Upgrading RAM in SPARC 10

robbyjo · Guru Joined: 06 Apr 2003 Posts: 462

Hi all,

I'm looking for further info on upgrading the RAM of my UltraSPARC 10. Currently, it only has 256 MB in all 4 modules. After I scoured up in the net, I found this info:
Sunhelp forum
Crucial's "approved Sun RAM"
Crucial's generic RAM
SunSolve's Hardware spec
Sun's memory spec

I found out that:
Sun Ultra 5/10 can have RAM with the following info:
168 pin DIMM
3.3 volt
EDO
ECC
buffered
8k refresh
60nS (or 50nS for processor >= 360MHz)

My questions are:
1. How can we determine that a particular RAM has 8k refresh?
2. I noticed that in the forum that if the RAM has only 4k refresh, the system will only detect half of it. Is this true under Gentoo Linux? Sun's HW spec doesn't mention that.
[edit]3. Is it worth it?[/edit]

Please share your experience. Thanks

riposte · n00b Joined: 17 Nov 2003 Posts: 69 Location: New Zealand

Im not sure I would bother trying some untested ram when fully compatible 3rd party and sun original ram is available pretty cheaply on ebay. Try searching the Server and Workstation categories for sun ultra and Im sure you will find some suitable offerings or at least some part numbers. I recently picked up 1 gig of ram to sqeeze into my ultra 5 from there.

HTH

d0glesby · n00b Joined: 30 Jan 2005 Posts: 1

It's not worth it to buy new RAM for your SS10.

Hit eBay, look for memory that works in an SS10/20, or Ultra 1/2. They're compatible.

Right now, four 128MB sticks of RAM for your system goes for about $39 on eBay (just looked tonight).

I've got an SS20 that I'm thinking of loading Gentoo on. It only has 256MB of RAM, though.