HP Z400 memory configuration help needed

dreid

February 23, 2010 6:30:50 AM

Hello,

I am wondering if anyone here can tell me this: the new HP Z400 workstation comes with now 6 available DIMM slots (whereas the old ones came with 4 DIMMS) ... my question is: how does the triple channel memory architecture work now that there is six slots instead of four? In the old Z400 with four slots fully populated, I know there would be a danger of actually having decreased performance as triple channel RAM might not properly work when using a group of 4 DIMMS ... now, with six DIMM slots, I am simply wondering what kind of connection those DIMMS have to the CPU?

I know that in the HP Z800, big brother to the Z400, there is 12 DIMMS, 6 for each CPU ... and each CPU has three independant memory lanes to the CPU .. some software manufacturers (like Avid) thus recommend that for best performance, you populate the RAM in every other slot in the memory banks for each CPU (ie: a total of six DIMMS in the Z800 motherboard)

I only relate this story of the Z800 in order to get a better grasp on what is going on in the Z400 and its new config of 6 DIMMS ... would populating all six dimms give better or worse performance than populating only 3 ???

Anyone with any advice or wisdom at all is GREATLY appreciated!!! Thanks all who respond!

Derek

More about : z400 memory configuration needed

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dreid

February 26, 2010 6:16:54 PM

bump

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ryan3v

March 20, 2010 12:31:20 AM

I have the new 6 dim config and you get better performance with matched memory. So I have 3 1gb dims and 3 4 gm dims. This type of configuration is optimal. 2 or 1 of either size will slow down the system. so 4 4 gb dims would be more memory but not as fast. this is no different than standard i7 processor configurations.

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dreid

March 25, 2010 3:22:20 AM

ryan3v said:

I have the new 6 dim config and you get better performance with matched memory. So I have 3 1gb dims and 3 4 gm dims. This type of configuration is optimal. 2 or 1 of either size will slow down the system. so 4 4 gb dims would be more memory but not as fast. this is no different than standard i7 processor configurations.

Thanks a lot for your reply! FYI, I did go ahead and buy the new Z400 with 12 GB RAM .. the config is 6x2GB ... I asked HP support ahead of time and they said that this memory works in triple channel mode ... I do not have the same config as you, but with my 6 sticks of 2GB each, is this an example of the matched memory that you say gets better performance?

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