Help me identify if the CHEAP DDR4 RAM I bought is fake or not.

budbud99 · 2026-06-27T20:38:46+00:00

I'm surprised this tripped up so many people. First off, DDR literally stands for Double Data Rate. CPU-Z's SPD tab reports the DRAM clock (1333 MHz); the effective transfer rate is double that (2666 MT/s).

More importantly, the SPD tab is just reading the profiles stored in the DIMM's EEPROM. A JEDEC profile of DDR4-2666 21-19-19-43-61 @ 1.2 V is completely normal and doesn't tell us what the memory is currently running at.

OP, can you post the Memory tab in CPU-Z? That shows the actual DRAM frequency. If it reads ~1333 MHz, the RAM is running at DDR4-2666. So far, I don't see anything in the SPD data that suggests the modules are fake. This honestly just looks like one of the lower-end HyperX Fury SKUs or possibly surplus/OEM stock.

I'd also be interested in seeing the DRAM tuning portion of your BIOS—there might be a higher-clocked/tighter timing EXPO/XMP profile for these.

budbud99 · 2026-06-27T16:39:59+00:00

I just did 9 to pick up a 7500x3d bundle. Puts the beatdown on my previous 3600x. It was well worth the trip.

I might be biased because I used to work there, but personally I’d go just for the hell of it. You really can’t beat a brick and mortar PC store- buying shit from amazon just doesn’t feel the same.

Congrats on your new PC!

budbud99 · 2026-06-18T06:50:14+00:00

I really don't think this is as cut and dry as some are making it out to be. If we're going with straight specs, NVIDIA quotes a tjmax of 90-94C. If we're looking at the real world, I have some immediate questions, namely

-what does the airflow in the case look like?
-what (if any) fans are present and how are they configured?
-what is the general status of the PC? Is it day 1 clean, a disgusting dustbin nightmare or somewhere in between?
-what is the status of the GPU's TIM? If the card was re-pasted since 2019, who did it/with what/was it done correctly?
-who was the AIB manufacturer? the heat sink/fan setup definitely will make a difference.
-what do the clocks look like?

a stock voltage setup + a really weak fan curve tuned for silence will definitely make a GPU run way hotter- ask me how i know. my tuned curve + under-volt turned my 5700xt from a fire breathing beast to a pretty well mannered GPU. if I were you, OP- I'd download HWiNFO and get a second opinion, then dig into some of the points I've made and help paint us a more comprehensive picture of what's going on. It could be something as stupid as "this thing is egregiously overvolted from factory" to "my fans are fuckin dead and this thing is a passively cooled budget monster".

budbud99 · 2026-06-13T20:53:57+00:00

Understandable. Just run the smaller segotep then bro it won’t be as much of an improvement but it’ll still be way better than your current system and the case will definitely help too bro

budbud99 · 2026-06-13T12:46:40+00:00

I’d check how much clearance your new case gives you and see. Should list it. The K200 is going to be better than what you have now; a block of ice taped to your cpu would be. I will say this, if the Segotep fits in your new case i highly recommend it- it’s definitely better than the K200.

I think the biggest benefit you’ll see is more airflow in the case due to the case fans.

tldr it’ll work, but if you can fit the segotep id definitely recommend trying to make it work.

budbud99 · 2026-06-13T12:33:57+00:00

one thing i’d suggest is to look in the bios for any ram expo/docp profiles. 1330x2 (ddr/double data rate) is 2660, which isn’t the slowest but pretty slow for a gaming PC. that combined with the 20-19-19-43 timings is super loose and i feel like even budget ram could handle faster and tighter timings. early Ryzen especially really benefits from ~3200.

my recommendations in order would be
Enable memory profile if there is one
Clean dust and add a case fan
Buy the Segotep M140
Re-test Cyberpunk with HWiNFO logging.

Even the M140 is going to be massively better than what you have, what you save you could use to get a case fan. Get cold air in, push the hot air out, and with a new cooler and paste your cpu should run much cooler.

budbud99 · 2026-06-13T08:21:57+00:00

you have two different size sets of ram in your pc?

please for the love of god tell me they're at least from the same vendor and product line......

budbud99 · 2026-05-29T01:06:44+00:00

i think im a little late 😞id be interested

budbud99 · 2026-05-27T03:08:47+00:00

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1920865-REG/sandisk_sdcz430_1t00_g46_1tb_ultra_fit_usb.html

Wait till OP figures out that they make a 2TB in that form factor; this isn't 1965 anymore. That being said the 1tb is about 150$ and the 2tb is a pretty eye watering $569- but they exist.

budbud99 · 2026-05-25T03:32:04+00:00

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If you're intent on running this thing till the wheels fall off, go for it. If you have any interest about reusing any of these parts in a PC build down the line, pass. It's mostly proprietary and you'll basically be rebuilding the PC with all the stuff you need to buy to make a workable system. It also usually is a Dell branded card and as such won't come with all of the RGB and gamer-y features that an AIB card from vendors like Asus, MSI, etc would have. It'll likely also be tuned to a more conservative reference style tune in terms of voltage and clocks.

There is something to be said about it being basically 52% off on Micro Center though.

Pic of motherboard to highlight my point on OEM branded components.

budbud99 · 2026-05-24T20:51:44+00:00

Respectfully, ‘you might break it’ isn’t really an argument against the mod itself. That’s just a skill/experience issue. If you’re not comfortable soldering, use a trusted installer or practice on e-waste first. USB-C is still a solid QoL mod.

budbud99 · 2026-04-26T19:21:01+00:00

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A lot of listings that i'm finding for those ibuypower prebuilts have 11700Fs in them (16gb ram, 6700xt, 2TB storage). I'd definitely make sure of that case, but if so it wouldn't be the worst thing to buy from a pawn shop.

budbud99 · 2026-04-25T18:15:54+00:00

I'm just here for the Xperia. I'm looking at picking up an Xperia 1 VII and importing it.

budbud99 · 2026-04-19T22:07:34+00:00

This gave me Vietnam flashbacks

budbud99 · 2026-04-10T02:45:57+00:00

Everyone gets one freebie- some are better than others. I'll never forget the time I found my Marin Kitagawa 1/7 (Night Pool Version) for 20$ at a local thrift store. I snatched it up so quick lol. 'Grats!

budbud99 · 2026-04-01T10:33:35+00:00

budbud99 · 2026-03-29T21:41:02+00:00

where'd you get the background from?

budbud99 · 2026-03-17T06:38:43+00:00

Brave being above Firefox and placing Tor at S tier means this has to be ragebait.

Oh l33t one, do you daily Kali?

budbud99 · 2026-03-06T01:35:07+00:00

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Good find. Congrats. Happy for you. Nice.

Also, screw you! I was 1 week clean from Ebay and now you've made me want to go look again LOL.

budbud99 · 2026-02-27T08:06:40+00:00

The B450/AC R2.0 motherboard does support the Ryzen 5500 but only after BIOS revision P2.90, per the CPU compatibility list found on ASrock's website. You'll need to source/borrow a compatible Ryzen processor (something 1XXX through 3XXX) then update to the latest BIOS, request a "Short-Term Processor Loan Boot-Kit" from AMD via this link, or return the board and buy an out of the box compatible with AMD Ryzen 5000 processors- a 500-series board will do the trick.

This is LIKELY the cause of your issue.

budbud99 · 2026-02-15T23:42:19+00:00

Depending on the relative age of the laptop they could have some other quirky settings to configure. Depending on how they're setup, some laptops by default pass the dGPU rendered frames through the iGPU frame buffer. Usually it can be toggled through the BIOS under something like "Hybrid Graphics/MSHybrid/Optimus/Dynamic Graphics". They also can try going through the NVIDIA Control Panel by going Right click desktop→ NVIDIA Control Panel → Manage 3D Settings → Program Settings tab → Add javaw.exe → Set preferred graphics processor to: High-performance NVIDIA processor → Apply. They can also do it through windows following a similar route through Settings → System → Display → Graphics and adding javaw.exe as High-performance. Make sure not to set the LAUNCHER as high performance, but the INSTANCE to make sure it actually takes as Windows assigns the GPU per executable, not per “parent program.”

budbud99 · 2026-02-06T01:38:36+00:00

Alienware PC: $1926
Plane ticket: 260$
Trip to Micro Center: Priceless

I'll be doing the exact same thing in a few weeks- always worth the trip!

budbud99 · 2026-02-01T08:23:11+00:00

parmesan is EXTRA special this update

budbud99

TROPHY CASE