Buying used RAM

[Hip]

Hey guys

I'd like to upgrade my memory and would like to buy used RAM.

But how old is too old?

Are there any risks of a failure when it's too old?

Is 5 year old RAM ok to buy?

 

Thanks for all your help!

[Razor Blade]

Not really sure RAM really goes bad... at least I haven't experienced age related failures. I still have original DDR sticks (thats DDR1) that still work dandy. I'd say as long as the RAM isn't abused or somehow modified, I wouldn't have a problem buying it.

[WereCatf]

7 minutes ago, Hip said:

Is 5 year old RAM ok to buy?

Age doesn't really say much. I have 11 years old RAM-sticks that are still perfectly functional.

[Tabs]

16 minutes ago, Hip said:

Hey guys

I'd like to upgrade my memory and would like to buy used RAM.

But how old is too old?

Are there any risks of a failure when it's too old?

Is 5 year old RAM ok to buy?

 

Thanks for all your help!

The only ram I had that ever went bad was a single stick of DDR4 bought in 2016.

 

Like others here I've still got old sticks of ram (oldest to hand being DDR3 bought with my i7-920 in 2008) that still works flawlessly, and never before my recent DDR4 failure has a stick gone bad. Age is much less important for something like memory, more important as @Razor Blade suggested, is if it's been abused in some way.

[Kered124]

If you are concerned, and know the seller, you could ask them to run memtest86 to show that the RAM is performing as it should.

 

[Crunchy Dragon]

37 minutes ago, Hip said:

Hey guys

I'd like to upgrade my memory and would like to buy used RAM.

But how old is too old?

Are there any risks of a failure when it's too old?

Is 5 year old RAM ok to buy?

 

Thanks for all your help!

RAM is too old if it's pre-DDR3 in my opinion, anything prior to that is not worth getting unless you're an old tech enthusiast such as myself.

I haven't heard of RAM failing due to age.

Most likely 5 year old RAM is fine.

[Christophe Corazza]

RAM does not expire or does not get "old". What kind of RAM are yoiu looking for? DDR3 or DDR4?

[nick name]

I believe most manufacturers offer a lifetime warranty with their RAM so you should be ok. Right guys?

[Hip]

2 hours ago, Tabs said:

The only ram I had that ever went bad was a single stick of DDR4 bought in 2016.

 

Like others here I've still got old sticks of ram (oldest to hand being DDR3 bought with my i7-920 in 2008) that still works flawlessly, and never before my recent DDR4 failure has a stick gone bad. Age is much less important for something like memory, more important as @Razor Blade suggested, is if it's been abused in some way.

What do you mean by "abused"? Overclocking?

[Hip]

1 hour ago, Christophe Corazza said:

RAM does not expire or does not get "old". What kind of RAM are yoiu looking for? DDR3 or DDR4?

I'm looking for DDR3 RAM

[Tabs]

2 minutes ago, Hip said:

What do you mean by "abused"? Overclocking?

 

1 minute ago, Hip said:

I'm looking for DDR3 RAM

 

I would say "Abused" would either be overclocking with extreme voltage - for DDR3, that's anything above 1.575, or molesting the actual module for some reason - like to apply custom cooling, or to make it fit under a CPU heatsink with clearance issues, etc.

[Christophe Corazza]

2 minutes ago, Hip said:

I'm looking for DDR3 RAM

 

DDR3 RAM should not be considered as "old" per se. If you buy DD33 RAM modules from a reputable brand (and seller) then you should be perfectly fine.

Most RAM manufacturers offer a lifetime warranty on their products. This comes to show that RAM is not very likely to fail if it is used appropriately.

[Tabs]

1 minute ago, Christophe Corazza said:

 

DDR3 RAM should not be considered as "old" per se. If you buy DD33 RAM modules from a reputable brand (and seller) then you should be perfectly fine.

Most RAM manufacturers offer a lifetime warranty on their products. This comes to show that RAM is not very likely to fail if it is used appropriately.

Exactly this. DDR3 might be "old" by tech standards (the first main platforms using it came out 10 years ago, and the standard was finalised almost more than a year before that), but in terms of both performance and longevity, most of it is still kicking around. It's no less useful now than it was ten years ago.

 

Some high performance DDR3 kits still give DDR4 kits a run for their money - DDR3-2400 has cas latencies as low as 10 - good luck finding a DDR4-2400 kit capable of the same. DDR4 only really becomes dominant when their frequency pushes past 3200.

[Christophe Corazza]

7 minutes ago, Tabs said:

Exactly this. DDR3 might be "old" by tech standards (the first main platforms using it came out 10 years ago, and the standard was finalised almost more than a year before that), but in terms of both performance and longevity, most of it is still kicking around. It's no less useful now than it was ten years ago.

 

Some high performance DDR3 kits still give DDR4 kits a run for their money - DDR3-2400 has cas latencies as low as 10 - good luck finding a DDR4-2400 kit capable of the same. DDR4 only really becomes dominant when their frequency pushes past 3200.

 

Ideed, completely agree.

As previously mentioned DDR3 isn't dead and will continue to work just fine. The only real difference you're going to see is if you're using software that can take advantage of the higher memory speeds. If your primary focus is on gaming then you really won't see much of a difference.

[Hip]

27 minutes ago, Christophe Corazza said:

 

DDR3 RAM should not be considered as "old" per se. If you buy DD33 RAM modules from a reputable brand (and seller) then you should be perfectly fine.

Most RAM manufacturers offer a lifetime warranty on their products. This comes to show that RAM is not very likely to fail if it is used appropriately.

I'm planning to get them cheap from a private seller from ebay. That's why I'm a bit confused about what may be when RAM was used for some years >.<

[Tabs]

9 minutes ago, Hip said:

I'm planning to get them cheap from a private seller from ebay. That's why I'm a bit confused about what may be when RAM was used for some years >.<

How cheap is it being sold for - and what capacity are you buying?

 

DDR3 is much cheaper now than it used to be, but there are still folk out there selling cheap knockoff gear.

[Razor Blade]

1 hour ago, Hip said:

What do you mean by "abused"? Overclocking?

Abused to me would mean mishandling... such as picking it out of a giant pile of recycling, packing it up in some butcher paper, and selling it on eBay...yes that is a specific example. Granted I got really lucky and the RAM still functioned perfectly fine. For the price I paid, I took the chance. Though I could see overclocking potentially causing damage as well. 

[Hip]

7 hours ago, Tabs said:

How cheap is it being sold for - and what capacity are you buying?

 

DDR3 is much cheaper now than it used to be, but there are still folk out there selling cheap knockoff gear.

16GB is around 75-80 euro

[Christophe Corazza]

1 hour ago, Hip said:

16GB is around 75-80 euro

 

That sounds like a fair price to me.