HP Z620 Ram Upgrade

[AitorLopez]

Hi, I have a question. 

I want to improve the ram memory of my HP z620. I have a hp z620 with boot block date 12/28/2011 (version J61 v03.91) with 2xCPU Xeon E5 2660 v1.

Is it possible to insert RAM memory cards of 12x16gb = 192gb 1600mhz / 1866mhz or the maximum capacity RAM cards I can insert are those of 12x8gb = 96gb to 1600 or 1866mhz?

Thank you very much

[BambiBoomZ]

AitorLopez,

The z620 first version has a maximum of 12 RAM slots, 8 on the motherbaord and 4 on the 2nd CPU riser board, supporting a maximum of 96GB RAM. To accomplish that means filling all slots with the maximum capacity 8GB modules.

It's possible run 1866 RAM, but as version 1 CPU's and the memory controller support a maximum of 1600, 1866 RAM will default to run at 1600.  Only a few days ago I tried mixing RAM speeds in the z420- it uses 1866,  but I had 32GB of 1600 from another z420 and when I added the 1600, the system only slowed 32GB total- it didn't like the ximed speeds.  And all the RAM was HP the total from two systems bpurchased new..

So, the short answer is the maximum will be 96GB (12X 8GB) of DDR31600 ECC registered.

A good amount of RAM is useful is you are working large files. The reason for the (failed) mixed RAM experiment was that the z420 for 3D modeling, having 32GB of DDR3-1866 but a particualr rendering had to be done on the z620 having 64GB of RAM as the rendering had a peak RAM use of 37.1GB.  It ran up to 100% CPU useage on all 32 threads.

Probably the route to improve the memory performance, is to- one: choose RAM that is tested compatible to the z620, two: be aware that larger RAM modules usually have higher latency, and three: substitute a motherboard (708614-001) supporting E5 v2 CPU's Then the total rises to 192GB of DDR3-1866 with a module maximum of 16GB, if ECC registered- unbuffered are a maximum of 8GB.  I've bought one for the z620 so the E5-2690's can be changed to a pair of E5-2667 v2's eventually.  However, at the moment, the 3.8GHz top speed is sufficicent.  Upgraded it will still probably still use 64GB, but 128GB is possible.  I've read that a dual CPU system runs more efficiency if the RAM is balanced between the two CPU's. As the riser has 4 RAM slots, that means 4X 16 + 4X 16 = 128GB.  The current z620 has 4X 8 + 4X 8= 64GB. 

The z620 seems choosy about the RAM so try and buy  using the HP specification.  I did this and still have had a fuss with intermittent "memory training failure" error messages.

Cheers,

BambiBoomZ

z620 Memory > Version 1 CPU's

  DDR3-1600 ECC Unbuffered DIMMs - CTO

2GB DDR3-1600 ECC Unbuffered RAM

4GB DDR3-1600 ECC Unbuffered RAM

DDR3-1600 ECC Registered DIMMs - CTO

4GB DDR3-1600 ECC Registered RAM

8GB DDR3-1600 ECC Registered RAM

DDR3-1600 ECC Registered DIMMs - AMO

4GB DDR3-1600 ECC Registered RAM

8GB DDR3-1600 ECC Registered RAM

   DDR3-1600 ECC Unbuffered DIMMs - AMO

HP 2GB (1x2GB) DDR3-1600 ECC RAM

HP 4GB (1x4GB) DDR3-1600 ECC RAM

HP z620 (2012) (Rev 3) 2X Xeon E5-2690 (8-core @ 2.9 / 3.8GHz) / 64GB DDR3-1600 ECC reg) / Quadro K2200 (4GB) + Tesla M2090 (6GB) / HP Z Turbo Drive (256GB) + Samsung 850 Evo 250GB + Seagate Constellation ES.3 (1TB) / Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium PCIe sound card / 800W / Windows 7 Professional 64-bit >  Logitech z313 2.1 speakers > HP 2711x  (27"  1980 X 1080)
[ Passmark System Rating= 5675 / CPU= 22625 / 2D= 815 / 3D = 3580 / Mem = 2522 / Disk = 12640 ] 9.25.16
[ Cinebench R15: OpenGL= 119.23 fps / CPU = 2209 cb / Single core 130 cb / MP Ratio 16.84x] 10.31.16

[Brian1965]

Hi AitorLopez,

As BambiBoomZ correctly states, the maximum amount of RAM for your dual CPU V1 system is 12 x 8GB (1600MHz) but there is also one other important aspect that can significantly influence RAM performance and that is your CPU(s).   Putting in faster CPU's will increase the effective speed of the RAM. This is better explained in the table below which shows my memory Passmark scores for various CPU configurations;

CPU base frequency;- E5-2670 = 2.6GHz, E5-2690 = 2.9GHz, E5-2667 v2 = 3.3GHz,  (Your E5-2660 = 2.2GHz)

Since you are using 1600MHz ram I would suggest you ignore the last column in the tables. Ironically, memory speed drops when adding a second CPU which I assume is due to the 2 CPU's needing to synchronise, i.e. QPI links.