Z420 RAM upgrade compatibility and performance concerns

[joselso]

Well, I followed the link you offered and reached the original HP explanation of their Firmware Upgrade policy at the following URL:

http://community.hpe.com/t5/Technical-Support-Services/More-information-on-HP-firmware-availability/...

There it is stated:

What other HP products will be impacted?

The firmware access changes we are making on February 19, 2014 apply to HP ProLiant servers only.

That seems to leave users of Z-series workstations at peace, unless you have a later update to that policy.

[Zak-Smith]

Shoot, you might be right.  We have a mix of HP hardware, some of which was affected and some of which was not affected.  Next time around probably not buying HP because of this BS.

FWIW, I used to work for HP in the late 90's and early 2000's and now own my own company.   Would never try to pull that on my customers.

[OceanModeler]

AESystems, thanks for testing the 16GB RDIMM sticks in the Z420. Just to clarify, were you able to exceed the motherboards 64GB limitation too?

I'd like to pack my Z420 (running linux) with 125GB of RAM (and maybe an 8TB seagate Hard drive, which doesn't appear to be explicitly supported either). If you've had luck with 64+GB of RAM, I'll oder the parts to upgrade my system and report back.

Also, to head off the question "why do you need so much RAM?", I'll mention that I run high-reslution simulations of fluid flow, which utilize all the RAM I can pack into my computer. Being RAM-limited is no fun, either you have to work remotely on a supercomputer or process datasets in small chunks. I routinely have to restart my computer after I accidentally overload my RAM and my computer starts thrashing.

[wtrmn]

Hi all,

Has anyone had any success using non-ecc ram in these machines?

I'm currently in the process of trying to upgrade the ram in my z420 workstation running Windows 10. (xeon e5 1620. HP 1589 motherboard.)

I'm having a similar problem to others. I am trying to install 32gigs (4x8gig) of DDR3 1600MHZ 1.5V NON-ECC ram into my machine and I continue to experience the no POST, no beeps, high RPM fan situation.

I tried upgrading bios, resetting cmos, removing cmos battery. nothing has worked. 

I'm led to believe ECC ram must be used on these workstation due to the restrictions built into the motherboard by HP. (GIven that the XEON cpu can support ecc or non-ecc memory)

Does anyone know away around the non-ecc memory restrictions?

[jleonard711]

wtrmn, I have read some posts where peope have successfully booted with non-ECC memory, but the instances are rare and unverified. So it may work, but maybe only with certain memory brands/models. I have tried several different sticks of DDR3-1600 in my recently purchased Z420 and haven't been able to get it working with any of them, I experience the exact same symptons as you - no beeps, blank screen, high speed fan after about 30 seconds. So I have now ordered 32GB (4x8GB) of PC3-12800R ECC Registered CL9 memory for $66 delivered from eBay, and based on the comments in this thread it should work just fine. 

[Anu0512]

jleonard711 

Your RAM are working fine ? can post some details like brand.  I have one question right now I have 16 GB in four solt and other four solt are empty  so if i put other brand RAM same like you so they will work with this RAM

[wtrmn]

Hi Leonard,

I ended up returning the non-ECC ram, and bought 32 gigs kingston ECC ram on Amazon for about $170:( Alot more expensive than the ebay ram. I had it installed in minutes, and it's been working well since then. Thanks for the input!

[jleonard711]

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@Anu0512 wrote:

jleonard711 

Your RAM are working fine ? can post some details like brand.  I have one question right now I have 16 GB in four solt and other four solt are empty  so if i put other brand RAM same like you so they will work with this RAM

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Yes, my RAM is working fine. I have two Z420 systems (one has 32GB and the other has 16GB), and both are using ECC Registered (RDIMM) memory. Even though the HP whitesheet says to use unregistered/unbuffered memory, the registered memory works just fine and is actually cheaper because it's more common and easier to find. The 16GB that I bought most recently are Samsung 4x4GB modules with the HP P/N 500203-061, and I paid $20 delivered for 16GB!  

And yes, if you have 4 slots populated with 16GB (4x4GB) then you can add 4 more for a total of 32GB. And they can be different brands, but you'll want to make sure they are the EXACT same speed, capacity, and rank (i.e. 2Rx4, 2Rx8, etc). While this will increase your total RAM capacity, keep in mind that it will actually decrease your RAM performance. The reason for this is that the CPU & motherboard support 4 channels, so with 8 slots on the motherboard it means each channel has 2 slots. But the bandwidth of 2 slots is limited to what a single channel can handle, so putting 2 sticks into the same channel (1 black, 1 white) will double the capacity but those sticks will need to share the bandwidth of a single channel rather than each having their own dedicated channel.

If you want the best performance with 32GB of RAM you should remove the existing 4 x 4GB sticks and replace them with 4 x 8GB sticks.

[schillacif]

Hi all,

I have an HP Z420 and I want to upgrade the ram up to 64gb, so my boss bought 4 NILOX RAM DDR3L DIMM 8GB 1600MHZ CL11.

If I set these rams in the free slots the machine does not start.... I guess they are not compatible... is it right?

[Anu0512]

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@schillacif wrote:

Hi all,

I have an HP Z420 and I want to upgrade the ram up to 64gb, so my boss bought 4 NILOX RAM DDR3L DIMM 8GB 1600MHZ CL11.

If I set these rams in the free slots the machine does not start.... I guess they are not compatible... is it right?

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Yes, these are ECC RAM ?