MXe III/CX II 1GB RAM upgrade

[acejavelin]

Hmm... Was going to order the 1GB RAM upgrade for my "new" MXe III for the test bench, but it is out of stock at our authorized distributor.

So we need 1GB of RAM for the MXe III or CX II controller, looks like right now it has a simple Hynix 512MB DDR2-667 (PC2-5300) SODIMM non-ECC, regular old-school laptop RAM module... for 10% of the cost I can get what appears to be correct module from Crucial http://www.crucial.com/usa/en/ct12864ac667

Can anyone verify the 1GB RAM module used in the newer controllers? Maybe attach a pic?

Anybody try to go this route in the past?

Looks like a 2GB module is actually less... I wonder...

[sarond]

I had actually bought some generic RAM in the past for upgrading a CXi to 512MB.

I didn't put it into production but if worked fine, I would think it is probably similar for 1GB.

[johnp]

I looked around for a generic 1 GB, didn't see much around. I don't know if there are many manufacturers still created older limited market modules

[acejavelin]

I looked around for a generic 1 GB, didn't see much around. I don't know if there are many manufacturers still created older limited market modules

I ordered this one: https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-DDR2-667-PC2-5300-200-pin-Unbuffered/dp/B000DT7ZJM

Will report back if it works properly or not... The actual Hynix one sold by Mitel is available on Amazon as well, it's $7 but it wasn't Prime delivery so I went with the Crucial one.

[johnp]

Think it will work, might be the same manufaturer that Mitel uses

[acejavelin]

Well, I don't know if the Crucial RAM I ordered would have worked or not, but I believe it would have even more now since the RAM in my controller was Micron (which is Crucial)...

The controller I ordered from eBay showed up with not only a RAID controller, two HDD, dual power supplies, and dual T1/E1 module, but it also had a DSP-II module and the expansion E2T card, so I needed two 1GB memory modules not just one... And I didn't want to wait until next week.

Which led us to scavenge into the graveyard pile and found an old Dell laptop with 2GB of RAM... two random (although matching) 1GB DDR-667 memory modules by Hynix... Threw them in and it booted and passed all memory checks and showed 1024MB of RAM in the bootloader. I am currently installing 8.1 software and will move my working database from the old MXe to the new MXe III later today or tomorrow.

Looks like Mitel is really hitting us up for the name on this one...

EDIT: Software loaded, SysID chip moved, and database restored... Took me a while to remember how to change the E2T IP Address, even though I am one of the authors of the tutorial here on how to do it, but it's all up and working now. But it is now 5pm, so it's time for a beer or three and next week we go through the migration to 9.0!

Moral: You don't HAVE to buy the RAM upgrade from Mitel, any industry standard 1GB DDR2-667 (PC2-5300) unbuffered, non-ECC SODIMM module will work. They are under $20 on Amazon, Newegg or MicroCenter... Although I don't know how it might effect warranty, support, or maintenance contracts.

Now, would I do this for an actual customer or do I tell them they must buy a $300 stick of RAM that is approved by Mitel? Guess I will leave that to people above me to make that decision.

[johnp]

Thank for the update, looks like you got a deal and some spare parts. I just did an ebay for some CX- II controllers, said drive was removed but at around $50 delivered. Think they may come with dsp II as well as a t1 module. Either way, as a spare the price is decent

[sarond]

Yes Mitel do charge a premium for some product.

FYI, did you know you can buy the SysID (HWID iButton) for about $8.

I had bought one and synced to the AMC and it worked fine.

[acejavelin]

Yes Mitel do charge a premium for some product.

FYI, did you know you can buy the SysID (HWID iButton) for about $8.

I had bought one and synced to the AMC and it worked fine.

Yeah, this controller had one, didn't try to sync it or reuse it. I have no idea how long this system was out of production (it was MCD 6.0 so who knows)... I will save it for later, I have actually seen them fail (once at least). Think we have a few more laying around to.

My only issue is once we had a small demo system, CXi with a few phone the sales people carried with them (it was quite a while ago) and we had the controller fail, so we got a replacement and cleared the SysID and resynced it and everything seem fine. But somehow that "RESELLER INTERNAL SYSTEM" record became a Production System record, not a big deal until they tried to add a demo IP console license. It took 2 weeks and act of Mitel's AMC gods to get it back to a reseller demo system. Although I am sure it was a fluke, didn't want to take the chance of going through that again.

[petr.necas]

Now, would I do this for an actual customer or do I tell them they must buy a $300 stick of RAM that is approved by Mitel?

acejavelin, what is your relationship to Mitel? If you are a Mitel reseller the price of the part is much below the $300. Actually the list price of the 50006727 (MXe III & CX/i II, 1GB RAM Mod Upgrade) is about $264 (225 EUR).

[acejavelin]

Now, would I do this for an actual customer or do I tell them they must buy a $300 stick of RAM that is approved by Mitel?

acejavelin, what is your relationship to Mitel? If you are a Mitel reseller the price of the part is much below the $300. Actually the list price of the 50006727 (MXe III & CX/i II, 1GB RAM Mod Upgrade) is about $264 (225 EUR).

We are an authorized (preferred/gold/platinum or whatever they call it now) vendor and buy through a national distributor... I know our cost is around $170 USD but MSRP is $300 USD according to our distributors website. This is just what I can see, so I don't know if we get additional discounts or what the official price sheet says.

I get that Mitel has approved products and has to markup to make money... I have zero problem with that... But this $300 for 1GB memory thing just rubbed me the wrong way (not to mention our distributors website listed them as out of stock). Our Mitel "dealer cost" on this is $170, where the IDENTICAL item (with a retail Crucial sticker instead of OEM Micron one, the difference is OEM vs retail, Crucial *IS* Micron) has a Micron/Crucial MSRP is $15.99 and a little digging can find it under that. So our dealer cost is nearly 11 times the OEM's MSRP and Mitel's MSRP to end customers is 18 times the OEM's MSRP of the "retail" version. Honestly, if they would have dealer costed them at $65 and MSRP at $100, I wouldn't have batted an eye and Mitel would have still made a killer profit.

I have a personal friend who is a system admin at a company that has a larger system at it's HQ, it would need two memory sticks, plus a few other remote locations that would need upgrades as well (although he might actually need to replace a controller, but that's not the point)... he is also a PC hobbyist like me... It would be tough for me to look him in the eye with a straight face and say "You need to buy this memory upgrade for $1500 in order to upgrade to the latest 9.0 software now" when I know he could go on Amazon or Newegg's website and order the exact same thing for about $75. I can tell you when he sees a proposal from sales to buy memory upgrade for controller at that price, he will call call and ask me about it. He already understands that some components in his Mitel systems are industry standard because on a Saturday night he had a hard drive crash at a location and needed one ASAP, so the answer was a trip to Best Buy and getting a drive rather than me making a 4 hour drive to his location with a replacement. Well, a little over an hour later he was back up and running. That was three or four years ago and it's still chugging along with the same drive.

[petr.necas]

acejavelin, I agree with you. The upgrade memory module is quite overpriced.

[petr.necas]

Just tested Samsung 1 GB RAM module (M470T2864QZ3-CF7) (pulled out of my old Dell laptop few years ago) and the memory was correctly detected and the memory test has passed.

MITEL SYSTEM ROM R3.1/12 Aug  5 2014

CCA Number                      :
System Model                    : 00610001 F100
CPU Model                       : 8360 R80480021
Reset Config Low                : 08030008
Reset Config High               : b4500006
Coherent System Bus Clock (MHz) : 266
CPM Clock (MHz)                 : 266
Core Clock (MHz)                : 399
DDR Clock (MHz)                 : 133
Local Bus Clock (MHz)           : 66
Input Clock (MHz)               : 33
Internal Memory Map             : f0000000
Main Memory (MB)                : 1024
Local Memory (MB)               : 0
Flash Memory (MB)               : 2
MAC Address                     :
L2 Switch                       : 0
POST Bypass                     : 0
Watchdog Bypass                 : 0
Slot Id                         : 0

Starting POST...

SDRAM CS1 Data Bit Walk 1................... PASSED
SDRAM CS1 Data Bit Walk 0................... PASSED
SDRAM CS2 Data Bit Walk 1................... PASSED
SDRAM CS2 Data Bit Walk 0................... PASSED
SDRAM CS1 Address  Walk 1................... PASSED
SDRAM CS1 Address  Walk 0................... PASSED
SDRAM CS2 Address  Walk 1................... PASSED
SDRAM CS2 Address  Walk 0................... PASSED
SDRAM CS1 March Test........................ PASSED
SDRAM CS2 March Test........................ PASSED

Starting vxWorks...

[presonus-chris]

Just to update this, I ordered that RAM stick and it worked fine in my 3300 CX-ii

I looked around for a generic 1 GB, didn't see much around. I don't know if there are many manufacturers still created older limited market modules

I ordered this one: https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-DDR2-667-PC2-5300-200-pin-Unbuffered/dp/B000DT7ZJM

Will report back if it works properly or not... The actual Hynix one sold by Mitel is available on Amazon as well, it's $7 but it wasn't Prime delivery so I went with the Crucial one.

[Microfiche]

I used this with no issues:
https://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/MX41427