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polendina
Asked: 2023-12-18 00:51:47 +0800 CST

Motherboard's maximum RAM capacity

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I'm trying to upgrade the RAM on a desktop computer, which currently has 4x2G m378b5773ch0-ch9 sticks.

When I look up the manufacturer's website, It says that it Supports up to 16 GB (unbuffered) on 64-bit computers , however when I inspect the maximum capacity of the motherboard using dmidecode, I get the following

 $ sudo dmidecode -t 16
# dmidecode 3.3
Getting SMBIOS data from sysfs.
SMBIOS 2.7 present.

Handle 0x000D, DMI type 16, 23 bytes
Physical Memory Array
    Location: System Board Or Motherboard
    Use: System Memory
    Error Correction Type: None
    Maximum Capacity: 32 GB
    Error Information Handle: Not Provided
    Number Of Devices: 4

Which one is which?

ram

2 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    It's strange that the manufacturer doesn't state total RAM capacity for registered memory.

    However on Supermicro motherboards, it's not unusual that they support e.g. 64 GB unbuffered, but 128 or 256 GB registered memory.

    So judging from this, I'd say it's "probable" that the dmidecide info is correct, so it supports up to 32 GB of registered RAM.

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  2. I would be hesitant to upgrade to 32GB of RAM even though dmidecode claims it is possible. Motherboard manufacturers are free to modify their BIOS firmware and reduce the max installable memory and dmidecode might not be clever enough to detect that. Apple has done this with the mid-2012 MacBook Pro. The official max memory is 8GB but unofficially it is 16GB. People have had mixed success with installing the unofficial 16GB.

    Even though dmidecode states a 32GB max and websites like Wikipedia state 32GB as the max for the Intel H87 chipset (which is on your motherboard), HP states the max memory is 16GB on your website link so I would trust them and not upgrade beyond 16GB.

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