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I have a heap of memory modules (DDR2 2GB) I'm not using and was wondering if I could have any practical use for them in any other way. Is it for instance possible to attach them to some kind of unit to make them into an external SSD?

Andreas Zita
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  • Possible? Yes. Practical? No. – Eric F Jan 15 '15 at 16:09
  • Possible dupe: http://superuser.com/questions/251694/is-dimm-to-usb-convertor-available – ernie Jan 15 '15 at 16:16
  • The amount of work it would take would be extremely tough. You would have to write the firmware to handle everything. Of course even if you did that perfectly, you would end up with volatile storage, the minute it lost power the data would be gone. – Ramhound Jan 15 '15 at 16:36
  • In the past there have been a product or two that used DIMMs (aka memory sticks) as a RAMdisk. The board had the same footprint as a 5.25" drive and had N slots for DIMMs. It connected to the PC with an IDE or SATA interface. Probably also had a connection for a battery. – sawdust Jan 15 '15 at 19:03
  • Here's a current PCIe version for SODIMMs: http://www.thessdreview.com/our-reviews/allone-cloud-disk-drive-101-ramdisk-review-500k-iops-ddr3-storage/2/ – sawdust Jan 15 '15 at 19:15
  • @sawdust - $6000 and $15000 depending on the unit type? No one is beating down the door at those "bargain" prices. – Carl B Jan 15 '15 at 19:53
  • @CarlB - Then hows about $300 for bulky external enclosure and 6 DIMM slots: [ACARD 5.25" SATA SSD DDR2 RAM Disk - Model ANS-9010B](http://www.ebay.com/itm/ACARD-5-25-SATA-SSD-DDR2-RAM-Disk-Model-ANS-9010B-/121481757028?pt=US_Solid_State_Drives&hash=item1c48e08164) – sawdust Jan 15 '15 at 20:10

2 Answers2

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No.

First off, its the wrong type of memory. Your DDR2 memory is SDRAM. (Most) SSD drives use NAND memory. SDRAM requires power to keep data in memory, while NAND does not.

This means, even if you did convert the SDRAM into an external device, as soon as the device lost power all your data is gone.

NAND will hold data, essentially forever, without power. That is why SSDs use NAND.

There are add on cards that let you use SDRAM as storage though. They often use a battery to keep the data while to computer is off. But they appear to have died off, as they are expensive and not effective with the size of memory and caching in modern computers.

Keltari
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Yes, it is possible.

No, it is not practical, nor cost effective.

You would need

  • a custom circuit board with
  • DDR2 sockets soldered on
  • add a memory controller to manage the RAM
  • add a serial I/O controller to move data in and out of the device
  • add a battery to hold RAM contents, since DDR2 forgets as soon as power is lost
  • add an enclosure and a cable
  • burn it in and make sure it works
  • and schedule replacing the battery so the contents don't get lost when it runs down

Much cheaper to just buy new, since flash is cheap.

K7AAY
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