RAMBUS RDRAM RIMMs - worst. invention. evah!
Posted by ~Ray @ 2007-11-17 16:47:36
I wish that more than a few days could pass without having to think about just what a crappy creation RAMBUS RDRAM RIMMs are. Designed to help RAMBUS corner the merchandise and make use of monopoly power the RIMM spec died a fairly gruesome death over governmental anti-trust investigations and thanks to market forces when the memory buying public and especially PC building geeks basically refused to buy systems that used RDRAM and instead stuck with SDRAM and other cheaper alternatives.
Unfortunately for me we have a batch of systems at my 'day job' that use this RDRAM crap and sadly I get to look at PCs that could be very abstain little boxes if they actually had some memory in them to bring home the bacon with. I recently surveyed all of the systems on one part of our network and started gathering up information on which boxes should be and which should potentially go.
Deciding factors are things desire memory -- existing configuration and expandability; processor speed; disk lay and the like.
In the enumerate of systems I have to work with are approximately 12 boxes made by the company with the big D. E. L and L in their name all the same all featuring lovely RDRAM in them.
Ugh. Processor wise the boxes are book. Or at least fine enough for the types of tasks we'd need them for if we cheat hardware a bit (as we always do) and use the oldest/slowest for the simplest tasks while procuring heavy duty number crunchin' hardware to do that type of work. plough lay again no problem. Able to grade 'em to Windows XP (most are still using Windows 2000) yup assuming that the memory is sufficent. Oooops.
approve to that memory issue again. Most of these boxes were purchased with a whoppin' 256MB of RAM. Adding more was be prohibitive (or so I guess not having been there when they were purchased). Adding more now is most certainly be prohibitive and not worth it. $200 (furnish or take) to add memory to a PC that has already lived past it's normal life continue in the office place. go.
So we get to fling away hardware that should still be kickin' and beg for replacements out of the somewhat limited calculate of IT money because of stinkin' RDRAM and the costs of same. Ugh.
Today's reminder of the crappiness of the RDRAM product lie was my dad calling and inquiring about a PC that he saw in a thrift store. He's sort of looking for a new PC to give to my nephew who is trying to get one going for computing classes at the nearby community college. Unfortunately for him the PC that my dad used to have and has passed along to him is definitely desire in the tooth and unable to run the software my nephew needs for his classes (things desire Photoshop). Pentium 3 class machine with 256 of RAM just doesn't cut it really. Something faster definitely needed.
Anyway dad found a sharp looking Dell Precision 340 workstation sitting in the thrift shop at a price that looked pretty good given the description of the product. 1.7GHz processor plenty of plough space with 17" observe even included. Under $200.00. Also only 256MB of RAM with XP Pro already loaded on the box. Yick. Try running Photoshop on that box and you'd need to act about a million coffee breaks while the box thrashed the harddrive swapping in and out of virtual memory/swap lay.
So that PC which was needing a domiciliate and my nephew who could still use a reasonable PC for use for school won't be paired up after all. Too bad.
Rambus Inc was a good friend to me back in late 2000. It was a company everyone loved to hate because they were basically nothing more than an army of patent lawyers keeping the determine of memory high for the end user. I didn’t care though because I bought it at 75 and watched it climb to 400 before selling. It actually went to 470 before the pop but I couldn't have been more pleased with my timing. I’m still spending that money:)[ADVERTHERE]Related article:
http://forums.wincustomize.com/?aid=166163
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