memory speed Intel Xeon W 1290 and RAM speed of 3000 MHz

[Parth Maniar]

Hello,

 

I am trying to buy additional RAM for a Dell Precision Workstation (3441 SFF.) It has Intel Xeon W 1290 processor. As per the product page it support Memory Type:  DDR4-2933 with 2 memory channels. Original system configuration has 8 GB DDR-4 2933 MHz non-ecc RAM. Hence my questions:

 

1. Will DDR-4 3000 MHz RAM work in conjunction with the 2933 MHz RAM stick (8x1.)
2. Will combining different RAM speeds cause system instability?
3. Is there possibility of damage (life) of the system due to varying RAM speeds being used. 

 

Thank you very much. 

[Haro]

6 minutes ago, Parth Maniar said:

Will DDR-4 3000 MHz RAM work in conjunction with the 2933 MHz RAM stick (8x1.)

It will work

Both will be clocked at 2933 though.

6 minutes ago, Parth Maniar said:

Will combining different RAM speeds cause system instability

The imc will set all speeds to the slowest one so no.

 

6 minutes ago, Parth Maniar said:

Is there possibility of damage (life) of the system due to varying RAM speeds being used

No.

[TomvanWijnen]

I agree with all of what Tofu said.

[Parth Maniar]

Thank you very much. I've been hunting for an answer to this for sometime now.  While Dell has not mentioned the motherboard details, is there any other check that i need to do or DDR-4 3000 MHz will work seamlessly as you've kindly pointed out. 

[porina]

6 minutes ago, Parth Maniar said:

is there any other check that i need to do or DDR-4 3000 MHz will work seamlessly as you've kindly pointed out. 

Yes! These types of systems often don't recognise XMP profiles in ram. Instead they only recognise industry standard JEDEC SPD profiles. I don't know if it applies to this system or not, but you should check. Most enthusiast ram will have a low SPD speed, and a relatively fast and tight XMP speed. You might need to find ram modules with a high SPD speed. In that case, I'd look more towards Micron, Crucial, maybe Kingston. Avoid "gamer" brands like Corsair, G.Skill, as they're much more likely to only use XMP profiles at higher speeds.

 

Note when SPD profile runs at the higher speeds, the timings will be far slacker than the XMP modules. 

[Parth Maniar]

2 minutes ago, porina said:

Yes! These types of systems often don't recognise XMP profiles in ram. Instead they only recognise industry standard JEDEC SPD profiles. I don't know if it applies to this system or not, but you should check. Most enthusiast ram will have a low SPD speed, and a relatively fast and tight XMP speed. You might need to find ram modules with a high SPD speed. In that case, I'd look more towards Micron, Crucial, maybe Kingston. Avoid "gamer" brands like Corsair, G.Skill, as they're much more likely to only use XMP profiles at higher speeds.

 

Note when SPD profile runs at the higher speeds, the timings will be far slacker than the XMP modules. 

 

Ah so this would not be an ideal purchase: https://www.amazon.in/Corsair-Vengeance-3000MHz-Memory-CMK32GX4M1D3000C16/dp/B07VRKX537/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=32+GB+RAM&qid=1593981259&sr=8-2 as I reckon it uses XMP 2.0. While I am unsure of the differences (I am reading them right now.) - Would you totally recommend against these? I  need to upgrade RAM as I plan to deploy VMs. I need stability of the system and do not wish to do any overclocking. 

[porina]

7 minutes ago, Parth Maniar said:

Ah so this would not be an ideal purchase: https://www.amazon.in/Corsair-Vengeance-3000MHz-Memory-CMK32GX4M1D3000C16/dp/B07VRKX537/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=32+GB+RAM&qid=1593981259&sr=8-2 as I reckon it uses XMP 2.0. While I am unsure of the differences (I am reading them right now.) - Would you totally recommend against these?

The listing suggests SPD on that is at 2133, so it would be rather slower. I could also be wrong and the system might support XMP, but given it is a Xeon that seems unlikely to me.

 

Could you run something like CPU-Z on the system, and look at what it reports as the SPD tab of the existing ram? We can then look to get something similar as that would have more chance of working at the higher speed. It'll probably work with the module you linked, but there's a risk you'll end up with slower running ram. If that matters or not in what you use it for, will be for you to decide.

 

Quote

I need stability of the system and do not wish to do any overclocking. 

You're unlikely to have any overclocking capability in it anyway.

[Parth Maniar]

12 minutes ago, porina said:

The listing suggests SPD on that is at 2133, so it would be rather slower. I could also be wrong and the system might support XMP, but given it is a Xeon that seems unlikely to me.

 

Could you run something like CPU-Z on the system, and look at what it reports as the SPD tab of the existing ram? We can then look to get something similar as that would have more chance of working at the higher speed. It'll probably work with the module you linked, but there's a risk you'll end up with slower running ram. If that matters or not in what you use it for, will be for you to decide.

 

You're unlikely to have any overclocking capability in it anyway.

Thank you very much for your guidance. Workstation will run CPU and I/O intensive tasks (Elastic stack, if you know the solution.) I am not sure if memory is priority. However, since I will be owing the system for couple of years (4-5 as I got full 5 years warranty.) -- I want to populate with 32x1 RAM as opposed to 16x2. I will be installing VMWare's ESXi hypervisor followed by Ubuntu 20.04 LTS for the guest OS (3 VMs to start with) 

 

My current setup is a VM on my NAS (Synology 718+) where the system load is ~8.0 (for a 4 core VM) with 4 GB RAM (DDR3). I can see 20% IRQs per processor.  

 

Would this be a better choice? : https://www.amazon.in/Crucial-16GB-SDRAM-Memory-Module/dp/B019FRBCQE/ref=sr_1_17?dchild=1&keywords=16gb+ddr4&qid=1593981954&sr=8-17

[porina]

9 minutes ago, Parth Maniar said:

Thank you very much for your guidance.

 

Would this be a better choice? : https://www.amazon.in/Crucial-16GB-SDRAM-Memory-Module/dp/B019FRBCQE/ref=sr_1_17?dchild=1&keywords=16gb+ddr4&qid=1593981954&sr=8-17

Slightly better, in the sense it is 2400, but that's still quite a bit slower than what you already have. Not sure how best to find such ram as it is more often found in systems like yours, and not sold to enthusiasts. Presumably going to Dell for ram would be expensive. Crucial/Micron have a compatibility thing on their site, that might identify something for you, although I couldn't find your listed model when I tried to have a look.

 

Still think it is worth you using something like CPU-Z and see what it reports your existing ram is, and maybe we can try to find some more of that.

[Parth Maniar]

3 minutes ago, porina said:

Slightly better, in the sense it is 2400, but that's still quite a bit slower than what you already have. Not sure how best to find such ram as it is more often found in systems like yours, and not sold to enthusiasts. Presumably going to Dell for ram would be expensive. Crucial/Micron have a compatibility thing on their site, that might identify something for you, although I couldn't find your listed model when I tried to have a look.

 

Still think it is worth you using something like CPU-Z and see what it reports your existing ram is, and maybe we can try to find some more of that.

I purchased Ubuntu with my workstation (it is still in transit), I however see there is a version of CPU-Z for Linux. I will install it and get back (hopefully in a week.)  Thank you very much and have a wonderful week ahead. 

[porina]

6 minutes ago, Parth Maniar said:

I purchased Ubuntu with my workstation (it is still in transit), I however see there is a version of CPU-Z for Linux. I will install it and get back (hopefully in a week.)  Thank you very much and have a wonderful week ahead. 

It doesn't have to be CPU-Z, but I'm not familiar with similar options on Linux. Basically it should be possible to read the "SPD" data from the modules, and included in that will be its model, and speed/timing tables. We can use that to try to identify a similar model.

[Parth Maniar]

Hi I am not sure if this helps but here is the chipset is Intel W480 with following options as per specification page:

• 128 GB, 4 x 32 GB, DDR4, 2666 MHz for Intel Core i3/i5/XeonW-1250 processors, 2933 MHz for Intel Core i7/i9/XeonW-1270/W-1290 processors.

 

Somehow  I am overly excited for the workstation to come in so I can finally have my own virtual lab at home

[Parth Maniar]

Hi I got the following information, does it help:

 

Handle 0x000A, DMI type 17, 84 bytes
Memory Device
    Array Handle: 0x0009
    Error Information Handle: Not Provided
    Total Width: 64 bits
    Data Width: 64 bits
    Size: 8192 MB
    Form Factor: DIMM
    Set: None
    Locator: DIMM1
    Bank Locator: Not Specified
    Type: DDR4
    Type Detail: Synchronous
    Speed: 3200 MT/s
    Manufacturer: 80AD000080AD
    Serial Number: 938DC48B
    Asset Tag: 01194900
    Part Number: HMA81GU6DJR8N-XN    
    Rank: 1
    Configured Clock Speed: 2933 MT/s
    Minimum Voltage: Unknown
    Maximum Voltage: Unknown
    Configured Voltage: 1.2 V

 

 

# dmidecode 3.1
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 3.2.0 present.
# SMBIOS implementations newer than version 3.1.1 are not
# fully supported by this version of dmidecode.

Handle 0x0009, DMI type 16, 23 bytes
Physical Memory Array
    Location: System Board Or Motherboard
    Use: System Memory
    Error Correction Type: None
    Maximum Capacity: 128 GB
    Error Information Handle: Not Provided
    Number Of Devices: 4

Handle 0x000A, DMI type 17, 84 bytes
Memory Device
    Array Handle: 0x0009
    Error Information Handle: Not Provided
    Total Width: 64 bits
    Data Width: 64 bits
    Size: 8192 MB
    Form Factor: DIMM
    Set: None
    Locator: DIMM1
    Bank Locator: Not Specified
    Type: DDR4
    Type Detail: Synchronous
    Speed: 3200 MT/s
    Manufacturer: 80AD000080AD
    Serial Number: 938DC48B
    Asset Tag: 01194900
    Part Number: HMA81GU6DJR8N-XN    
    Rank: 1
    Configured Clock Speed: 2933 MT/s
    Minimum Voltage: Unknown
    Maximum Voltage: Unknown
    Configured Voltage: 1.2 V