RAM module upgrade options

[Lord Nicoll]

I wanna upgrade the RAM in one of my system, but looking to the future and the fact the RAM should get cheaper. It currently has 4 4Gb DIMMs, but I;m not too sure should I upgrade with an extra 4 4Gb DIMMs, or buy 4 8Gb DIMMs, or two 2 16Gb DIMMs, the 16Gb DIMMs means I won't have to change capacity again but also means I'm paying more to start with. I have often edging near the 16Gb I have now, especially with VM running I have to use GBs of the swap drive which slows my Minecraft and Rust service down a lot. I might be able to stretch to 4 16Gb Modules then another 4 next month, but that would leave me broke for Christmas, but one happy server. 

[NinjaJc01]

10 minutes ago, Lord Nicoll said:

I wanna upgrade the RAM in one of my system, but looking to the future and the fact the RAM should get cheaper. It currently has 4 4Gb DIMMs, but I;m not too sure should I upgrade with an extra 4 4Gb DIMMs, or buy 4 8Gb DIMMs, or two 2 16Gb DIMMs, the 16Gb DIMMs means I won't have to change capacity again but also means I'm paying more to start with. I have often edging near the 16Gb I have now, especially with VM running I have to use GBs of the swap drive which slows my Minecraft and Rust service down a lot. I might be able to stretch to 4 16Gb Modules then another 4 next month, but that would leave me broke for Christmas, but one happy server. 

How many RAM slots? What memory channel config is it? (Dual, triple or quad channel, not hoiw many sticks)

Edit: seeing as it's a DL160 G6, why aren't you running triple channel?

[Lord Nicoll]

Just now, NinjaJc01 said:

How many RAM slots? What memory channel config is it? (Dual, triple or quad channel, not hoiw many sticks)

I was debating what capacity RAM modules to buy, since it supports them all. It was 18 DIMM slots, in triple channel, using RDIMM it can support 3 RAM modules per channel, 6 with the 2nd CPU installed. Currently it has 2 DIMM's per CPU in the optimum memory config.

[NinjaJc01]

Just now, Lord Nicoll said:

I was debating what capacity RAM modules to buy, since it supports them all. It was 18 DIMM slots, in triple channel, using RDIMM it can support 3 RAM modules per channel, 6 with the 2nd CPU installed. Currently it has 2 DIMM's per CPU in the optimum memory config.

Mine's at 24GB, with 6x4GB DDR3 ECC, which I can only assume is unbuffered, since it doesn't have the heatspreaders I'd be expecting on RDIMMs.

[Lord Nicoll]

Just now, NinjaJc01 said:

Mine's at 24GB, with 6x4GB DDR3 ECC, which I can only assume is unbuffered, since it doesn't have the heatspreaders I'd be expecting on RDIMMs.

Em, Yeah 4Gb is UDIMM, registered RAM doesn't always have heat spreaders since servers really don't need them. for certain configs you need registered. 18 DIMMs at 4Gb should be 72Gb but from what I remember of the user manual it only supports 48Gb of unbuffed RAM as you have like 6 slots per channel.

[NinjaJc01]

2 minutes ago, Lord Nicoll said:

Em, Yeah 4Gb is UDIMM, registered RAM doesn't always have heat spreaders since servers really don't need them. for certain configs you need registered. 18 DIMMs at 4Gb should be 72Gb but from what I remember of the user manual it only supports 48Gb of unbuffed RAM as you have like 6 slots per channel.

Sometimes, especially with RAM, the user manual lies. Many boards that can only officially support X amount of RAM can often run with more. But it wouldn't surprise me if HP had locked that down. Honestly, check out the prices on Ebay or wherever. I'd go for 12x4GB or 6x4GB, which should be enough for VMs and game servers.

Wow. Our use cases are so similar. I'm going to (When we've moved house) run a couple of game servers, VMs, a file server and a private (For screwing around with SQL and heartbleed legally etc) webserver.

[Lord Nicoll]

Just now, NinjaJc01 said:

Sometimes, especially with RAM, the user manual lies. Many boards that can only officially support X amount of RAM can often run with more. But it wouldn't surprise me if HP had locked that down. Honestly, check out the prices on Ebay or wherever. I'd go for 12x4GB or 6x4GB, which should be enough for VMs and game servers.

Wow. Our use cases are so similar. I'm going to (When we've moved house) run a couple of game servers, VMs, a file server and a private (For screwing around with SQL and heartbleed legally etc) webserver.

Yes. With servers, they are locked down because they're servers and HP doesn't want a client to be upset the server crashed because RAM that wasn't on the qualified vender list was used. They test each unit on that list to ensure they work. Enterprise servers ARE NOT like consumer PC's. There is a lot of redundancies, strong points and reduced failing points. I also use mine for some serious boinc computing. 

[NinjaJc01]

1 minute ago, Lord Nicoll said:

Yes. With servers, they are locked down because they're servers and HP doesn't want a client to be upset the server crashed because RAM that wasn't on the qualified vender list was used. They test each unit on that list to ensure they work. Enterprise servers ARE NOT like consumer PC's. There is a lot of redundancies, strong points and reduced failing points. I also use mine for some serious boinc computing. 

I would use it for distributed computing, if I paid our power bill... I'm already drawing like 400W at load for may gaming PC, so adding a near constant 200W to that adds up pretty quick.

[Lord Nicoll]

1 minute ago, NinjaJc01 said:

I would use it for distributed computing, if I paid our power bill... I'm already drawing like 400W at load for may gaming PC, so adding a near constant 200W to that adds up pretty quick.

Yes, I know that feeling, my bank runs off a 1 kilowatt battery inverter that charges at night when power is cheaper. I should get a DC-DC system as converting DC to AC and back to, almost the same voltage DC is costing me about €30 a year, and over the 3 years that I plan to have them, if I don't add more, will cost me €90

 

[NinjaJc01]

1 minute ago, Lord Nicoll said:

Yes, I know that feeling, my bank runs off a 1 kilowatt battery inverter that charges at night when power is cheaper. I should get a DC-DC system as converting DC to AC and back to, almost the same voltage DC is costing me about €30 a year, and over the 3 years that I plan to have them, if I don't add more, will cost me €90

 

According to calculators and our bill, my server costs about £14 a month, if it were at full load at all times. Since I only bought the server for £55, it is definitley better than buying anything newer, at least for several years.

[Lord Nicoll]

Just now, NinjaJc01 said:

According to calculators and our bill, my server costs about £14 a month, if it were at full load at all times. Since I only bought the server for £55, it is definitley better than buying anything newer, at least for several years.

That is a bargain. Mine, with current configs, cost almost €300, but RAID 1+0 2Tb SAS drives, X5670's where not too cheap/ 

[Lord Nicoll]

I WANT A HPE PROLIANT DL580 G8 NOW 

 

[NinjaJc01]

4 hours ago, Lord Nicoll said:

That is a bargain. Mine, with current configs, cost almost €300, but RAID 1+0 2Tb SAS drives, X5670's where not too cheap/ 

Mine came with no drives or caddies, just two blanks. Does yours have an optical drive in it? Mine doesn't, but it does have a slot for one, a slimline one though. SFF or LFF drives?

[Lord Nicoll]

1 hour ago, NinjaJc01 said:

Mine came with no drives or caddies, just two blanks. Does yours have an optical drive in it? Mine doesn't, but it does have a slot for one, a slimline one though. SFF or LFF drives?

Mine came with the caddies but no drives. It didn't come with an optical drive. Mine has full hotswap and SAS options (I added the HP Smart Array key) It has a fixed 450 watt PSU, non hot swap. 

[Lord Nicoll]

I decided to buy 8x4Gb modules, so in total I'll have 12 4Gb modules in my system, for 48Gb RAM

[NinjaJc01]

On 10/15/2016 at 10:07 PM, Lord Nicoll said:

Mine came with the caddies but no drives. It didn't come with an optical drive. Mine has full hotswap and SAS options (I added the HP Smart Array key) It has a fixed 450 watt PSU, non hot swap. 

Similar here (PSU wise), but I don't think I have the full hotswap controller, but I do have SAS with the onboard controller.