LGA1150 Mini-ITX with 32GB ECC?

oberstet

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Aug 30, 2014
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Hi there!

I am looking for a Mini-ITX LGA1150 server mobo (for a Xeon1240v3) that actually supports 32GB ECC for a small database server.

I found ASRock E3C226D2I which would be close to ideal if it supported 32GB. http://www.asrockrack.com/general/productdetail.asp?Model=E3C226D2I#

I found DDR3-1600 16GB UDIMMs here: IMM2G72D3(L)DUD8AG
http://www.intelligentmemory.com/dram-modules/ddr3-dimm/

Is there a board with support for above or comparable DIMMs?

I guess I have to use 2x16GB and cannot use 4x8GB with the LGA1150 Haswells (even if there would be a board with 4 slots), right?

Thanks for any hints!
Tobias
 
Solution
To the best of my knowledge, no. The simplest way to look at it I guess is that every LGA1150 motherboard can only ever take a maximum of 8Gb in any single memory slot. If you are running a H81 or an ITX board (or any other two memory slot board) that means you are limited to 16Gb, while the rest can take 32Gb.

ITX boards have extra limitations imposed above those of the chipset due to practicalities of space, though it's incredibly common for motherboard manufacturers to deviate from chipset specs anyway.
While larger boards can run two DIMMs per channel, ITX boards use a single DIMM per channel, so you still get dual channel performance across two slots.

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2mCNYJ
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2mCNYJ/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1240 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($274.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: ASRock H97M-ITX/AC Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($82.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($144.99 @ Micro Center)
Total: $502.95
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-30 05:02 EDT-0400

This motherboard is good if you don't want to overclock.If you want,then try this:

PCPartPicker part list: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qdb7sY
Price breakdown by merchant: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/qdb7sY/by_merchant/

CPU: Intel Xeon E3-1240 V3 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor ($274.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z97N-WIFI Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard ($113.78 @ Newegg)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($144.99 @ Micro Center)
Total: $533.75
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-08-30 05:04 EDT-0400

All the best. :)
 
To the best of my knowledge, there is nothing which can do what you need it to. As far as I'm aware all socket 1150 chipsets are limited to 32Gb of memory which is split into two DIMMs per channel on most chipsets and one DIMMs per channel on H81.
This means that at mATX or above you can install the full 32Gb but on ITX (or any board with only two slots for that matter) you can only install 16Gb.
I'd assume you'll have to opt for a micro ATX option to get what you need, as while AMD offers 32Gb (and even 64Gb) memory support at ITX, I doubt they are suitable for your needs.
 

Thank you for your reply!

Just to be sure: you say even using the 16GB UDIMMs above I cannot run 2 of these in 2 slots to get 32GB?

Because to get up to 32GB I need to run on 2 channels, and those mini-ITX boards have their 2 slots on 1 channel, right?

A disturbing fact is that there seems to be Atom mini-ITX boards that support up to 64GB ECC like this: http://www.supermicro.nl/products/motherboard/Atom/X10/A1SAi-2750F.cfm

So either I get more steam (Haswell) or more RAM (Atom) - but not both (on mini-ITX). That .. sucks=(
 
To the best of my knowledge, no. The simplest way to look at it I guess is that every LGA1150 motherboard can only ever take a maximum of 8Gb in any single memory slot. If you are running a H81 or an ITX board (or any other two memory slot board) that means you are limited to 16Gb, while the rest can take 32Gb.

ITX boards have extra limitations imposed above those of the chipset due to practicalities of space, though it's incredibly common for motherboard manufacturers to deviate from chipset specs anyway.
While larger boards can run two DIMMs per channel, ITX boards use a single DIMM per channel, so you still get dual channel performance across two slots.



It's not entirely surprising. LGA1155/1150 really is their mainstream "jack of all trades" solution and you can more or less do anything you want at any level within the confines of this but by being mainstream it's understandable there are some inherent limitations of appealing to the masses. What you are trying to do is, at least at the moment, pretty niche.
 
Solution
Hi,

I realize this is an older post...

The mention of Intelligent memory in the thread peaked my interest. Its a perplexing problem to solve. I am looking at building a VMware home lab. I'm well aware of how quickly the industry changes components and looking at the Atom processor MBs from Super Micro. Its on the VMware HCL and is rated up to 64GB SODIMMs.

What to purchase? I can get mATX boards all supporting 32GB with the LGA1150 socket. The question I'm sure is you have dollars tied up in the HP Mini-ITX chassis power supply, etc. But, you may need to build another set of servers based on mATX or Atom (btw in Mini-ITX) http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/ATOM/ to gain the flexibility you need.

For me to purchase technology that is in the "Sweet Spot" now could be prohibitive in another 6 months. The other caveat that's a concern is using SODIMMs for a Server based lab. Well I guess its a lab.... I'm trying to future protect and set up a lab that is power and noise efficient while giving the advantage of handling latest versions of virtualization products.

I may have missed here. I didn't see much about the storage mentioned here. It all boils down to the 3 legged stool... CPU, Memory, and IO. For databases this is interesting how you came to use the HP servers. Maybe hot file systems on SSDs? Look to the future. DDR4 is coming on the market now.

Be sure and post to let us know your decisions..

Thanks,
DizzMan
 
I have built a mini itx with A1SAi board from SuperMicro (Atom C2750)
http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/Atom/X10/A1SAi-2750F.cfm
http://www.mini-box.com/M350-universal-mini-itx-enclosure
http://www.mini-box.com/picoPSU-80-60W-power-kit
http://www.supermicro.com/support/resources/memory/display.cfm?sz=8.0&mspd=1.6&mtyp=65&id=7E096BDEAE63A2AC69D703E672D8BE05&prid=83743&type=DDR3%201.35V%20SODIMM&ecc=1&reg=0&fbd=0

It is sitting in side of a M350 chassis with 32GB ECC SODIMM.. I know I'M Intelligent has 16GB module, but it is hard to get one here in Ireland. And they are dear..

I am using it as ESX 5.5 whitebox.. I am pretty happy with this build. No problem with the lan driver.. It has 4x1GbE + dedicated IPMI port.
The board has a passive cooling heat sink. 20W TDP on there spec. But I think it is little bit hot when I ran 12 VM's.
Original cooling fan (40mm, 5000 rpm) from M350 is so noisy. So I have mounted a 80mm PWM fan on top of the chassis using double sided tape. It is running at 800RPM most of the time and maintaining mid 30 (CPU/Memory)..

There is internal USB3.0 port, but unfortunately ESXi 5.5 cannot mount partitions after boot. It cannot keep the setting changes either when boot from USB 3.0. So I have small usb thumdrive plugged at the back of the box. M350 has hidden usb 2.0 ports, but the board does not have usb 2.0 header. However this internal port is useful, when you build other application.. I have other box with XPEnology.

C2750 board from Gigabyte is using DIMM.. up to 64GB is also interesting.. But I cannot buy the board here.. It would be my next goal.
http://b2b.gigabyte.com/products/product-page.aspx?pid=4988#ov