Customer Reviews

PNY OPTIMA 1GB DDR2 533 MHz PC2-4200 Desktop DIMM Memory Module MD1024SD2-533

5 star:		(53)
4 star:		(13)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

The shipping customer service, etc is fine.....HOWEVER, this is NOT to be used in HP computers approx 2-3 yrs old or older. This will destabilize most ANY of the HP pavilion series, Media Center series, the 7000 series (MC m7640 and related types) and so on. It's fine for Dells that require DDR2. But an HP requires a certain type of unbuffered memory and these ain't it!
Your system will most likely digest them for a period of time and then the fun begins OR you may notice de-stability right away. This IS good memory. The chips and quality of construction are fine; however they are made to slip from 400-533ghz & it MAY be that that design issue is what the problem is with an HP computer. If your computer demands (or comes with existing 533 speed...do not get RAM that adjusts. It may function fine for a period but it WILL destabilize the system at some point. !st you will notice a great deal of disk-swap, then you will notice freezing, & finally video dysfunction. At that point, your page-file has been corrupted & it's down-hill from there. If the problem is the "slip from 400-533 speed issue", cooling the RAM with canned air will give you functionality for about 10 minutes until they warm up. If that's the case: get them returned fast. Remember it's not bad RAM but some chipsets are NOT made for speed adjustable RAM & the $ saved is NOT worth the problems.
In case of an emergency and you HAVE to have them working for a day to finish something: create a new user so the page file can begin under that user. That should get you several hours of functionality before the fun starts again.
What's more many small board HP's place it's RAM slots in a VERY difficult area to access & these are long chips: install slowly and make very sure that the existing slots are dust free. These are NOT junk: but they are best used in clones or Dells; NOT HP computers. Since HP owns Compaq I would make an educated guess the same issue exists there also. What's more if you are upgrading any SERVER: this is not for you. Please don't try to save money on server level RAM. There are specific demands on that -& desktop home-computer chips are best left for nodes or standalones'.
Remember also that ANY 32bit OS can only recognize 3.3Gb of RAM. If you have 32bit Vista or XP, 3Gb is tops! You might be able to physically FIT 4 units in the board but the likelihood is that your system will NOT boot. If you have an HP it will destabilize even at 3gb. Great price, no heat sinks however and they are best used in clones or Dells. gateways MAY be OK.....I have not tried this brand in a Gateway or an Acer. If you are buying for an older server buy factory RAM.

The package, photos, and exact product shown on Amazon.com are not the same as the product shipped. The photos and advertising clearly show heat diffusers on the modules. They arrived as plain unprotected modules, same product number. Otherwise, they seem to be working fine. I actually called Amazon prior to ordering, because I saw the unprotected modules in a retail store ($52.99 plus tax), same product number, and was confused. Also, same comment as mine from other Amazon reviews. I was assured by Amazon that if there was a discrepancy in the past, it would have been corrected by now. It turns out that is not the case.

I had noted other reviewer's comments that the product received is not the one pictured on the Amazon website. Amazon pictures the sticks with heat spreaders that were not on the product I received.

I installed both 1 GB modules in a Dell Dimension 5150 that had come with two 512 MB modules. After installing I did a full memory check with the BIOS and then with Memtest86+ and both new modules worked fine. My desktop is 4 years old but this will hopefully give it a bit more life. I waited to order this from Amazon until I could order it along with a product that qualified for SuperSaver free shipping. The price was down to $42.00 for the 2 GB matched set. Note that this type of memory must be installed in matches sets. I was careful not to damage the memory with static when installing it.

Added 2GB of this PNY memory to my Dell 5150 desktop. It was easy enough to install and the PC recognized the additional memory as soon as I turned on the system. I had 2 banks of 512MB memory previously. Having 3GB now has made a nice difference in performance.

An engine search produced the item at an attractive price point for my aging Dell 8400. The memory works as advertised, but there are no heat spreaders as shown in the stock photo.

They work great on my computer but they are not the cool looking ones they have in the pic they are not covered by metal there just the chip but still is great.

I purchased these two modules. They were delivered less than a week later. I was able to install them in less than an hour and they really boost my computer speed. You won't find this price anywhere else.

I got two of these for my bf and he is absolutely thrilled with it. He can run the graphics on full with minimum lag on his emachine.

Item arrived in time, good condition and the quality of product was just as I expected. It was meant for a Dell 210L Desktop CPU and it worked perfect.

A friend had an older P4 PC running XP Professional that was getting slower and slower. The PC had 256mb RAM installed and I assumed that with newer apps, and web content using heavier graphics, scripts, Flash, etc. that memory was one culprit. Since we didn't want to spend for a CPU upgrade, I purchased 2 1GB DIMMs (only two memory slots) which I believe is XP's maximum addressable memory. PNY was purchased because it was less expensive and available in 2 days using Amazon Prime.

As with any memory, installation was a simple snap in replacement of the existing DIMM. The PC was significantly faster so without any discrete measurement, the memory works as advertised.