Unpopulated Memory Channel

[GlennFrancis07]

Hi 

I am currently using Z840 Tower PC and everytime I run the HP Performance advisor there is a configuration warning always popping up, it says "During starup, HP Performance Advisor found the following potential issued with the configuration of this computer: Unpopulated memory channel.

As per checking on some forums about proper memory loading, the momery on my Z840 was loaded as per the loading sequence indicated on the side cover plate of the PC.

by the way I am using SOLIDWORKS 2015 SP3 and I am not satisfied with the performance of this PC. The drawing mode is so slow 3D modelling is also slow when using multiple assemblies, anyone who can help me to speed-up my system? or is there anything that I need to do to speed-up?

PC CONFIGURATION:

Processor: Dual Intel Xeon CPU E5-2620 v3 @ 2.40 GHz

Memory: 64 GB (4x 16 GB DDR4 2133MHz)

Graphics: Nvidia Quadro P5000 16GB

HDD: 2TB (2x 1TB WD10EZEX-60W)

Thanks,

[Brian1965]

Hi GlennFrancis07,

Welcome to the HP forum.

I am currently running SW2017 SP1 on my HP Z620 without any issues.

When manipulating the models, creating parts or assemblies in SolidWorks, it is the CPU single threaded performance that is critical to performance. When rendering any models in Photoview 360 it is the number of CPU cores that is critical to performance since Photoview is a CPU only render engine.

In my case, I am using SolidWorks Visualize to render the final images which uses the GPU('s) to render, taking the workload away from the CPU(s).

Are you using a CPU or GPU render engine?

Your current E5-2620 v3 CPU's have a relatively slow single threaded performance of 1685 according to Passmark. In contrast, I am using an E5-1680 v2 CPU in my HP Z620 which I have overclocked to 4.7GHz giving a single threaded performance score of 2551. Consider fitting CPU's with a higher single threaded performance. The Passmark website lists the single core performance for almost all the xeon CPU's.

Regarding the memory/performance advisor message, you have 2 CPU's but only 4 ram modules?, i.e. each CPU has 4 memory channels. To fully utilise the memory bandwidth, you need 4 memory modules per CPU. Simply removing one of your CPU's and placing the 4 ram modules on the remaing CPU will actually improve your performance for 2 reasons;

1. You are utilising all the available memory channels on the CPU.

2. Your single core performance increases with a single CPU since you are not using both the QPI links in the CPU.

Source;

http://www8.hp.com/h20195/v2/GetPDF.aspx/c04400043.pdf

[GlennFrancis07]

Hi Brian1965

Thanks for the quick response,

So basically I have a hardware problem considering the CPU's performance and ram choices, anyhow the ram's came from OEM where we purchased this PC so I assume they setup this pc to the best possible.

With regards to the fulling out 1 CPU and putting  all ram's with the remaining CPU, can I disable 1 CPU without physically removing it? and is there any problem in overclocking CPU's?

[Brian1965 · Accepted solution]

Hi GlennFrancis07,

Unfortunately there is no simple option to disable a CPU in the BIOS, etc.

If you are unfamiliar with removing/installing CPU's, etc. then I would intitally recommend you start by populating all the available memory channels. i.e. either swap the 4 x 16GB ram modules for 8 x 8GB ram modules or add another 4 x 16GB ram modules to fully populate all the memory channels. 

I'm very surprised you purchased this Z840 with this pre-configured memory configuration since the only 'recommended' memory configurations for 64GB of ram should be either 16 x 4GB ram modules or 8 x 8GB ram modules according to the HP Z840 quick specs?

With regards to overclocking CPU's, it is only specific Xeon chips that have 'unlocked' multipliers and can therefor be overclocked. Generally these specific Xeons CPU's are from the E5-16xx family and only work in single CPU configurations. I don;t know the full list of overclocking  Xeons but I do know that the E5-1650, 1660 & 1680 V1 and V2 can be overclocked. I'm not sure if any of the E5-16xx v3 have unlocked multipliers.

It might be worth considering downloading and running Passmark Peformance Test (Free version). It will provide a score for each element of the computer, e.g. CPU, memory, 2D, 3D and disc performance. It would certainly help to identify where performance is lacking or pinpoint any potential bottlenecks in your system.

Just a quick side note: Check/confirm that multii-threading and Turbo modes are actually turned on in the BIOS.