TOPRAM from ebay, any good?

[nimba]

Hi all,

I just bought some TOPRAM (woooooo!) from ebay and i dont know what to expect. It claims to be very compatible with all brands, including thinkpads. Its for my x60t.

I bought 2x2gb (4gb) DDR2 667

I cant find any reviews on this ram, but the stuff is all over ebay. What do you guys think?

[rkawakami]

They appear to be a second or third tier memory outfit based in Taiwan, offering the usual products such as modules, flash cards, and other consumer gadgets:

http://www.topram.com/

The US office is a couple of towns over from me but I've never heard of them. As with all memories, when you get the modules throughly check them out with a diagnostic program like memtest86+ for at least three complete passes to make sure that they will work when subjected to the maximum temperatures your system normally encounters. The majority of memory failures occur (or are detected) very early in the memory chip's life. The price differential between "cheap" memory and "expensive" memory is usually due to the amount (and type) of testing the memory has been subjected to. Module builders such as the type of what Topram appears to be, simply buy the cheapest RAM on the open market and solder them onto a module. That module may then only receive minimal testing; basically only checking for assembly errors (opens or shorts) as opposed to complete electrical testing to a published datasheet.

Yes, there are standards which are supposed to be adhered to in order to be called PC2-4200 or PC2-5300 compliant, but what matters sometimes is how closely the module comes to just barely passing that spec. Shortcuts can be made during testing. Some module builders might simply install their modules into a regular computer or laptop, boot it and if it passes POST (the power-on, self-test which is performed when turning on a computer), declare it "good". Others will use small bench-top testers which run some test patterns that exercise the memory a little bit more and can detect some failures which would not be caught by a POST. I would say that none of these module houses would use a program like memtest86+ simply because it takes too much time. And time is money.

[nimba]

thanks, I will definitely give them the memtest treatment. I've always used stuff from well known manufacturers like kingston, ocz and mushkin, much of which has been using hynix chips. I've been happy with it so i was wondering what this cheap stuff will do. I will post my experience when i get them.

[rkawakami]

Please do. I've recently purchased a couple of PC133 modules, also from a "no-name" source, and they seem to be working very well so far. Once I gather some more data I intend to post my findings.

[ajkula66]

I've had some PC2700 RAM from this manufacturer, I believe it was 2 x 1Gb sticks, and it worked well.