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Xeon 5500 memory configurations

idata
Employee
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I'm planning to buy a new server with either 1 or 2 Xeon E5506 and either 12GB or 16GB RAM. It's a Dell R710, which apparently has 18 DIMM slots. I'm trying to find out what RAM upgrades will be possible in future. For example, if I get 1 CPU and 4x4GB DIMMs, can I add 8GB DIMMs in future, or must I use 4GB DIMMs? If I add a second CPU, must the DIMMs for that CPU match exactly the DIMMs for the first CPU? Are there any other restrictions?

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KAMALANATH_N_Intel
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Hi Matthewk,

Thanks for your question!. please follow the below rule of thumb for NHM EP based system

Follow these rules for peak performance:

•Always populate both processors with equal amounts of memory to ensure a balanced NUMA system.

 

•Always populate all 3 memory channels on each processor with equal memory capacity.

 

•Ensure an even number of ranks are populated per channel.

 

•Use dual-rank DIMMs whenever appropriate.

 

•For optimal 1333MHz performance, populate 6 dual-rank DIMMs (3 per processor).

 

•For optimal 1066MHz performance, populate 12 dual-rank DIMMs (6 per processor).

 

•For optimal 800MHz performance with high DIMM counts:

 

–On 12 DIMM platforms, populate 12 dual-rank or quad-rank DIMMs (6 ) per processor.

 

–On 16 DIMM platforms:

 

•Populate 12 dual-rank or quad-rank DIMMs (6 per processor).

 

•Populate 14 dual-rank DIMMs of one size and 2 dual-rank DIMMs of double the size as described in the interleaving section.

 

•With the above rules, it is not possible to have a performance-optimized system with 4GB, 8GB, 16GB, or 128GB. With 3 memory channels and interleaving rules, customers need to configure systems with 6GB, 12GB, 18GB, 24GB, 48GB, 72GB, 96GB, etc., for optimized performance.

answer to your questin, yes you can mix DIMMS(differ size) provided all DIMMS are identical. let me know if you have any question..

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