[SOLVED] Dell T3500 ram upgrade

[davephoto70]

I've upgraded the CPU and GPU in my Dell T3500 recently so thought I'd stich a bit more RAM in there too. It's got 8GB in it, 4x2gb sticks at the moment, I'm only going to add another 2x2gb sticks in it for now until I can afford a big upgrade like upping it to 24gb. Anyway, I opened it up to check exactly is in there. There are 3 Samsung sticks and a no name stick. The Samsung are ladled as "2GB 2Rx8 PC3-8500E-7-10-E1" the other is exactly the same apart from the last bit which is E0 rather than E!. Does this make any difference? I've found some Samsung memory that matches but should I replace the no name stick while I'm at it?

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

There is no guarantee , that new modules will run in the setup , even if identical.

 

[davephoto70]

There is no guarantee , that new modules will run in the setup , even if identical.

Why's that? Surely going for the same as already fitted is the best bet.

 

[Dark Lord of Tech]

Still might or might not work , won't know till you try to run them together.

 

[davephoto70]

Still might or might not work , won't know till you try to run them together.

Well I guess you could say that about pretty much anything, and not really answering my questions but thanks.

 

[william p]

You're missing the whole point of the X58 chipset in the T3500. That runs 3 channel DDR3 RAM. 3x2GB Samsung would be a correct setup. Add 3 more of those and you'll have a good 12GB 3 channel configuration.

 

[davephoto70]

You're missing the whole point of the X58 chipset in the T3500. That runs 3 channel DDR3 RAM. 3x2GB Samsung would be a correct setup. Add 3 more of those and you'll have a good 12GB 3 channel configuration.

Ya I read about that and that's why I want to put the other 2 sticks in. Why 3, there's already 4 in there or is there a problem with the one I asked about?

 

[william p]

RAM has a refresh cycle. This is what the latency numbers refer to. How much time the RAM isn't processing data. In 2 channel the RAM takes turns "goofing off".
With 3 channel there is always RAM working. 50% increase in bandwidth. You really want to have matching sets of 3 modules. Not 4, or 4+2, but 3+3 matching sets is what you want, or 6 matching.
Also the memory controller is on the CPU. i7, older Nehalem Xeons, and newer Westmeres can all have differnt speeds of RAM, and some of the older ones slow down if you use all 6 slots. Genrally 3x4 DDR3 1333 is always good.

 

[davephoto70]

RAM has a refresh cycle. This is what the latency numbers refer to. How much time the RAM isn't processing data. In 2 channel the RAM takes turns "goofing off".
With 3 channel there is always RAM working. 50% increase in bandwidth. You really want to have matching sets of 3 modules. Not 4, or 4+2, but 3+3 matching sets is what you want, or 6 matching.
Also the memory controller is on the CPU. i7, older Nehalem Xeons, and newer Westmeres can all have differnt speeds of RAM, and some of the older ones slow down if you use all 6 slots. Genrally 3x4 DDR3 1333 is always good.

Thanks William. So I'd be best getting rid of the no name stick and getting 3 that match what's already in there to take it up to 12gb (6x2gb). I'm using a Xeon X5660, how does that match that you said about CPU's?

 

[william p]

The 5600 series should be OK with all 6 slots full. And it supports 1333 speed.
https://ark.intel.com/products/47921/Intel-Xeon-Processor-X5660-12M-Cache-2-80-GHz-6-40-GT-s-Intel-QPI-

 

[davephoto70]

The 5600 series should be OK with all 6 slots full. And it supports 1333 speed.
https://ark.intel.com/products/47921/Intel-Xeon-Processor-X5660-12M-Cache-2-80-GHz-6-40-GT-s-Intel-QPI-

That's great thanks. When I install the extra sticks, do I need to change any settings in the bios or the like to get the best out of using matched sticks and all the slots? Pretty sure it's only 1066Mhz that's in there at the moment so maybe when I've got the money I'll upgrade again with 4gb sticks at 1333Mhz and build up to 6x4gb.


Still unsure about the no name stick, does it need changing out or should I see how it behaves first when I put the other 2 in?

 

[william p]

The Dell BIOS deosn't have any setting you can change. Do be aware that those are probably ECC RAM. It should detect the extra RAM and accept it after a reboot. Those are capable of running all kinds of setups, 2 channel, and a thing called flex mode which gets really strange. But best performance by a lot will be a true 3 channel setup.