[Guide] Anniversary 2.0 "SNAFU" - Server Needs a Friggin' Upgrade


[RAM Options]

General advice: Density is the most important thing in servers, whether it’s hard drives, solid states, or RAM. Personally, I’d advise picking up the most dense RAM you can afford. You’ll thank yourself later when it’s time to upgrade.
Even if you only need 64GB, I’d probably still recommend 2x32GB sticks (which you can get for $80 OBO). Having multi-channel and higher speeds is nice, but it’s not important unless you are doing very specific workloads. Capacity and density, generally speaking are the most important factors.

Make sure your motherboard can support the speed, capacity, ranking, type, and voltage of the RAM you’ve selected.

  1. In most cases, you will be using DDR3 ECC RDIMM.
  2. Not that some DDR3 ECC RDIMM is labled “L”. This is typically reserved for higher capacity modules. Verify motherboard compatibility before selecting these modules.
  3. Some pre-builts require UDIMM (may be ECC or non-ECC).
  4. All X79 motherboards require non-ECC UDIMM.

DDR3 ECC RDIMM (REG)

Brand Model (link) Capacity (GB) Rank Speed (MHz) PC3 Type ECC Voltage Price/GB Expected Price
Samsung M393B2K70CM0-CF8Q5 16 4Rx4 1066 PC3-8500R REG ECC Normal $1.06 $17.00
Samsung M393B2K70DM0-YF8 16 4Rx4 1066 PC3L-8500R REG ECC Low $1.38 $22.00
Micron MT72KSZS4G72PZ 32 4Rx4 1333 PC3L-10600R REG ECC Low $1.34 $43.00
Hynix HMT84GL7AMR4A-PB 32 4Rx4 1600 PC3L-12800L REG LOAD RED. ECC Low $1.56 $50.00
Hynix HMT84GL7MMR4A-H9 32 4Rx4 1333 PC3L-10600L REG LOAD RED. ECC Low $1.56 $50.00
Samsung M386B4G70BM0-YH90Q 32 4Rx4 1333 PC3L-10600L REG LOAD RED. ECC Normal $1.56 $50.00
Samsung M386B4G70DM0-CMA4 32 4Rx4 1866 PC3-14900L REG LOAD RED. ECC Normal $1.56 $50.00
Samsung M386B8G70DE0-YH93 64 8Rx4 1333 PC3L-10600L REG LOAD RED. ECC Low $1.88 $120.00

DDR3 ECC/non-ECC UDIMM

Type Model (link) Speed Capacity Price/GB Expected Price
NON-ECC PC3-10600U 1333MHz 2x4GB = 8GB $2.38/GB $19.00
NON-ECC PC3-12800U 1600MHz 2x4GB = 8GB $2.13/GB $17.00
NON-ECC PC3-12800U 1600MHz 2x8GB = 16GB $2.50/GB $40.00
NON-ECC PC3-12800U 1600MHz 4x4GB = 16GB $2.13/GB $34.00
NON-ECC PC3-12800U 1600MHz 4x8GB = 32GB $3.28/GB $105.00
ECC UDIMM PC3-10600E 1333MHz 2x4GB = 8GB $4.00/GB $32.00
ECC UDIMM PC3-12800E 1600MHz 2x4GB = 8GB $3.50/GB $28.00
ECC UDIMM PC3-10600E 1333MHz 2x8GB = 16GB $4.88/GB $78.00
ECC UDIMM PC3-12800E 1600MHz 2x8GB = 16GB $4.38/GB $70.00
ECC UDIMM PC3-10600E 1333MHz 4x4GB = 16GB $4.06/GB $65.00
ECC UDIMM PC3-12800E 1600MHz 4x4GB = 16GB $3.06/GB $49.00
ECC UDIMM PC3-10600E 1333MHz 4x8GB = 32GB $5.00/GB $160.00
ECC UDIMM PC3-12800E 1600MHz 4x8GB = 32GB $4.38/GB $140.00