Different sized RAM

[Pestaninha]

Hi,

I'm about to buy a much needed stick of 8GB of ram for my NAS. The NAS is a HP ProLiant Microserver Gen 8, and it's currently with a stick of 4GB of RAM. While 8GB should be enough for my current needs, I'm thinking of using both sticks simultaneous. The RAM is ECC and I'm considering purchasing RAM of the same clock speed

Can anyone see a problem with this setup? I know that this is not common and I couldn't find anything online regarding this matter.

Thank you

 

[diedrichg]

Different sizes don't matter. Speed is also, mostly, a non-issue.

 

[Chris Moore]

Different sizes don't matter. Speed is also, mostly, a non-issue.

Depends entirely on the system board some boards will not take different size sticks

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

 

[diedrichg]

Depends entirely on the system board some boards will not take different size sticks

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I537 using Tapatalk

Interesting. I've not heard that before. Good to know, thanks.

 

[pschatz100]

If there are limitations with certain RAM configurations, the motherboard manual will describe them. Some motherboards have a preference about which slots one should use when mixing sizes or timing, but I have not come across a recent motherboard that would not allow sizes to be mixed.

 

[Ericloewe]

Yeah, AFAIK, anything DDR2 or newer isn't going to be very picky.

 

[joeschmuck]

I know people have been purchasing the ML10 Gen 9 and just adding a single stick of 8GB with the 4GB which it comes with and there is no issue.

While some motherboard will not like it, most will accept different sized RAM sticks however they would need to be in the correct slots. Most of the time when you install the same size RAM into the proper slots you will get Interleved RAM performance. If the motherboard recognizes things are different then it's just normal mode.

My advice is to buy RAM with the same speed of your present RAM otherwise you may need to manually set the RAM speed to the slowest RAM you have, which is fine if you are comfortable doing that.

 

[Ericloewe]

My advice is to buy RAM with the same speed of your present RAM otherwise you may need to manually set the RAM speed to the slowest RAM you have, which is fine if you are comfortable doing that.

Not even that, any BIOS on a system that can run FreeNAS at all will be smart enough to properly setup the memory controller.

 

[joeschmuck]

Not even that, any BIOS on a system that can run FreeNAS at all will be smart enough to properly setup the memory controller.

That's a pretty bold statement.

 

[Stux]

Not even that, any BIOS on a system that can run FreeNAS at all will be smart enough to properly setup the memory controller.

Not 100% true ;)

I actually have a system with a BIOS bug which sets the memory controller to the highest speed found, not the highest common speed ;)

Okay, granted it was an ES, and we reported the issue, and it got fixed before release ;)

Still. BIOS bugs suck.

 

[pschatz100]

Some folks have tried to mix unbuffered memory and registered memory - usually because they find registered memory described as "server memory" by some sellers on eBay, and it is cheap, and they don't know any better. Of course, that will not work.

 

[Chris Moore]

Some folks have tried to mix unbuffered memory and registered memory - usually because they find registered memory described as "server memory" by some sellers on eBay, and it is cheap, and they don't know any better. Of course, that will not work.

Some of those sellers don't describe what it is they are selling accurately enough, and it could be because they don't really understand the differences themselves.

 

[joeschmuck]

Some of those sellers don't describe what it is they are selling accurately enough, and it could be because they don't really understand the differences themselves.

That is why I always use the model number of the RAM and verify it that way against the QVL. It's just the smarter way to do it.

 

[VolumeTank]

Not even that, any BIOS on a system that can run FreeNAS at all will be smart enough to properly setup the memory controller.

That's true my CPU only support up to 2933MHz, the motherboard support 3200+(OC) I have 4 modules 2x 8gb and 2x 16gb, all 3200MHz. The system sets all the modules to 2400MHz by itself, at this point what I'm not sure if to bump it up to the CPU max ( 2400MHz ) and if different modules size would affect performance.

 

[pschatz100]

@VolumeTank this was an old thread, but many of the comments are still relevant.

Generally speaking, some motherboards default to a moderate memory speed to insure that the system starts reliably. You can try running the memory at the speed supported by your CPU, but I definitely would not try to overclock. Bumping up the speed of your memory is unlikely to make a huge difference in the performance of your NAS.

Whether or not your mixed memory will run reliably at 2933MHz is a hardware issue, not a FreeNAS issue. If the memory is of good quality and within proper spec, then it will probably work. To be certain, you could try setting the higher speed and then run a cycle of memtest to make certain everything plays nice together.

 

[Chris Moore]

the motherboard support 3200+(OC)

That you have a system board that supports overclock is an indicator that you have hardware that is significantly less that ideal. Please do not overclock, reliability is more important than speed. You would have been in a better situation with USED server gear than this gaming board.

 

[Dan Tudora]

for HP ProLiant Microserver Gen 8 you need unbuffered memory
and YES work with diferent memory size
is recomanded to update the bios and rest of firmware first
read this post please before https://www.ixsystems.com/community...-pools-to-microserver-gen8.76238/#post-529945
succes

 

[VolumeTank]

That you have a system board that supports overclock is an indicator that you have hardware that is significantly less that ideal. Please do not overclock, reliability is more important than speed. You would have been in a better situation with USED server gear than this gaming board.

Yes I know, thanks so much my plan actually was to build a computer instead, I had a QNAP NAS but it was not good at all. So I change my mind and build the NAS with parts instead. I didn't want to spend extra cash on deferent parts again. I'm trying to put something together that is more server sides in all parts.

Thanks so much, I'm not going to OC the rams, definitely not.