Question T5500 Non-ECC ram with x5690?

[fast85foxgt]

I was wondering if it was possible to use Non-ECC ram on a Dell T5500 with a x5690 Xeon. I see it shows support for non-ecc, but I fear the motherboard may be different. Motherboard bios is the latest A18. Also how much does it affect CPU performance using all 6 DIMMS for ram? It is triple channel, but has 6 DIMMS. I do some casual gaming and editing on it for the most part. Reason I ask is because I can get DDR3 non-ecc 4gb sticks for cheap and they are aftermarket with heat spreaders.

 

[fast85foxgt]

You'll be fine, the dell t3500/5500/7500 can be a bit fickle with memory even if its an all matching set, but it's totally fine to use non-ecc. If I recall, ecc memory is actually marginally slower then non-ecc by~2% or so.
Usually using all slots will increase speed, but it's quite negligible, it's fine if you use only one set of 3 dimm slots.

Here's the manual if you want to look at how to config the ram

Interesting! I have been told (or have read) using all 6 slots on a triple channel setup would decrease CPU performance. I will either get 3-4gb sticks or 6-2gb sticks depending on the brand.

 

[maxamillionfeettall]

Interesting! I have been told (or have read) using all 6 slots on a triple channel setup would decrease CPU performance. I will either get 3-4gb sticks or 6-2gb sticks depending on the brand.

I believe that having all slots filled impacted overclocking in some manner, but that doesn't apply as these boards are locked up.
I have gone from 3x4gb on my t3500(x5660) to 6x4gb, and there was no performance difference, at least not measurable.

 

[fast85foxgt]

I believe that having all slots filled impacted overclocking in some manner, but that doesn't apply as these boards are locked up.
I have gone from 3x4gb on my t3500(x5660) to 6x4gb, and there was no performance difference, at least not measurable.

So I installed the new 3x4gbNoECC set and I kept getting the error message "Non ECC DIMMS not supported on this computer. System Halted." or something close to that. I do have the "latest" Dell bios (A18). Wondering if I should roll back to A17 or A16 and try again?

 

[fast85foxgt]

Non ECC For some reason it doesn't allow me to edit my comment.