What Can You Do with Old Memory?

An anonymous reader asks: "I've just upgraded the RAM in a bunch of laptops and have several gigs of spare PC2700 memory sitting in a desk drawer. I also have another project which requires a large amount of low latency temporary storage. So, I figured this would be a great place to employ a dedicated hardware ramdisk but I am having a problem finding one that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, or preferably an empty unit that works with my spare memory. I have found many discussion forums which talk about building an IDE ramdisk out of commodity RAM, but have not found anyone that has actually done it. Has anyone on Slashdot found such a holy grail? Is anyone currently working on such a project? Do any of you have the engineering experience and interest to design such a device?" What novel purposes have you done with spare RAM that you haven't had the heart to throw away?

"Before you ask, my primary server is maxed out on RAM at 2 gigs, and I am still filling up my 1 gig software ramdisk when I end up with an unusually large data set that needs processing. Yes, I am aware that an IDE device would be limited by the IDE interface for throughput, but I am more concerned with latency then throughput, and IDE is common and simple enough to connect to any of my desktop servers without the need for an add in card."

laptop ram?

[Goeland86]

man, if you don't wanna throw it away, sell it on ebay, and then with the money you make buy something adequate for it. I'll buy some of that ram myself, if you have a 512 meg bar.
Seriously, that ram is worth cash, get the cash, then buy what you've been looking at that was out of your budget before.

Take it to you local computer surplus store

[HotNeedleOfInquiry]

And just give it to them. Next time you need something, you'll be surprised at how generous they are. I've taken my old but serviceable stuff to the local surplus store for years. I've also received stuff I've needed for projects for pennies on the dollar.

Donate it to someone who needs it!

[jcbphi]

Its not so novel, but I'm sure there are plenty of schools, community centers, etc. around where you live that could always use spare hardware. A lot of the boxes these organizations receive are stripped down, and having extra sticks of RAM is very useful for them.

My grandmother uses a computer built from donated parts that a local group provides for the elderly, and she's now able to talk with her 4 generations of family over email (which is pretty well spread around the world now). There are probably tax breaks for you too, but in general donating unused hardware to those that will use it is a Good Thing.

I do something a little odd with my RAM...

[CliffH]

.... I had a good joke lined up but I'll can it for now. :) Anyway, I go out of my way to find BAD RAM. Why?I've had a few motherboards come in that have falsly reported known bad RAM (run through hardware and software based RAM testing equipment) as good RAM, which caused all kinds of install time goodness. Now, I keep known bad sticks to test in various machines which seem to be a little "off". It's also wise to keep spare power supplies, CPUs, hard drives and the like as well. If for any other purpose then just to rule other things out of a particularly problemsome build. Also, the RAM keychain idea, as much as I've used it over the years (past 10 or so), has the added bonus at times of showing that you know something about computers (whether rightly or wrongly). This MAY or may NOT be what you want all of the time. :)