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Dell reports that 8GB is the max but Windows System spec tool indicates 16GB possible. Has anyone actually been able to add more than 8GB to this motherboard and actually have it report more than 8GB available in the BIOS?
user3348550
Posted 2014-03-12T18:29:23.780
Reputation: 33
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Have you looked at the online version of the 2850 specs? The spec sheet speaks of 16 GiB with a footnote "availability scheduled for 2005". https://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/pedge/en/2850_specs.pdf
Memory: 256MB/12GB DDR-2 400 SDRAM; 16GB with availability of dual rank 4GB DIMMs
TheUser1024
Posted 2014-03-12T18:29:23.780
Reputation: 2 823
1Thanks for the link. Yep clear as day on the spec sheet. Just not in the ordering parts page. A little more research indicates this is a system which can handle 16GB. Thanks to everyone who commented. – user3348550 – 2014-03-12T21:11:35.703
1Crucial and Kingston both report that 16GB will work fine in that server. What happened when you tried? – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2014-03-12T18:37:14.103
Maybe the user is ordering RAM for their machine and hasn't tried yet. Why the downvote? – bgmCoder – 2014-03-12T18:51:30.373
@BGM - you are exactly correct. I haven't got the RAM yet. – user3348550 – 2014-03-12T18:56:23.443
1@techie007 - since Dell reports one thing and others report something different, I was looking for experience. I can look up specs all day but that doesn't tell me much some days. I can't take the machine offline at the moment either. Helpful comments are always appreciated. – user3348550 – 2014-03-12T19:06:03.270
1Dell's documentation is going to be what they tested at the time the server was built, which may have been at a time when sticks large enough to give 16GB may not have existed. RAM producers like Kingston and Crucial are very accurate in their compatibility specs, and I've seen many times over the years when they've purported larger capacities than the original system documentation, and they were always correct. I'd trust them over the manufacturer documents in any case where the system is older than 6 months. – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2014-03-12T19:23:29.813
Also keep in mind, DDR2-400 ECC is going to be hard/impossible to get new, so looking at used on eBay, you're looking at about $50 to get an 8GB kit (2x4GB). Pretty cheap thing to "try" IMO. Of course, if you want to wait for someone who's had that exact server with more than 8GB of RAM before acting on your problem, more power to ya. :)
– Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2014-03-12T19:25:29.697