Help with Supermicro X8SIL / Non ECC memory

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1

Hi there.
Thanks a lot for the great advices and huge set of builds and tips we can find over here.

I know that new guides and new builds are better, but I’m stubborn and I end up purchasing a SM X8SIL and I’m having some issues that I want to share to see if is normal, or at least to confirm my next steps looks good to everyone.

Parts details:

Board: SUPERMICRO X8SIL INTEL XEON X3400 L3400 SOCKET LGA1156
CPU: Intel Xeon X3470 2.93GHz 8M 4 Core 8 Threads LGA 1156 Socket
RAM: 2x Samsung 8G-2Rx8-pc3-12800u
HBA: LSI SAS 9210-8i 8-port 6Gb/s PCIe
Power Supply: Thermaltake 500W
Drives: 2x WD White 8TB, 1x WD White 10TB (Parity drive) and 1x Sillicon Power 500GB SSD.

First thing was that purchased memory was not ECC, so I was getting an error saying that and boot could not be started. Yes, I didn’t realize memory was not ECC. BIOS was on version 1.0, so I updated the BIOS to ver 1.2. Then, non ECC memory messages keeps appearing but just as a warning and boot process continue. In fact, I am not able to enter the BIOS anymore. I tried with DEL key, F2, and almost all key combination but it was impossible to enter the BIOS again.
Anyway, as the boot continues, I was able to install the OS (Unraid) and use the server. It was just the non ECC warning message and that I could not access the BIOS.

WhatsApp Image 2020-03-23 at 20.23.20
WhatsApp Image 2020-03-23 at 20.23.201280×720 84.6 KB

That was one month ago, server was kind of stable, but from time to time I arrived home and found the server turned off. I’m not sure if this was related to a power failure or any other cause. But, in the last week, server was turned off multiple times and I could not see any error message on the unraid log.

I’m almost sure that the culprit of this is the NON ECC memory. So:

  1. Are you guys seeing some behavior like this one before?
  2. Do you consider, installing new memories, will fix it?
  3. Any other thing that maybe I’m missing here?

For the new memories, I’m looking at these ones, do you agree those ones will be “the right ones” to this board and parts?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MICRON-4GB-PC3-8500R-DDR3-1066-REGISTERED-ECC-MEMORY/323981708395?hash=item4b6ed08c6b:g:hpsAAOSwdL5dwxjx

Thanks in advance for your kind support.

2

Non ECC ram is not supported on this board. This board requires “x8” ram. So the ram in the link will work; it’s 4rx8. The Micron RAM you linked is 1066Mhz quad rank RDIMM, which is supported. But if you put two sticks per channel, the speed is downgraded to 800Mhz. It shouldn’t matter to performance but good to know.

Also, keep in mind that this board will take RDIMM or UDIMM, but they cannot be mixed. Pages 2-10 and 2-11 in the X8SIL manual give these details. Just follow the correct table for the type of RAM.

3

Hey thanks for your quick reply. I’m not new to server parts, but some items are indeed new to me.

I did read about the "x8"part on the guide but I didn’t got it. Please can you expand a bit on this? How do you knew the one on the link is 4rx8?

Thanks!

4

I zoomed in on the label on the ram in the photo provided by the seller.

5

I have had this happen. I had to use a PS2 Keyboard to get into BIOS the USB one didn’t get recognized in time. I still cannot get more than 8Gb of ram to show up even though I have 16Gb installed of ECC memory. I need to check the numbers on it.