Interesting 4P Opteron server from Appro

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rob Stow
  • Start date Start date
Rob said:
http://www.appro.com/product/server_3Uxserver_opteron_4.asp

4P in a 3U case
8 DIMM slots per CPU.
Up to 64 GB or PC3200 or 128 GB of PC2700.

What makes it interesting is the mezzanine motherboard.
I've seen this kind of stacking to make an 8P Opteron box, but
this is the first time I've seen in for a 4P Opteron box. Neat pics.
Click to expand...

That's an awful lot of memory, I usually don't see more than 8GB
installed in x86 servers, let alone 128GB.

Yousuf Khan
 
Yousuf said:
That's an awful lot of memory, I usually don't see more than 8GB
installed in x86 servers, let alone 128GB.

Yousuf Khan
Click to expand...

I see mostly 2P boxes - mostly Opterons - and 8 GB of RAM is
pretty much standard in those. And that tends to be 8 x 1 GB on
a motherboard than only has 8 DIMM slots to begin with.

However, the few people that I've seen buying 4P Opty boxes have
a tendancy to fill every DIMM slot with either 1 GB or 2 GB
DIMMs. Even if they have a RAM-hungry job to use the servers for,
they are seldom willing to buy 4 GB DIMMs, which is not
surprising at $3600 each to get only PC2100 or PC2700 speeds.

And that reminds me of something else about this Appro system:
it is being offered with 128 GB of PC2700. Everyone else tends
to offer 32 GB PC3200, 64 GB PC2700, or 128 GB PC2100.
("Everyone else" is HP and one other vendor that I can't recall
at the moment.)
 
Rob said:
And that reminds me of something else about this Appro system:
it is being offered with 128 GB of PC2700. Everyone else tends
to offer 32 GB PC3200, 64 GB PC2700, or 128 GB PC2100.
("Everyone else" is HP and one other vendor that I can't recall
at the moment.)
Click to expand...

Appro has a special deal with some memory manufacturer for 4GB PC2700
DIMMs?

Yousuf Khan
 
YKhan said:
Appro has a special deal with some memory manufacturer for 4GB PC2700
DIMMs?
Click to expand...

I have no idea where they are getting their DIMMs or for how much
$$$. And these days there does not seem to be any price
difference between PC2100 and PC2700 ECC Reg DIMMs regardless of
the DIMM size. Heck, for DIMMS up to 2 GB there is no price
difference between PC2100 and PC3200.

My point was that the other 4P Opty vendors are not willing to
guarantee PC2700 speeds beyond 64 GB - they only offer you
PC2100. To me that suggests that Appro has more confidence in
the quality of their motherboards if they think that all 8 DIMM
sockets attached to each CPU can handle 4 GB PC2700 DIMMs.
 
Rob said:
My point was that the other 4P Opty vendors are not willing to guarantee
PC2700 speeds beyond 64 GB - they only offer you PC2100. To me that
suggests that Appro has more confidence in the quality of their
motherboards if they think that all 8 DIMM sockets attached to each CPU
can handle 4 GB PC2700 DIMMs.
Click to expand...

Well, it does look like with the motherboard layout they have, all
memory banks are an equal distance away from each Opteron that they
connect to.

Yousuf Khan
 
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