exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

Hi folks,

I've a Mega ST2 here which fortunately already has all the solder joints for adding two more MB. My initial approach would have been to directly solder the ram chips on the board (like the original ones) as you don't run into the risk of oxidation over time like you potentially do with sockets.

Briefly scanning the forum, the opinion seems to lean into the "use sockets" direction though.

What's the final "verdict" from the hw gurus here?

If your getting ram from China then you will need sockets as one chip or more will likely be faulty. So sockets are needed to swap them about.
If you get ram from my store, chips are tested so solder them in as sockets are evil.

As exxos says, if they are working chips then solder them in, if not tested then sockets are a must.

May also be worth you checking and replacing the SILs whilst you've got the board out.

PhilC wrote: 18 Jan 2020 10:16 As exxos says, if they are working chips then solder them in, if not tested then sockets are a must.

May also be worth you checking and replacing the SILs whilst you've got the board out.

You mean for mechanical defects or for aging? It's a long time ago when I dealt with electronics at university, but I thought (and this might be false memory) that the aging rate in ceramic capacitor was quite low - something like 5% per decade? Wrong?

Have a read of this guide on Mega STs that exxos hS done. Replacing some of the sils for different sizes helps with reliability, especially when fitting boosters and other addons.

https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/last/MEGAST/index.htm

PhilC wrote: 18 Jan 2020 17:30 Have a read of this guide on Mega STs that exxos hS done. Replacing some of the sils for different sizes helps with reliability, especially when fitting boosters and other addons.

https://www.exxosforum.co.uk/atari/last/MEGAST/index.htm

Oh my, I searched here in the forum but completely missed the article on the web page - thx for the hint!