Winbond Memory for cheap from hardcorecooling.com

[human2k]

They have

512MB PC3500 Winbond for $98.95
512MB PC3200 Winbond for $84.95

and

512MB PC3700 Unspecified chips for $103


They have a resellerating of 8.6, anyone wanna be a Guinea Pig?


sorry if repost.

 

[ThaChemist]

I think I remember seeing something about this place in hot deals if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, I had found them on pricewatch a day earlier. At the time I ordered, Newegg had a _far_ better deal, but they were out of stock. Supposedly NE would have them in Monday (28'th) so I held off until then; that morning the ETA got moved to Friday, which was too late for my schedule. So Tues. morning I order from hardcorecooling.com and -boom- NE gets them in Tues night. grrrr....

On to the relevant info:

Hardcorecooling experience was great - called them to confirm chips were in stock, and was told that they're bh-5. They were really cool on the phone, and then shipped my order same-day (I paid $3 extra for that). The chips made it here by Thurs on UPS ground!

Chip performance: stay tuned. I'm putting together a system based on 8rda+ and I'm aiming to get 200fsb, so I ordered 2x PC3200 512mb sticks. I looked at the SPD latencies on the 3500 and they seem really high (I know, I know - that's why I bought Winbond chips, because you can set them to much lower latencies. Still though, I was more comfortable with the 3200s) I'm hoping to run some fairly tight timings (2-2-2-5-2 would be great)...

The caveat is - I've got to try and weave this system-build between studying for/taking finals next week, so I might not have results for another week or so, but I'll definitely post what I get. In the meanwhile, throw up a little prayer that I got a blessed 8rda+ so I can hit 200fsb!!!

 

[PliotronX]

It says PC3200 is OOS, bummer. Keep us posted Chemist

 

[ThaChemist]

Well, it's been a while since this posting. Anyway, just wanted to provide an update on the Winbond RAM that I purchased from hardcorecooling.com.

But first, another word on the vendor: these guys are SOLID. One of the sticks they sent me didn't pass POST, so I emailed them to see what they would do. I got a reply in one hour saying to call them; they picked up on the first ring, granted the RMA, and sent out my replacement THAT DAY. It was in my hands two days later. Quite impressive, if you ask me.

As to the RAM quality, you be the judge. To reiterate, I ordered 2x 512mb PC3200 cas 2.0 Winbond BH-5 chips. Luckily, my 8RDA+ has the A1 NB revision, so I was at 200fsb no problems, and it was just a matter of pushing the RAM timings. Here's the best I could manage (that is Memtest-stable):

2 - CAS (as advertised)
2 - RP
3 - RCD
5 - RAS


I haven't pushed my fsb any further, but if anyone is really curious, I might try it out one of these days to see how far I can go with these timings... You be the judge on RAM quality, but I'm a _very_ satisfied customer of hardcorecooling.com!

 

[pspada]

I've purchased from them several times, and have nothing but good things to say. One of the sticks of PC3200 I received was slightly damaged in shipping - that is, SPD set it to 266, but when set manually to 400 it ran fine. None the less, they had a new stick in my hands in 2 days, no extra charge, before I returned the defective one. I'll buy from them again with no hesitation.

 

[Yourself]

One word of advice....look under the heatspreader and make sure you get what you're paying for. The only time I ordered from them....that was not the case.


Self

 

[Corporate Thug]

this is prolly oced stuff, go with the buffalo stuff at newegg that use winbond chips, you can get pc3700 for less than that

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Honestly, how many times do people have to post their horror stories about their dealings with hardcorecooling in regards to memory before people stop posting their site? It seems I see about one thread about their cheap memory per month at least.

People like pspada seem to be the exception and I have no idea how they got that reseller rating. I've seen dozens of complaints here, on asusboards.com, hardforum, etc of people having problems ranging from memory not runing close to rated speed to getting outright scamed several months ago when they were advertising winbond 4.3ns chips while it was actually v-data 6ns (I belive) chips lurking under the spreaders. Can't these a holes just go away already?

 

[pspada]

I recall that, the did run out of Winbond and did ship some Vdata. The first chip was winbond, and when I ordered a few weeks later it was Vdata (they changed their web site to reflect the change that day). But when I called in, they took the 2nd chip back with no hesitation at all. My understanding is that anyone who was not happy with the memory was able to return it with no problems. That's probably why they have such a high resellerratings.com rating.

As I said, I have have had no problems ordering from them, and will continue to do so in the furture. Frankly I find their customer service to be excellent, very much better than places like newegg or googlegear, where it is impossible to speak to a person when having a problem.

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

But they didn't change their site to reflect the new chips until after they were called on it. Someone from hardform was brave enough to pull the spreaders to see what was underneath. He e-mailed them and the next day the site was changed. Pretty flaky imo. And for most people I saw getting them to take the mis-advertised sticks back wasn't quite as easy as it was for you. They did do it for everyone eventually but only after threats of restock fee's and other crap.

Oh, and the kicker for this company. I saw someone here and on hardforum with the same user name and exactly one post on each board post a thread in hot deals with a link to their site advertising their memory. A good company doesn't need to go onto enthusiast boards posing as a consumer to advertise their product. That's mickey mouse garbage.

 

[ThaChemist]

Hmmmm...

Wish I would have known this beforehand, I might have been a bit less hasty in purchasing from them. My positive experience still stands though... I'm really tempted to check under the heatspreaders to put things to rest - does anyone know if they're glued on or if it's just the clips? But anyway, I read about the "switcheroo" troubles on resellerratings.com, but it was pretty clear that if the chips weren't what was advertised, HCC was happy to take them back. Didn't see anybody there indicate lots of trouble, but I'm not going to argue what I don't know about! As far as posting the hot deals, that does sound a bit shady.

btw flxnimprtmscl, by "Can't these a holes just go away already?" did you mean me or hardcorecooling.com?

Finally, shady06,
Thanks for the heads-up, check out my first post in this thread to see why I didn't go with Newegg!

 

[Corporate Thug]

if you remove the clips on the heatspreader, they should easily come off. if they dont, they are glued on

 

[pspada]

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl
But they didn't change their site to reflect the new chips until after they were called on it. Someone from hardform was brave enough to pull the spreaders to see what was underneath. He e-mailed them and the next day the site was changed. Pretty flaky imo. And for most people I saw getting them to take the mis-advertised sticks back wasn't quite as easy as it was for you. They did do it for everyone eventually but only after threats of restock fee's and other crap.

Oh, and the kicker for this company. I saw someone here and on hardforum with the same user name and exactly one post on each board post a thread in hot deals with a link to their site advertising their memory. A good company doesn't need to go onto enthusiast boards posing as a consumer to advertise their product. That's mickey mouse garbage.

So, you've heard, and read, and made assumptions, without any of your own experience? I'd rather go by the 5 or 6 times I've ordered from them, and their high rating at resellerratings.com. Lastly, since you "saw someone here and there with a user name and a post", and that automatically is someone from the company hawking their wares? Seems unlikely too me.

You are welcome to your viewpoint, but I much rather deal with facts when evaluating a company, rather than "I heard", "I thought", or "someone said". And the facts appear to show them to be a reputable company, who goes out of their way to make their customers happy - exactly the same rational in place in my own company. Bravo, Hardcorecooling.com!

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Originally posted by: pspada

Originally posted by: flxnimprtmscl
But they didn't change their site to reflect the new chips until after they were called on it. Someone from hardform was brave enough to pull the spreaders to see what was underneath. He e-mailed them and the next day the site was changed. Pretty flaky imo. And for most people I saw getting them to take the mis-advertised sticks back wasn't quite as easy as it was for you. They did do it for everyone eventually but only after threats of restock fee's and other crap.

Oh, and the kicker for this company. I saw someone here and on hardforum with the same user name and exactly one post on each board post a thread in hot deals with a link to their site advertising their memory. A good company doesn't need to go onto enthusiast boards posing as a consumer to advertise their product. That's mickey mouse garbage.

So, you've heard, and read, and made assumptions, without any of your own experience? I'd rather go by the 5 or 6 times I've ordered from them, and their high rating at resellerratings.com. Lastly, since you "saw someone here and there with a user name and a post", and that automatically is someone from the company hawking their wares? Seems unlikely too me.

You are welcome to your viewpoint, but I much rather deal with facts when evaluating a company, rather than "I heard", "I thought", or "someone said". And the facts appear to show them to be a reputable company, who goes out of their way to make their customers happy - exactly the same rational in place in my own company. Bravo, Hardcorecooling.com!

Lol, that makes very good sense there. You shouldn't listen to what other people say but rather form you own conclusions. Yet you point to their reseller rating. That makes complete since. The reviews on resellerratings must have been left there by God or something....

As far as what "I heard" and "someone said" I saw the pics of the v-data chips that a customer got and saw the website advertising 4.3ns winbond chips on the same day. I suppose I should just completely discount that? I guess I should just ignore that and order some for myself so I can very possibly get burned and have the oportunity to form my own opinion. Very ammusing take.

As far as the troll that was here and on hardforums you're telling me that a person went out and joined two forums for the sole purpose of making one thread pimping some ram they got in the hot deals forum of both sites? You can think my conclusion is unlikely if you want but what you're trying to get me to belive seems more unlikely. The mods at hardforum seemed to feel the same way I do since they deleted the thread after about an hour or so.

 

[flxnimprtmscl]

Oops, didn't see your post ThaChemist. I was referring to hcc. I actually handn't read much of this thread when I made my first post. It would seem your experience was very good so maybe they've cleaned up their act or maybe not. I have no idea. I've just seen enough bad things out of them that I wouldn't order from them. Just like some people are with OCZ.

Also be very careful removing the heat spreaders. Most people said that they were fairly dificult to get off and removing them will void your waranty. If they can tell you did that is. But since you got them to run above spec why bother? As long as they'll do what they're rated at I wouldn't worry about what's under the spreader.