ECC and server ram questions

[airborne spoon]

The me preface this with I've worked and built a lot of computers over the years but never actual server components just consumer hardware I've repurposed for a "server" NAS.

 

I recently bought a used server from one of those refurb server shops it should be here this week.

It's a Dell PowerEdge R730XD 14B LFF  2x Intel Xeon E5-2660 V4. No ram included because I am planning on taking the ram from my old Plex NAS 64gb (16x4). I heard standard gaming ram will maybe/probably work fine but now I'm not sure.

 

According to the Intel website it says my processor is only compatible with DDR4 1600/1866/2133/2400 but my RAM is G-skill 2666 so now I'm wondering if it'll have problems from the start since it's "unsupported"

I was thinking of just buying some ECC ram from the same used server shop I bought the computer from… but with a gaming rig I usually go for 32GB with (2x16gb). For a server is it better to go with a lot of small 8gb sticks or only a few large capacity sticks? The store has ECC 8gb sticks for $15 and 16gb sticks for $19. Although I'm gonna shop around to other used server shops for prices of RAM sticks+shipping and see if there are better deals before I actually buy (that is if I even need to in the first place.

 

My old NAS took a shit (still not entirely sure what happened) and I barely was able to recover 99.99% of the data (28 files lost out of about 350k files). I'm pretty sure the pool and the boot drive both got corrupted somehow but not entirely sure since troubleshoot was intermittent as far as components that did/didn't work. but I'm doing it all from scratch and a fresh install of everything since I have the data on a separate drive now temporarily.

 

[svmlegacy]

Try the ram you have and see if it works

[Needfuldoer]

Faster RAM should slow down to the maximum speed the CPUs support.

 

Those Xeons have quad channel memory, so populate each CPU with four DIMMs if you want to get the most speed you can out of it. (Both CPUs have to have at least one DIMM on them, if you have both sockets populated. The CPUs have to match as well.)

 

Use one of the rear 2.5" bays for your boot drive, so you don't have to burn a 3.5" bay on a low capacity drive that won't do much.

 

Honeslty, Registered ECC 32 GB DDR4-2400 DIMMs are pretty cheap on the used market. I'd get a couple of thsoe. 

[Tetras]

24 minutes ago, airborne spoon said:

According to the Intel website it says my processor is only compatible with DDR4 1600/1866/2133/2400 but my RAM is G-skill 2666 so now I'm wondering if it'll have problems from the start since it's "unsupported"

A Dell server won't support XMP, so you'd be relying on the ability to configure it manually, or have the motherboard pick up a slower speed from the JEDEC profiles on the stick.

 

Does the server support unbuffered, or registered? A lot of cheap ECC (old server surplus) memory is registered, but not all servers support registered memory and I can't find detailed specs for that server.

[airborne spoon]

Here's a fun twist of things I'm learning after buying a server. The spec says it needs 1rx8 sticks for 64GB with dual CPU, but once you get to 128GB then it says it works with 2rx8 sticks.

 

Is there any reason I couldn't just put in 2rx8 sticks with 64GB? Because that's all I can find 1rx8 sticks don't seem to exist but I can get 2rx8 sticks everywhere for about $100 for 64GB

 

And it's all registered ECC because that's the spec in the manual

[Tetras]

23 hours ago, airborne spoon said:

Here's a fun twist of things I'm learning after buying a server. The spec says it needs 1rx8 sticks for 64GB with dual CPU, but once you get to 128GB then it says it works with 2rx8 sticks.

 

Is there any reason I couldn't just put in 2rx8 sticks with 64GB? Because that's all I can find 1rx8 sticks don't seem to exist but I can get 2rx8 sticks everywhere for about $100 for 64GB

 

And it's all registered ECC because that's the spec in the manual

I have no idea what server CPUs are like, but on the desktop, you do have to keep in mind the memory density versus the gen of the CPU and that can influence this recommendation.