(cool) 256meg DDR PC2700 Outpost $34.99 no rebates

[RobsTV]

(back in stock as of Nov 10th, 6am)
(priced raised $10 to $34.99, so deal cooled down, although still probably best price without rebate)

Premium 256MB PC2700 333MHz

Says Premium, but with only a 1 year warranty, can't be that great.
However, this is the second time they've had this listed at this price, and the 6 sticks I bought previous time worked great in every system I through them in, even run as Dual Channel.

Not bad for shipping as 4 sticks ran about $7 ground, or $9 2nd day air.

 

[McFly]

Sweet!

 

[ScrapSilicon]

interesting on that page it shows the GQ 6084 for $299.99 but once the link is clicked its shows $449.99 ..add to cart its $299.99 with excellent shipping prices as well
Specifications:
CPU: AMD® Athlon? XP Processor Model 2600+ (2.0GHz)
Chipset: SIS 740
Memory: 128MB DDR RAM (expandable to 1GB)
Hard Drive: 40GB Ultra Hard Drive
Multimedia:
52x24x52x CD-RW Drive
Motherboard:
Embedded 128-bit 3D AGP Graphics Accelerator with 64MB frame buffer
Embedded Direct Sound AC'97 Codec for audio
Built-in 10/100 Fast Ethernet LAN
56K Modem Connection
Expansion Bays:
Three 5.25" drive bays (two available)
Expansion Slots:
One CNR (Communications and Networking Riser) slot
Two 32-bit PCI slots for PCI 2.2-compliant bus interface
Memory Support:
Two 184-pin DIMM sockets for DDR memory modules
Support DDR 266MHz memory bus
Port Connectors:
Six USB 2.0 ports (four back-panel ports, onboard USB header providing two extra ports)
Two PS/2 ports for mouse and keyboard
One Serial port
One Parallel port
One VGA port
Front/Back Audio jacks for microphone, line-in and line-out
Accessories:
Keyboard
Mouse
Speakers
Power: 250 Watts
Case: Micro ATX form factor
Operating System:
Windows XP Home Edition

 

[PCXpress]

Did it work on boards that weren't VIA? Mine only worked on VIA

 

[RobsTV]

Originally posted by: PCXpress
Did it work on boards that weren't VIA? Mine only worked on VIA

No problems with this in any NF1, NF2, or VIA boards that I tested it with (over 40 systems built with this stuff now).
With two sticks, runs in Dual channel (NF2), or single channel if desired with either one or two sticks.
Can even mix with other brands and sizes, yet still maintain Dual Channel compatability.
In HTPC's I am building, I am currently installing one of these sticks, along with a Twinmos 128meg stick.
No problems with running 166MHz (333MHz DDR) and new Sempron's at defaults (Cas 2.5).
Did not try to overclock.
This is much better than the low end stuff Newegg is selling, since much of that would not even run Dual Channel.

It WILL work in most computers that normal memory works in, although I gave up on Intel years ago, so did not test it in any system that runs Intel, including Dell's. Confirmed Dual channel compatability is the sign to me that it is decent and compatable ram. From reports on memory, if it can run AMD Dual Channel, it will work in an Intel equipped Dell PC.

Just ran tests on this memory, and it has same physical specs as Twinmos, so if you can't run this, you can't run Twinmos either.

 

[Granorense]

Great price, I may jump in this deal. RAM is alwasy nice to have arround, you never know when you may need some!

 

[esquared]

Back in stock. Just ordered two.

 

[RobsTV]

Just received another order, and this batch is a different brand.
Will test later today.

 

[tcsenter]

A few weeks ago, I bought 4 sticks of Outpost's "Premium 256MB PC2700 Module 333MHz 32x64 DDR 184 Pin". The modules I received are made by Legacy Electronics and built with x4 DRAM components (32Mx4). Only a small handful of chipsets currently available support x4 DRAM and mine wasn't one of them. According to NVIDIA, nForce 1 and 2 supports x8 and x16 DRAM, but not x4. Not sure about nForce 3.

 

[RobsTV]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
A few weeks ago, I bought 4 sticks of Outpost's "Premium 256MB PC2700 Module 333MHz 32x64 DDR 184 Pin". The modules I received are made by Legacy Electronics and built with x4 DRAM components (32Mx4). Only a small handful of chipsets currently available support x4 DRAM and mine wasn't one of them. According to NVIDIA, nForce 1 and 2 supports x8 and x16 DRAM, but not x4. Not sure about nForce 3.

You received bad info from nVidia tech support.
Your sticks were the same as the Outpost Legacy modules I received in the past.
Also same x4 as Twinmos sticks from Newegg, so don't know where that x4 info comes from?
(lazy tech just trying to pass the buck?).
Worked 100% perfectly in every board I've tried them in, but that was only NF1 and NF2.

Specifically, these Outpost Legacy sticks work great in:
Asus A7N266-VM (NF1, not a dual channel board).
Chaintech 7NIF2 (NF2. Works with a single stick, or two sticks mixed or matched, using onboard video).
Shuttle MN31N (NF2, same as above).
Chaintech 7NIL1 (NF2. same as above)
Shuttle AN35N Ultra (NF2. Same as above).
Most of the above boards are built with one of these Outpost sticks, along with a Twinmos 128 meg stick, for Dual Channel 384 meg total.

Have not found a board that they did not work in.

The old sticks are different than new sticks received this week.
Old 256 Meg sticks had memory on both sides of stick, 16 chips total.
New 256 Meg memory has 8 chips on only one side. Also new chips are 32Mx8.
Also new sticks have another sticker (besides the Legacy) showing AENEON.
Doing an internet search for AENEON results in foreign sites that I can't read, but seem to indicate these
are INFINEON chips. So perhaps the new batch is decent higher quality even though it is so cheap?
Haven't tested these new sticks yet.

 

[CasmirRadon]

Thanks OP, just yesterday a friend was having me look at her parent's computer to see why it was so slow... well turns out their XP computer was attempting to run on 128 MB RAM... so I remembered this deal and gave directions on ordering this stick. Will report back if their are any problems with compatibility.

 

[htne]

Originally posted by: CasmirRadon
Thanks OP, just yesterday a friend was having me look at her parent's computer to see why it was so slow... well turns out their XP computer was attempting to run on 128 MB RAM... so I remembered this deal and gave directions on ordering this stick. Will report back if their are any problems with compatibility.

It's amazing how slow XP is with too little memory. Earlier this week I was checking out a new notebook just purchased by a friend of mine. It came with 256 megs of memory, but 64 was used by shared graphics, leaving only 192 megs for the OS. They were running XP Home, and the poor deluded fools had installed Norton Anti-Virus 2004 (bloatware). I removed Norton AV, and installed AVG free, and matters improved a little, but I convinced them to order another 256 megs of memory.

 

[tcsenter]

The old sticks are different than new sticks received this week.
Old 256 Meg sticks had memory on both sides of stick, 16 chips total.
New 256 Meg memory has 8 chips on only one side. Also new chips are 32Mx8.

x8 is industry standard (JEDEC) high compatability. All Intel, VIA, ALI, SIS, Nvidia, and ATI chipsets support x8 and x16 DRAM up to the maximum supported component density (e.g. 128Mbit, 256Mbit, or 512Mbit) and DIMM rank. Are you certain the old 256MB sticks were not built using 16Mx8 DRAM (x 16 chips)?

Its not that Nvidia states x4 DRAM isn't supported. Its that Nvidia doesn't list x4 DRAM among the supported DRAM configurations:

Supports 64Mbit, 128Mbit, 256Mbit, and 512Mbit x8 and x16 DRAMs.

MSI issues the following disclaimer for its nForce2 boards:

NOTE: nForce2 does NOT support x4 memory device. 1GB can be made by other density of DRAM chip such as x8 or x16.

I have been trying to find out which chipsets in particular support x4 DRAM but not having much luck. Even if the chipset itself supports x4 DRAM, the BIOS may not have the appropriate support to recognize it.

Its a shame that I still have no more insight into DRAM configuration with VIA chipsets after sifting through every resource publicly available from VIA's web portals (which is primarily marketing hype), asking two major companies that market VIA motherboards, and a memory company.

The most informative answer I've thus far received is "Some VIA and SIS chipsets support x4 DRAM, but not Intel and Nvidia." Very helpful. :roll:

 

[tbrooks40]

another best kept secret down the drain

for some reason i thought it was called patriot tho?

either way nice post OP!

good luck guys

 

[Inappropriate4AT]

SPD is CAS 2.5 right? Can these be run at CAS 2?

 

[D-Man]

I grabbed a few of these and threw 2 sticks in an ECS N2U400A NF2 Board with a Barton 2500+ @3200 ( Fry's Combo) and they work just fine.The ones I got were Legacy Brand.

 

[Generic Moniker]

I got two sticks of the legacy too.

They work great.

Thanks, OP

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: tcsenter
I have been trying to find out which chipsets in particular support x4 DRAM but not having much luck. Even if the chipset itself supports x4 DRAM, the BIOS may not have the appropriate support to recognize it.

Its a shame that I still have no more insight into DRAM configuration with VIA chipsets after sifting through every resource publicly available from VIA's web portals (which is primarily marketing hype), asking two major companies that market VIA motherboards, and a memory company.

The most informative answer I've thus far received is "Some VIA and SIS chipsets support x4 DRAM, but not Intel and Nvidia." Very helpful. :roll:

Yeah, Via can be a real b*tch about trying to get actual detailed technical info from them. The best place that I could think to look, would be the Linux sources, or the source code to MemTest86+, of which one older version has specific support for programming KT333/400/600 chipsets, although it was taken out of later versions. (Technical reasons? Via's request? I have no idea.) Also possibly the chipset-init code from the LinuxBIOS project might have more info too.

I would kind of tend to believe though, if any chipset mfg supported x4 DRAM, it would be Via, as their Via Apollo series was one of the first to do so, when at the time Intel chipsets only supported x8.

I'm also a bit saddened to hear that this whole x4/x8(/x16) DRAM compatibility issue isn't completely behind us, I thought it left during the Socket370 and early Socket-A era.

I've got an MSI KT4V-L myself, running three 256MB DDR333 DIMMs, single-sided, 8 chips per DIMM. (So that would make mine based on x8 chips, I guess.) MSI's tech-support board suck too, I can't use BIOS rev 1.9, 1.A, or 1.B for my board, because it is incompatible with Promise PCI IDE controllers.

 

[tcsenter]

I grabbed a few of these and threw 2 sticks in an ECS N2U400A NF2 Board with a Barton 2500+ @3200 ( Fry's Combo) and they work just fine. The ones I got were Legacy Brand.

Please share any markings on the DRAM chips.

 

[zaph]

Hot!
Thanks, i have a few PC's to build and these will do nicely!

5 stick shipping to PA 9.00 2nd day, 7.xx ground.

memo to self: bookmark that page!

 

[bigbadben]

awesome! thanks

 

[esquared]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

I grabbed a few of these and threw 2 sticks in an ECS N2U400A NF2 Board with a Barton 2500+ @3200 ( Fry's Combo) and they work just fine. The ones I got were Legacy Brand.

Please share any markings on the DRAM chips.

I just received my two and the chips only have the following markings:
G32Mx8 DDR
They also were Legacy Electronics Inc.

The sticker on the DIMM has the following:
AENEON
256 MB, DDR 333 CL 2.5 PC2700U-25331
Assembled in Malaysia
AED560UD00-600C88X C1E44119


I tried these in an ECS K7VTA3 v 6.0 board and they ran perfect.

 

[tvarad]

I picked a stick up for my Dell Dimension 2400 (Celeron 2.2 Ghz) and it runs fine with the already existing 256 MB memory.

 

[tcsenter]

I just received my two and the chips only have the following markings: G32Mx8 DDR
They also were Legacy Electronics Inc.

That's what I thought. It seems as though I'm the only one who got the x4 DRAM instead of x8. Dod Gamnit!

 

[gohan]

Bought 2 sticks. Both work fine in my ECS K75SA Pro and Biostar M7NCG 400 (NF2) boards.