Spectek 256MB DDR PC2100 $9.98AR

[beserker15]

officemax has these spectek rams for $39.98-$30mir=$9.98 . good deal since the price of ram are increasing. just wondering, does anyone know if this offer only works online? or can it be purchased locally?

 

[shiftomnimega]

Originally posted by: beserker15
officemax has these spectek rams for $39.98-$30mir=$9.98 . good deal since the price of ram are increasing. just wondering, does anyone know if this offer only works online? or can it be purchased locally?

WHOA

I'll make it my business to find out later today.

 

[mscdex0]

I picked these up locally when they had this deal a month ago or so. The store near me was only giving out 2 per customer, but that's up to each Officemax store. So I had someone else go in and get me another 2 sticks. 1GB for $40 not bad

 

[mrrman]

Looks like it can be done online to...wish it was 2700

 

[Z80]

Originally posted by: mscdex0
I picked these up locally when they had this deal a month ago or so. The store near me was only giving out 2 per customer, but that's up to each Officemax store. So I had someone else go in and get me another 2 sticks. 1GB for $40 not bad

I did the same. I made sure that I got the sticks that had PC2700 chips. Take a magnifying glass with you and ask to see a selection of sticks. At least get sticks that have the same brand of chips on them.

 

[Buickbeast]

Originally posted by: mscdex0
I picked these up locally when they had this deal a month ago or so. The store near me was only giving out 2 per customer, but that's up to each Officemax store. So I had someone else go in and get me another 2 sticks. 1GB for $40 not bad

How did you fill out all of the rebates?

 

[bupkus]

Originally posted by: Z80
<blockquote>Quote
Originally posted by: mscdex0
I picked these up locally when they had this deal a month ago or so. The store near me was only giving out 2 per customer, but that's up to each Officemax store. So I had someone else go in and get me another 2 sticks. 1GB for $40 not bad

I did the same. I made sure that I got the sticks that had PC2700 chips. Take a magnifying glass with you and ask to see a selection of sticks. At least get sticks that have the same brand of chips on them.[/quote]

Just what should one look for?

 

[ThisIsMatt]

Originally posted by: bupkus

Originally posted by: Z80
<blockquote>Quote
Originally posted by: mscdex0
I picked these up locally when they had this deal a month ago or so. The store near me was only giving out 2 per customer, but that's up to each Officemax store. So I had someone else go in and get me another 2 sticks. 1GB for $40 not bad

I did the same. I made sure that I got the sticks that had PC2700 chips. Take a magnifying glass with you and ask to see a selection of sticks. At least get sticks that have the same brand of chips on them.

Just what should one look for?[/quote]A 6 at the end of the markings to indicate 6ns, rather than a 7 or 75. Even then, I have 6ns sticks that won't do pc2700 even on ghetto timings...

 

[KenSr]

I just ordered mine.
They also have a Micro Advantage 52x24x52 CD-RW for $9.98 AR.
I ordered one of these also and got free shipping.

Thanks beserker15
Ken

 

[Replay]

Spectek labelled chips are specially selected from some of the lowest quality Micron production you can buy. It is still fine for the money, and does much better than the rated speed.
Spectek PC2100, with "-6" PC2700 chips, is slower than 9 of the 10 Kingston &amp; PNY cheap ram deals (Free-$10-$20) I got in the last year. The Spectek "-6" was Prime95/3DMark stable at 193 MHz. The most recent Kingston PC2100 "-7" stick is stable at 216 MHz, single channel, 2.5/7/3/3 in an NF2 mobo.

 

[HeroOfPellinor]

LOL...I went back for the CDRW to eliminate the shipping and it went CBO. Dead.

 

[bupkus]

I just picked up a couple sticks and both say the following:

AE 0307
S80032VMCTW
-75A

But I figure at PC2100 they'll work for low end desktops.

 

[momar]

Really can't go wrong for $10, especially in this memory market. I nabbed a stick from my local b&m with the following markings. VT3225804T-75.

 

[bupkus]

Testing two sticks with MEMTEST-86 v3.0 and so far no errors in 2nd pass.

 

[ThisIsMatt]

The stick I got was 6ns...installed it, but haven't tried it (my main comp is maxed out on slots, so it's in my other comp, whose monitor bit the dust).

 

[bupkus]

This is printed on the back of the package:

THE PRODUCTS ARE NOT AUTHORIZED FOR USE AS CRITICAL COMPONENTS IN LIFE SUPPORT... blah blah woof woof ...WITHOUT THE EXPRESS WRITTEN APPROVAL OF THE PRESIDENT OF MICRON SEMICONDUCTOR PRODUCTS, INC.

I didn't know SPECTEK was owned by MICRON.

 

[Claw13Angel]

i dont see it

 

[Conky]

I've owned one stick of PC2700 DDR Spectek RAM I bought from newegg and it completely died about 2 months later. I asked them to replace it because it was "lifetime guaranteed" and they informed me they stopped selling it because of such a high failure rate. They did replace it with some nice Kingmax RAM which is also lifetime guaranteed.

If you have it and you like it, great, I am happy for you. But my experience with this stuff has been negative and apparently newegg agrees with me. Not trying to threadcrap just trying to help people not have to go thru the heartache I went thru.

 

[Mecheater]

I picked up one of these before for a build out I did and I haven't heard any problems from them so I guess it is ok. Too bad 0 out of 3 of local B&amp;M have any in stock cause I need to build out a few comps around the offices.

 

[Subodim]

I picked up a couple of the SpecTek 256MB "PC2100" modules at a local OfficeMax yesterday. They are actually identical to a couple of SpecTek 256MB "PC2700" modules that I bought from Best Buy last month. They use Samsung (not Micron) chips with the following markings:

S80032VMCTW -6A

There were some 512MB "PC2700" modules on the same display rack that used similar chips:

S80064VMCTW -6A

One of the little stickers on the "PC2100" modules was covered up by a second little sticker. I'm not sure what the first one says, but I wonder if the module was originally labelled "PC2700". In any case, I think it's pretty clear that SpecTek is selling the same modules as both "PC2100" and "PC2700". (I can see the logic in doing so. It's a good way to handle inventory, and customers who think they NEED PC2100 modules instead of PC2700 modules have something to buy.)

Of course, it has also occurred to me that despite the similarity of the chips, the "PC2100" modules might be labelled as such because the factory determined that they couldn't be validated at 333MHz. But I'm not familiar with the manufacturing process, so I couldn't say one way or the other.

There were also a couple of "PC2100" modules on the display rack that had Samsung chips marked "-75". Those are undoubtedly true PC2100 modules, and I wouldn't try to overclock them much.

As far as I can tell, all four of the stores in my area are now sold out except for one "-75" module. But here's the thing. Before I drove to any of the stores, I called ahead, and they all said that they were out of stock. (One store might get a new shipment on Thursday.) I went to one of the stores anyway to buy some other items. When I got there, I looked at the display rack myself and found four modules on the wrong hook (behind the PC133 modules). Either a careless clerk had put them there or a sneaky customer was trying to hide them until he had a chance to return. I was lucky that I found them, but it just goes to show that you can't believe everything you hear.

 

[tkistre]

I bought a stick of Spectek about 2 months ago from OfficeMax. They were substituting it for Kingston memory on sale that they were out of. I noticed when I was opening it that the sticker on the memory stated PC2700, and the box stated PC2100. I was concerned since the rebate stated PC2100. I called SpecTek and they told me they put PC2700 in all PC2100 boxes since it is backward compatible and I wouldn't have a problem with rebate, and I didn't. I just purchased another stick last week and it was the same. I put one in a Gigabyte board with a VIA KT400 chipset and a MSI board with the SIS 745 chipset. I have not had any issues, but I'm not overclocking these systems either.

Since I was told SpecTek was made by Micron, I called them. Micron claims that they do manufacture SpecTek. It is more of a industry standard type memory and only goes through minimum testing required, while Crucial gets first quality components, goes through more testing and guarantees compatibility.

 

[Subodim]

On a sidenote, I just looked at a PNY Optima 512MB PC2700 module I bought a few weeks ago, and the board actually has the name SpecTek on it. (It uses Samsung chips.)

So let's see... Micron owns SpecTek, SpecTek uses Samsung chips, and PNY sells SpecTek modules. Apparently, there's a lot going on in the memory industry.

 

[Mallow]

thanks!

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Subodim
On a sidenote, I just looked at a PNY Optima 512MB PC2700 module I bought a few weeks ago, and the board actually has the name SpecTek on it. (It uses Samsung chips.)

So let's see... Micron owns SpecTek, SpecTek uses Samsung chips, and PNY sells SpecTek modules. Apparently, there's a lot going on in the memory industry.

Yep. I've even seen Crucial modules with, say, Infineon memory on them, at times. The memory industry is funny that way. But consider the fact that both Crucial and SpecTek have retail module brands, and even though they are owned by Micron, one of the major DRAM mfg'rs, they still have to fulfill customer demands for modules, even if their production side is in short supply. Sometimes they purchase DRAM on the open market from other first-tier mfgs to fill the demand for their modules. They also may do it when it's cheaper to purchase memory from others than it costs them to make it. (This has been true several times, when memory was selling for less than what it cost to produce. In that case, Micron was actually avoiding losing money on memory by buying it from other companies, that were losing money on it. Clever, eh?)

I've seen some of the "SpecTek Select" packages at BB, and I think I did see some Samsung chips on some of them.

You are lucky though, that your local OM store has the memory in a visible display. All of my local stores have these paper slips that you have to bring up to the counter to purchase memory. I've asked them before to bring out a selection of packages, but they very rarely do, usually they just bring out one and leave it with the cashier at the checkout. :|

I picked up one of those Kingston ValueRAM PC2100 packages at OM a couple of weeks back, when they were $20 AR, but they had totally-generic chips on them, mfg etched off of the chips, only "DDR 32M x 8 -7A" on them. Since I need PC2700, I was wary of trying to OC generic chips, which are usually not first-tier memory. I eventually returned them.

If you can find actual PC2700, or possibly even DIMMs with the Hynix chips used to make PC3200 memory, this is a really hot deal indeed.

 

[orky56]

is this deal still alive?