Any opinions on new Ebay RAM?

[chickenplucker]

The other day I got a new PSU in for my supposedly dead 8500 which had shown no prior signs of life, and to my shock and amazement it fired right up to a happy bong sound.

This is a new to me Mac, and I don't know any of the history on it, but have been starting to make a list of goodies to max it out already. First on that list is RAM.

After digging around on the ebay for a few hours not having any luck finding decently sized 5v 168pin DIMM's, I finally found a seller that is selling brand new 64mb and 128mb sticks for $5 and $10 respectively with free shipping. Price seems more than fair and already has my mind filled with thoughts of stuffing this poor old 8500 full of 1GB of EDO for no particular reason. Anyone try or use this stuff before, or have a better recommendation on where to get RAM for these older machines? 

 

[AlpineRaven]

My 8600 is currently running 1gb RAM - it is overkill - honestly you dont need that much for Pre-OSX.

Only one thing I noticed it did took longer at start up until I turned off the memory check in memory control panel, switched that off and it was quick to start up.

Cheers

AP

 

[CharlesT]

My go to would be MemoryX, but they're about twice the price you've been quoted. But I agree with AlpineRaven, unless you plan on trying to run some flavor of OSX on that machine (which in my opinion isn't a rewarding experience), 1GB is massive overkill. Even half that is more than you're ever to likely use running OS9 or under.

 

[beachycove]

Ah, yes, but you could set up a RAM disk using a RAM disk utility and run the whole system from it, for lightning fast responses.

 

[Byrd]

... and it's kind of cool to max out the RAM on a system where it once would have cost as much as a small car to do

 

[Juror22]

If I decipher this correctly, these same DIMMs would also work in my 7600/132?

 

[EvieSigma]

That company hasn't let me down with SDRAM, DDR1, or DDR2 but I didn't even know they had EDO! I should get some for my Gateway 2000, it supports 256MB after all.

 

[chickenplucker]

I ended up getting a 128mb stick just to try, will report back (assuming the 8500 keeps booting). For 10 bucks figured why not. Im well aware 1gb is overkill but I mostly have laptops in my collection and a maxed out 68k tower would be a nice oppisite of that.

@itsvince725

I was very suprised to find they had EDO as well! Never would have thought in 2018 you could get that stuff new. 

@Juror22

They should work, would be the same stuff as the 8500 takes. There are 3.3 volt and 5 volt 168pin DIMMs, I think most macs mainly need the 5v ones.

 

[johnklos]

I have a Power Mac 9600 with 1.5 gigs of memory running NetBSD. It has been quite useful as memory usage with php under Apache has ballooned over the years. I can't think of another computer from the mid 1990s that could take as much memory or could take accelerators up to what's available for that line of Macs. They were very well designed.

 

[Unknown_K]

I buy new RAM from ebay all the time, rarely have issues. 512MB is pretty good for OS 9 even with demanding apps. I still have 4 x 128MB Powermac DIMMs still in the shrinkwrap last time I seen a sale. Sooner or later supply will run out and then prices will rise.

 

[Cory5412]

To add:

I have bought RAM from eBay, it could be worth a shot, especially if it's a good savings over what that RAM might cost you elsewhere.

Regarding setting up an 8500 specifically: I would target somewhere around 256 megs. I have an 8600 that I'm going to be setting up, and I'll probably try to get it around there. It has 128 megs now, if I remember correctly, and I know that will be a fine starting point.

Larger amounts of RAM will be good if you decide to do things like get into multimedia production, run Mac OS X (which I'll agree with the above, probably won't be a particularly rewarding experience, but it could be neat to try out anyway), or run modern linux/bsd for, as johnklos said, tasks there that might require a bit more RAM than your typical '90s desktop workload.

 

[ArmorAlley]

I have bought RAM from a couple of sellers in the States and the two that spring to mind are:

 1. Data Memory Systems https://www.datamemorysystems.com/apple-powermac-pre-g3-memory-upgrades/

 2. LEM Swap List - Mo Hammad mhammad@mac.com

The RAM I received from both of them was not expensive, delivered reasonably quickly (I pay for slow postage) and the people in question were able to answer my questions.

 

[just.in.time]

To play devil’s advocate, if you plan on using the 8500 as a bridge machine I would max the RAM to 1gb. If you are using Classilla to download old software you will be very greatful to have the RAM. Modern web pages tend to eat right through it.