Generic Ebay Ram...who bought some and did it work out?

Hey everybody, I have a XPS M1530 and I need to get more then 4gb of ram as I'm doing things with VM ware and need to max out the laptop with the full 8gb.

I've missed a good deal at a local pc shop for mushkin 8gb ddr2 ram @ 125.00 so I've started browsing ebay and trying to see if I can find some ram. I've come across some of these generic ram sticks and they aren't too expensive, same price as the mushkin on special.

My question to you all, who has purchased Generic Ram from ebay? If you bought some, how did it work out?


Thank you

 

RAM is RAM is RAM. RAM chips only come from very few manufacturers these days, the PCB is sourced from almost the same sources, the only difference is those companies provided end user support and warranty services.

 

i agree but i would be careful of generic RAM from ebay.. look for the warranty.

Panther214

 

there is likely binned ram also but unless you wanna overclock using setfsb you dont care much

 

Back when RAM prices spiked, I looked into buying some of this myself. What I was able to determine was that eBay "generic" RAM is often what's referred to as high-density, and is completely incompatible with most intel/AMD chipsets. Furthermore, the sellers either won't take returns at all, or force you to pay them a restocking fee for a product that was never going to work in your computer from the beginning (but they tried to tell you it would), and sometimes even force you to leave them positive feedback saying that it does, indeed, work before they'll take a return.

Avoid at all costs, imo.

 

Thanks everybody for the responses. I've had mix opinions on this and from forums that I've read some people have been happy while others just rather stay away.

I'd need the 8gb for VMware but can't find a decent deal for a good set of ram anywhere :-(

 

Pay with PayPal, if it turns out incompatible and the seller is giving you grief, open a dispute. You'll get all your money back, with no restocking fee.

I've bought tons of memory off eBay and never had one problem.

 

Never heard problems of high density memory after DDR1, and sounds like you got played by sellers even though the ball was in your court. You have to let yourself be scammed like that.

 

I asked myself the very same question 2 weeks ago when I was purchasing RAM.

My own opinion - go for something middle class. For example the cheapest from a known brand. I agree that RAM is RAM... but I am still sure there are differences, even not noticeable to the naked eye. And instead of dealing with suspicious warranty support from an unknown brand and even putting your motherboard at risk... just invest in something known, UNLESS the price difference is that huge, which was not the case when I was ordering.

One thing is sure - if you don't plan to play around with your computer and overclock everything (particularly the RAM) - there is ABSOLUTELY no need to aim at the expensive brands and models. As I said - my advise would be to buy the cheapest well known brand and model, like:

Corsair
G.Skill
Kingston
Samsung
OCZ
Patriot
Hynix

or at least one of the following, which are known, but considered "cheap quality":

ADATA
Transcend
TeamGroup
etc...

 

Not sure I really got "played" by anyone, my course of action was simply not to buy more RAM until prices came back down.

Today I can get 4gb DDR3 for $30 at Microcenter if I wanted

 

I'm just saying all those problems you mentioned about buying something from Ebay were not correct. There is no reason for you to get stuck with RAM that doesn't work, regardless of what a seller might tell you.

 

I bought generic ebay ram off ebay 2x4GB modules and they work perfectly fine. Spectek is the name of the ram.