Installing and Upgrading DDR3 Memory:
Quick Reference Guide for New Dell PowerEdge Servers
August 19, 2009 | Thomas Cloyd – Dell, Inc. Server Product Group |
Introduction
This paper provides memory guidance at time of system purchase for later memory upgrades for Dell 11th Generation – 610 and 710 Series – PowerEdge Servers. The purpose is to understand what Dell will support, simplify terminology, and describe rules when installing memory with examples of upgrade paths.
Quick Reference Guide
Table 1 is intended for quick reference in order to understand what Dell will support and the rules governing memory configurations.
Table 1: Quick Reference Memory Guide
| DIMM Feature | Combine |
| Rules | |
| Mixed Type |
| No |
| Not Supported |
| (RDIMM / UDIMM) |
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| Single (SR) and Dual Rank (DR) DIMMs can be mixed. If mixing SR or DR with |
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| Quad Rank (QR) DIMMs, the first slot of each channel populated (first two |
| Mixed Ranks | Yes |
| white tab DIMM slots on each processor: A1, A2, B1 & B2) must be | |
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| populated with the QR DIMM. Only two QR DIMMs are permitted per | |
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| channel because the maximum of total ranks per channel is 8. | |
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| All populated channels must have the same DIMM arrangement. Example |
| Mixed Capacity | Yes |
| with Channel 1: if bank A is populated with a 4GB DIMM (slot A1), bank B | |
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| with 2GB (slot A4) and Bank C is empty (slot A7), all memory Channels must | |||
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| be populated that way. (see figure 5) |
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| If memory modules (DIMMS) with different speeds are installed, all DIMMs |
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| will operate at the speed of the slowest installed DIMM. |
| Mixed Speeds | Yes |
| Also, if any DIMMS (regardless of speed) are installed in the third bank | |
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| (bank C: slots A/B 7, 8 or 9), the maximum system memory speed will be | |||
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| 800MHz. This is the current maximum frequency supported by Intel and |
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| Dell, when DIMMS are installed in slots 7, 8 & 9. |
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| Any Dell sourced DDR3 DIMMs are supported, regardless of vendor or |
| Mixed Vendors | Yes |
| vendor mix. Where possible, Dell recommends using the same DIMM | |
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| manufacturer. |