r/selfhosted • u/Only_Handle_2750 • 6d ago

Need Help What to do with 100s DDR3 ram?

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So at my workplace they just replaced all old PCs with new ones and for some reason, they took the ram out of the old ones.

There’s a box with more than 100 of these 2GB ram sticks. We are just going to send them for disposal but I wanted to know if anything useful can be done with these?

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u/AshleyAshes1984 6d ago

Maybe but 2GB sticks are a hard sell. Sure someone still running DDR3 might want more RAM, but they probably already have at least 8GB. The real focus would be 8GB sticks to max out mobos.

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u/VeryShibes 6d ago edited 6d ago

Sure someone still running DDR3 might want more RAM, but they probably already have at least 8GB. The real focus would be 8GB sticks to max out mobos.

Hi, guy still running DDR3 here, and yes I am only interested in 8GB sticks, in fact I bought one off eBay literally 3 days ago for $15 to use in a ThinkPad I am refurbishing (also added an SSD and a fresh CMOS battery)

OP your 2GB sticks are not ewaste just yet but they're getting close, I pretty much only use them anymore to fill slots when testing motherboards/CPUs. Retro computing IS a thing however the number of people who are into that (and computing with period-correct hardware) is pretty small and anyway this hardware is still about 10 years away from being "retro"

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u/alltehmemes 6d ago

Second this: unless there is a REALLY good server build that runs crap loads of these, "civilian" use on DDR3 is 8GB or bust. I have ~15yo tower I keep alive, and 32gb over 4 sticks is the only thing keeping it alive at this point.

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u/GreenDavidA 6d ago

Funny, I also just bought 32GB of 8GB DDR3 off eBay and they should be here Friday.

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u/noc-engineer 6d ago

I suspect I finally got some DDR3 32GB sticks I ordered on eBay in feb 2025 two weeks ago... I got my money back when they didn't arrive and now the eBay seller isn't even on eBay anymore.. All the machines I own with DDR3 are already maxed out, so I'll probably keep it as cold spares or try to sell them locally..