Upgrade Fever – WIP

I’ve got a case of upgrade fever at the moment, and thought I’d list a few eBay items to watch out for in case I ever want to pull the trigger.

Processors for X58

Processor      Multiplier    Overclock    eBay Price
X5650              20                    4.60GHz        SLBV3 – $120
X5660              21                    5.20GHz        SLBV6 – $150

Shuffling RAM

Trying to plan out a scenario where any RAM purchased will result in the RAM it is replacing being re-purposed in another box.

It seems that the DDR3 spec requires that RAM be able to run at 1.5V, so if that voltage isn’t listed it is assumed.  Lower spec’d RAM like 1.35V will run on a board rated at 1.5V.

GA-X58A-UD3R rev2
6 slots | 24GB/48GB | 1.5V UDIMM | DDR3 2200/1333/1066/800 MHz | non ECC

People have successfully used 8GB sticks for a total of 48GB of RAM.  As voltage draw increases, the board drops the last two slots so many people don’t see the full amount of RAM installed.

There are reports of ECC RAM working in this board–just without ECC functioning.

SuperMicro X10SL7-F

4 slots | 32GB | 1.35V UDIMM | DDR3 1600/1333 MHz | ECC

HP ProLiant ML310e G8 v2 (potential future purchase)

4 slots | 32GB | 1.35V UDIMM | DDR3 1600/1333 MHz | ECC

HP xw8400

8 slots | 32GB | FB-DIMM | DDR2 667 MHz | ECC

Intel S5000XVN/XSL

8 slots | 32GB | FB-DIMM | DDR2 667/533 MHz | ECC

Dell Optiplex GX620 SFF

4 slots | 4GB* | FB-DIMM | DDR2 800/667 MHz | non-ECC
*hardware limitation.  BIOS A11 required to see 3.5GB.  RAM must be low density.

Dell Optiplex 745 SFF

4 slots | 8GB | 1.5V UDIMM | DDR2 800/667/533 MHz | non-ECC

Dell Optiplex 755 SFF

4 slots | 8GB | 1.5V UDIMM | DDR2 800/667 MHz | non-ECC


Memory has been a minefield for my system.  The good news is that the X58 architecture is capable of running 48GB of RAM (which is more than my Xeon based FreeNAS box!).  The bad news is that Integrated Memory Controller (IMC) of the first iCore processors (i7-950) were only rated for 1066MHz and are extremely picky when it comes to voltages and overclocks.  There is extreme variance between processors and stepping.

With 24GiB you may need to reduce uncore speed or increase QPI/VTT levels, as well as loosen some sub-timings. tRFC in particular is very important if you are using two DIMMs per channel. You will likely need to increase tRFC by 20-50 cycles.


Supported Corsair Memory List

Corsair 4GB CMV4GX3M1A1333C9 — $40

Corsair 8GB CMV8GX3M1A1333C9 — $75

Kingston 24GB F3-12800CL9S-4GBRL worked on an overclocked i7-920

Kingston 4GB KHX1600C9D3LK2/4GX works at 1066MHz but is no longer readily available.

FreeNAS compatible Networking gear

1GB – HP NC380T

10GB

Chelsio S320E-SR-XFP can sometimes be found for less than $100 on eBay. The Chelsio T3, T4 and T5 ASICs are fully supported by the current version of FreeNAS.

SAS / SATA

The IBM ServeRAID M1015, crossflashed to IT mode, is probably one of the best choices available if you need a bunch of extra SATA/SAS ports. It does take an extra ~12 watts however. Don’t buy it new. They’re available cheap on eBay all the time.

Intel X520 and X540 are supported via the ixgbe driver. Check the country, datecode, and MAC address Yottamark gives you, don’t just blindly trust it. Not a good choice if you wish to run versions prior to 9.3.