128Gb RAM in PowerEdge T140 possible?

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ElCoyote_

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Jul 22, 2016
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The Dell T140 takes 4 DIMMs (ECC UDIMMs or regular DIMMs).
When the T140 was introduced, only 16G ECC UDIMM were available.


I'm considering the purchase of a T140 to replace a same-gen Precision T3431 that's already maxed out at 64G, I'd like to confirm if the T140 could go to 128G RAM with the appropriate processor.


Here's what worries me:


- my T3431 has a Xeon E-2246G, which is listed as having a Max of 128G on ark.intel.com. However, a dmidecode of the T3431 says this:


# dmidecode -t memory|head -12
# dmidecode 3.2
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 3.1.1 present.


Handle 0x0009, DMI type 16, 23 bytes
Physical Memory Array
Location: System Board Or Motherboard
Use: System Memory
Error Correction Type: Single-bit ECC
Maximum Capacity: 64 GB <==========================
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Number Of Devices: 4


Does the T140 have the same kind of limitation? (Maxes out at 64G even though the Xeon might support up to 128G).

32G ECC UDIMM sticks are now available, which would allow for 128G total memory.

Any ideas?
 
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Samir

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It may be possible, but I couldn't find any evidence of such a configuration.

That being said, you just may be the first--like I was the first (and maybe only one) to stuff 256GB in an HP z420. :)
 
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ElCoyote_

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So I got the T140, complete with an H730P and full-height PCIe slots.
A geforce GT 1030 works just fine in it without any tweaking.
Even though I have a Xeon E-2278G in it (128G max) 'dmidecode' silll reports 64G as the maximum memory..
So I guess I won't take any chances and will stay at 64G.
 
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Samir

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So I got the T140, complete with an H730P and full-height PCIe slots.
A geforce GT 1030 works just fine in it without any tweaking.
Even though I have a Xeon E-2278G in it (128G max) 'dmidecode' silll reports 64G as the maximum memory..
So I guess I won't take any chances and will stay at 64G.
Dell and a lot of manufacturers don't really know how far their systems can be pushed. My HP z420 was spec'd to max out at 32GB of ram using ecc udimms. Little did anyone know, 32GB LRDIMMs work in the system, maxing it out at a whopping 256GB of ram.

If you can order memory modules from someone that has a return policy or borrow them from a friend for the test, the results may surprise you.

Now, this being said, you can research the memory module architecture as well as the motherboard design and see if there will be an issue. If you find a solid red flag, a test may only confirm that 64GB is the max.
 
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ElCoyote_

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Also, I suspect that they don't really care to update the SPECS once the system has shipped and/or is considered EOL.
Buy yeah, perhaps buying from a seller with a good return policy would be worth the risk. :)
 
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Samir

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Also, I suspect that they don't really care to update the SPECS once the system has shipped and/or is considered EOL.
Buy yeah, perhaps buying from a seller with a good return policy would be worth the risk. :)
Yep--the only time I've seen an update was on the R710 server when larger ecc reg modules were available and officially increased the max ram spec.
@Samir What does 'dmidecode' say on your system for Maximum Memory? Just curious
On my HP? Not sure. Never ran it. It has an e5-2630L in it which specs a max ram of 384GB:

What is interesting is that on the v2 of the processor, they dropped LRDIMM support as someone tried my upgrade with a v2 and couldn't get it to work.
 

ElCoyote_

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Jul 22, 2016
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I have this in my Dell Poweredge T140:
4 x HMA82GU7CJR8N-VK : SK Hynix 1x 16GB DDR4-2666 ECC UDIMM PC4-21300V-E Dual Rank x8 Module
I'm very tempted to give this a try:
4 x M391A4G43MB1-CTD - Samsung 1x 32GB DDR4-2666 ECC UDIMM PC4-21300V-E Dual Rank x8 Module
(notice how the description/ranking/etc matches).
I know the E-2278G I have supports up to 128G but dmidecode reports a maximum of 64G memory for the system.
I guess I just need to find a reseller that carries the 32G sticks.
 
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ElCoyote_

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Nice! I just ordered 4 x 32G Sticks.. which ones did you get? I got 4 x HMAA4GU7AJR8N-WM
 
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ElCoyote_

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Confirmed! :
# dmidecode -t memory|head -10
# dmidecode 3.2
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 3.1 present.

Handle 0x1000, DMI type 16, 23 bytes
Physical Memory Array
Location: System Board Or Motherboard
Use: System Memory
Error Correction Type: Single-bit ECC
Maximum Capacity: 64 GB <========================

but:
# memconf
memconf: V3.15 16-Jul-2019 memconf - memory configuration on UNIX
hostname: ravenvale
Dell Inc. PowerEdge T140 (Eight-Core Hyper-Threaded Intel(R) Xeon(R) E-2278G @ 3.40GHz)
Memory Error Correction: Single-bit ECC
Maximum Memory: Unknown (DMI incorrectly reports 65536MB)
A1: 32 GB 2933 MT/s Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) DDR4 DIMM, Hynix Semiconductor (Hyundai Electronics) HMAA4GU7AJR8N-WM
A2: 32 GB 2933 MT/s Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) DDR4 DIMM, Hynix Semiconductor (Hyundai Electronics) HMAA4GU7AJR8N-WM
A3: 32 GB 2933 MT/s Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) DDR4 DIMM, Hynix Semiconductor (Hyundai Electronics) HMAA4GU7AJR8N-WM
A4: 32 GB 2933 MT/s Synchronous Unbuffered (Unregistered) DDR4 DIMM, Hynix Semiconductor (Hyundai Electronics) HMAA4GU7AJR8N-WM
empty memory sockets: None
total memory = 131072MB (128GB)
 
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ElCoyote_

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Now, here's my next question:
with larger LRDIMMs and RDIMMs available, would any of these work in a T140? (as long as I remove all UDIMM memory). Pinout appears similar, large RDIMMs are quad rank while my UDIMMs are 8x rank. Is there a risk to the T140 motherboard if I were to try 2 x 64G LRDIMMs in it? :)
Just wondering..
 
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