[PLUG-TALK] Laptop Memory Question

Paul Heinlein heinlein at madboa.com
Thu Mar 10 23:22:10 UTC 2011


On Thu, 10 Mar 2011, Paul Heinlein wrote:

> Assuming you're running Linux, run the dmidecode utility and look 
> for the section called "Physical Memory Array." There will be a 
> field labeled "Maximum Capacity" that will tell you the overall 
> maximum RAM your system can hold.

Here are a couple examples:

1. an old Pentium 4 server with two slots, each of which can
hold a 1 GB non-ECC DIMM:

Handle 0x0033, DMI type 16, 15 bytes
Physical Memory Array
         Location: System Board Or Motherboard
         Use: System Memory
         Error Correction Type: None
         Maximum Capacity: 2 GB
         Error Information Handle: 0x0032
         Number Of Devices: 2

2. a semi-old Opteron 250 system with 8 slots, each of which can hold 
a 1 GB non-registered ECC DIMM:

Handle 0x0021, DMI type 16, 15 bytes
Physical Memory Array
         Location: System Board Or Motherboard
         Use: System Memory
         Error Correction Type: Single-bit ECC
         Maximum Capacity: 8 GB
         Error Information Handle: Not Provided
         Number Of Devices: 8

3. a new-ish Xeon X3430 system that can handle 16 GB of RAM, but oddly 
has just 6 slots. So you can max out the system using 4 slots, each 
with a 4 GB registered ECC DIMM.

Handle 0x0019, DMI type 16, 15 bytes
Physical Memory Array
         Location: System Board Or Motherboard
         Use: System Memory
         Error Correction Type: Multi-bit ECC
         Maximum Capacity: 16 GB
         Error Information Handle: Not Provided
         Number Of Devices: 6

-- 
Paul Heinlein <> heinlein at madboa.com <> http://www.madboa.com/



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