HP Z4 G4 Memory Upgrade

[Vasquez67]

Hello Community,

I need to upgrade my HP Z4 G4’s memory, to achieve the best performance shall I install four (4) or eight (8) modules? Let’s say I want 256 GB RAM, I could buy 4*64 GB or 8*32 GB SIMMs. Which configuration gives the best performance 4 or 8 SIMMs.

Greetings,

Vasquez

[DGroves · Accepted solution]

since modern intel CPU's now integrate the memory controller, you need to look at the installed CPU's specs to determine how many channels the CPU supports

as a example, the Xeon w2295 has support for 4 memory channels, and HP has enabled each channel to use two dimms

the important thing to remember is that each channel should have two equal capacity dimms installed to enable dual channel support

so the recommended configurations for best memory speed (bandwidth) are either 4 or 8 dimms

Maximum capacity with Intel® Xeon® W Processors
• 512 GB with Intel® Xeon® W-2200 Processor Family
Maximum capacity with Intel® CoreTM X-Series Processors
• 256 GB with Intel® CoreTM i9-10900X/XE Processor Family
Total of 8 memory sockets
• 8 memory sockets available
• 4 channels per processor and 2 sockets per channel

if you only install one dimm in a memory channel, it will work but the bandwidth will be approx. half

please review the information in this HP PDF i've linked to

https://h20195.www2.hp.com/v2/GetDocument.aspx?docname=4AA7-2219ENW