Ask Slashdot: What To Do With Over 500 Used DIMMs?

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Ask Slashdot: What To Do With Over 500 Used DIMMs?

Posted by samzenpus on Monday October 29, 2012 @05:55AM from the dimm-house dept.

An anonymous reader writes "My company is pursuing a RAM upgrade, resulting in 500+ used DDR3 4GB DIMMs. What could this be used for? Are there any cheap products on the market which can take a huge number of DIMMs? Is there a worthy cause we should donate the gear to?"

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PCs for Kids by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-29 05:57 · Score: 5, Interesting

Find out if there's a compters for kids or pcs for kids program in your area. They make computers available to low income kids at a very affordable price by recycling donated computers. They could definitely use ram donations.
1. Re:PCs for Kids by Archangel+Michael · 2012-10-29 06:10 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Donate to http://www.computersforclassrooms.org/
  They would end up going to Computers used in classrooms.
  
  --
  Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
2. Re:PCs for Kids by Kenja · 2012-10-29 06:31 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Better yet! Give them out as halloween "treats".
  
  --
  
  "Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
3. Re:PCs for Kids by Sponge+Bath · 2012-10-29 06:57 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Listen to this guy, do not futz around trying to think up uses or store them expecting to have a use in the future. Give it away now and be done with it. Soon it will be obsolete and no use to anyone. (says the man who recently trashed a bag of dusty, obsolete and now useless RAM)
4. Re:PCs for Kids by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-29 07:00 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  IANAA (I am not an accountant), but AFAIK, in the US, as long as the company didn't depreciate the capital on the computer overall, they can write off the full cost of the RAM against their taxes if they donate it to a charitable organization. Added up, it can be a rather sizable chunk of money, and can even offset the cost of the upgrade by a considerable margin. Win-win situation.
5. Re:PCs for Kids by eyrieowl · 2012-10-29 08:01 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  So..."I had it rough, the school district should continue to suck and give future generations the shaft"? Were they supposed to chug along with Apple II's until you came riding to the rescue? Also, are they never supposed to buy any new computers? Bear in mind that if they ever do, any older computers someone tries to donate shortly afterward would, likely, be "too old".
6. Re:PCs for Kids by kenh · 2012-10-29 08:16 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Dip them in chocolate, wrap them up in a colorful wrapper, and call them something like "Computer Memory dipped in chocolate" (include the quotes - the kids will think it's a joke name, then when they take a bite, the joke's on them!)
  
  --
  Ken
7. Re:PCs for Kids by loganljb · 2012-10-29 09:24 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Wouldn't that be 'take a byte'? Sorry, couldn't resist.
8. Re:PCs for Kids by Gilmoure · 2012-10-29 10:15 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  So... My 30 pin 16 meg SIMMs are not worth anything anymore? I just don't have a 30 MHz 68030 system anymore.
  
  --
  I drank what? -- Socrates
eBay... by kevin_j_morse · 2012-10-29 05:57 · Score: 5, Insightful

Why not just sell them? Slashdot always has to find creative things to do with old stuff. Just sell it and use the money for something else.
1. Re:eBay... by Anonymous Coward · 2012-10-29 06:12 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  First: Hold onto them until they're actually worth something. Sometime in the middle of the DDR4 lifecycle, it will become nearly impossible to find new 4GB DDR3 sticks, so people will have to turn to used sticks if they want to upgrade their machines from 8GB (4x2GB or 2x4GB) to 16 GB (4x4GB).
  History tells us that they will be valued at at least twice the original market rate. So sell now and get ~$7.5k, or wait 2-3 years and likely get $15-20k. I'd wait.
2. Re:eBay... by caffiend666 · 2012-10-29 06:36 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Just because something is worth a certain amount, does not mean it can be sold for that amount or that it is worth the time to sell something or warehouse it for years. Grandpa still has his tubes from his tv repair days. They are doubtlessly worth thousands. But, no one will pay fair value for them in bulk and it would take hundreds if not thousands of hours to sell them individually on ebay. It would have been better for him to sell them when he retired, even at a loss, and invest the money.
  
  --
  Here's to losing my Karma Bonus again....
3. Re:eBay... by rot26 · 2012-10-29 06:44 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  And yet putting them on eBay costs next to nothing and you'll never know until you try.
  
  At one point after a project failed to get off the ground I had about 100 new-in-box Supermicro ATX motherboards each with a couple of ISA slots. Turns out that after the death of ISA, those motherboards started gaining value until they were worth more than they cost new. So I sold them all and made thousands of dollars**.
  
  **This is a partially a lie, I was lazy and just threw them away.
  
  --
  
  To ensure perfect aim, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target
4. Re:eBay... by ArcadeNut · 2012-10-29 06:59 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  So the next /. story would be "Hey, I just bought 500 DIMMS on eBay, what should I do with them?"
  
  --
  Visit the Arcade Restoration Workshop @ http://www.arcaderestoration.com
Worthy Cause: Education by BabaChazz · 2012-10-29 05:59 · Score: 5, Informative

I don't know where OP is from, but in BC, Canada, there is a group called Computers For Schools BC, who are in the (government-funded) business of taking old computers and buffing them up for use in the school system. I suspect they would be pleased to receive something as close to current as 4GB DDR3... and they do enough volume that 500 of them would likely be used up in a month.
On this topic by Threni · 2012-10-29 06:03 · Score: 5, Funny

I've got a load of car stereos I want to shift fast because..uh..I've upgraded to in-car mp3 players or something. Anyway, if you want a load of car stereos quick and aren't going to ask too many questions then get in touch.
Armor by Microlith · 2012-10-29 06:07 · Score: 5, Funny

Put holes in the corners and connect them via metal rings. Create yourself a suit of nerd armor the likes of which has never been seen. With 500 DIMMs you should be able to get a chest piece or pair of gauntlets...
Re:Goodwill by ackthpt · 2012-10-29 06:15 · Score: 5, Insightful

Goodwill repairs and recycles computers.
We have something called The Grey Bears, which recovers and recycles working computers for low prices. Might be something like that in your community.
One cautionary word, though. Make absolutely certain your employer is completly cool with you gathering these up and sending them off to worthy causes, get it in writing lest some stuffed shirt bureaucrat or bean counter come around and claim you took company property - some employers have very bizarre ways of handling disposal of assets, even stuff like old, broken printers or CRT monitors, which you and I would think are largely worthless, they have numbers on books which state otherwise.

--

A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Donate them!! by EmagGeek · 2012-10-29 06:16 · Score: 5, Informative

Here's a charity local to me that builds PCs for the disadvantaged:
https://sites.google.com/site/carolinafreepc/
Purpose
To provide PCs with educational programs to low income
families and children at no cost.
Goals
To help kids become knowledgeable about computers
To interest kids in engineering and technology
To encourage kids to stay in school and graduate