Memory compatibility for Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard

[shadow001]

I checked on the Asus qualified vendors list for this particular board, but it's somewhat confusing if the brands in that list apply in the scenario where the user only has a single socket 2011 non Xeon cpu, or does that same list apply to when there's a pair of Xeons installed on the board as well.


I keep hearing that if Xeon's are installed, you have to use ECC unregistered memory, otherwise the Q code 6C shows up on the display and the system won't boot....

[scsi2man]

Re: Memory compatibility for Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard

I checked on the Asus qualified vendors list for this particular board, but it's somewhat confusing if the brands in that list apply in the scenario where the user only has a single socket 2011 non Xeon cpu, or does that same list apply to when there's a pair of Xeons installed on the board as well.


I keep hearing that if Xeon's are installed, you have to use ECC unregistered memory, otherwise the Q code 6C shows up on the display and the system won't boot....

What you have heard is partially correct. This board will accept non-ECC unbuffered DDR3 (regular memory), ECC Unbuffered memory, or ECC Registered (server memory). I find that for the best compatibility it is best to use ECC Registered memory. I use 8 16GB Samsung DDR3 1600 ECC Registered and have never had a problem or issue. Because this technically is a server board but with features such as SLI and Crossfire, your best bet is to use ECC Registered. The brands you will want to look at are Crucial, Kingston, Samsung, or Hynix, as they are the most commonly used memory types in workstation or server boards. I'd steer clear of the overclockable desktop memory from Corsair, Gskill, and other vendors that offer it and any ram that is rated higher than 1866 as the xeons most likely will not boot on settings higher than that. These processors simple won't overclock and if they do, it is a very minimal increase. I was able to adjust the bclk on this system from 100 to 103, giving my processors a 100 MHZ increase, which like I said is a minimal increase. The multipliers are not adjustable either. With the new version 2 xeons, the memory can now run at 1866, and the brands I mentioned above do make server memory at these speeds. If you choose to use reguiar non-ecc unbuffered memory, I find that the 4 brands I mentioned above work best, with Crucial and Kingston being the 2 best choices. If you choose ECC unbuffered, I suggest the same brands as well, and also for the ECC Registered.

Where you got having to use ECC unregistered or else it won't boot is total hogwash. I'm running 128GB of ECC registered ram and have never had a single problem with it. Keep in mind you can also put in 32GB Sticks, and give yourself 256 GB of ram, if that is the route you choose. Keep in mind that those sticks are VERY expensive.

[shadow001]

Re: Memory compatibility for Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard

Thanks for the reply and I was thinking the same thing since the list of qualified vendors for ECC memory is quite a bit larger for this particular board, compared to the non ECC list which only has a hand full of vendors, though crucial seems to sell DDR3 1866 ECC memory and it's good to know that there's no point higher if the system won't boot anyhow, even though I have V2 xeon's.

I wouldn't need a huge amount of ram and I see that going for a 64 GB configuration is still within reason price wise(so 8 sticks), and pushing that to 128 GB starts to really get expensive when it easily exceeds 1000$ just for ram.


I actually tried 64 GB of plain Kingston DDR3 1600 non ECC and still got the same error code, so it's picky on ram to say the least.....i'll try to shop directly at manufacturers site to see prices and what models they have.....Standard online shops like Newegg, or NCIX or Tiger direct don't have much to choose from in that type of ram.

[shadow001]

Re: Memory compatibility for Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard

Now that I think about it, I do have a set of corsair 1866 MHz DDR3 modules( dominator series) that are non ECC or registered, but they're only 2 GB modules so the system will only have 16 GB onboard, and I don't even know if they'll work but it's easy to add or remove memory with the case I have, so it might be worth a shot.

I'll be enough to install windows and programs if it does work, and i'll still order the ECC registered variety later on, but does give me a working computer now.

[scsi2man]

Re: Memory compatibility for Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard

NewEgg sells quite a few memory sticks when you go to memory and choose server memory. You can choose multiple brands, but I'd choose Crucial, Kingston, or Samsung in that list. The prices of the sticks change often, usually a few bucks here and there. They sell them as individual 8GB sticks, or Kingston has a 32GB kit which is 4 x 8GB. There are definitely more choices, and some of those include going to Crucial or Kingston's website and ordering direct from them. You may find better deals there, I don't know for certain. But I got the ram I use in this system off of eBay, and there are some great reputable companies out there that sell a lot of this stuff. Some of the ram I purchased was actually used, often for only a few months, and usually for quite a bit cheaper than if you bought it new. My feeling is that if it still has a full warranty, why not buy it used especially if it still has a full warranty on it? The Samsung sticks I use now retailed for about $190 at the time I was looking at them, but I got them for $105 each used. The company that was selling them was upgrading to larger servers and selling off the smaller ones. Despite having an expensive computer, I do try to find the best deals out there, even if it is used and has a full warranty. But if you feel comfortable buying off of eBay, I will gladly give you the names of the companies I have used, as I have been very pleased with dealing with them. In many cases because I was a repeat customer, they gave me a discount. Some of these companies also specialize in selling high end workstation and server parts and can also special order products for you, if you so desire. Let me know if you need any more assistance with this, as I've worked with workstations and servers and their components for several decades now, and make it a point to make sure everything works.

[shadow001]

Re: Memory compatibility for Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard

Thanks, I appreciate it....

Will check out Newegg but unless my memory fails me, they do have listings for the ram, but some of those models have to be ordered as they don't have them in stock right now.

[shadow001]

Re: Memory compatibility for Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard

Found some at another place, and it's highly tempting since I can get 64GB of Kingston 1866mhz ECC registered DDR3 for 800$....Wonder if the higher clocks on this are worth the extra 200$ over the 1600Mhz variety....

[scsi2man]

Re: Memory compatibility for Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard

Found some at another place, and it's highly tempting since I can get 64GB of Kingston 1866mhz ECC registered DDR3 for 800$....Wonder if the higher clocks on this are worth the extra 200$ over the 1600Mhz variety....

Honestly, there really isn't that much of a difference. Tomshardware has covered this issue before and the performance difference is negligible, around 1%, which to me is not worth the extra $200. What you are better off doing is getting a 1600 kit, and then tweaking it in the bios. Fortunately, this board does allow for voltage, bclk, and memory timing adjustments. I was able to take this Samsung memory from 11-11-11-28-1T down to 8-8-9-22-1T at stock voltage. The only downside of the tweaking, or overclocking, is that if it goes too high or out of range, the board doesn't boot and you need to reset it unlike the gaming boards that Asus' puts out. I have not been able to get the jumper to work correctly, but removing the battery does change it. When starting up the system, though, Asus' boot screen goes so fast that sometimes you'll miss being able to go back into the bios to make changes, so you have to be quick about it. The only benefit I'd see in going to 1866 memory, is if you ran it at 1600, and tried to overclock. I doubt you will be able to change it all that much, as Intel locked the chips.

[shadow001]

Re: Memory compatibility for Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard

I did notice that the CAS on this memory is set at 13 so the extra speed does come at the cost of latency, but they are having a special for online orders as they offer a 40$ discount for each set( they're sets of 4 modules), so the total price comes down to 720$....Not much over DDR 1600.

[shadow001]

Re: Memory compatibility for Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard

I couldn't resist the temptation and got the 1866 memory....The 1600 MHz version would end up at between 450~500$ with taxes and shipping, so it's not a huge cost increase given the money I've already put in the system.

What is brutal is the price of 16 GB modules rated at that speed....8 of those to get 128 GB of system ram would end up at nearly 2500$, so it's a pretty brutal increase to go from 64GB to 128GB at 1700$ more for the latter.....

[scsi2man]

Re: Memory compatibility for Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard

I couldn't resist the temptation and got the 1866 memory....The 1600 MHz version would end up at between 450~500$ with taxes and shipping, so it's not a huge cost increase given the money I've already put in the system.

What is brutal is the price of 16 GB modules rated at that speed....8 of those to get 128 GB of system ram would end up at nearly 2500$, so it's a pretty brutal increase to go from 64GB to 128GB at 1700$ more for the latter.....

Agreed. Be thankful you don't have to buy 32GB sticks... those are around $480 a stick on ebay, so you get 8 of those, almost $4k alone just for the ram....

[shadow001]

Re: Memory compatibility for Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard

Heh, I think it'll take years before I get anywhere near the max memory support of this board....It's likely that a new standard has taken over by then(probably ECC DDR4 for next generation Xeons)

[shadow001]

Re: Memory compatibility for Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard

So after a brutally long wait for the memory, as it seems it had to be ordered from the vendor, the system is up and running and all devices are being recognized compared to the gigabyte board, but it does share one exact same problem with it:

Will not recognize the 4th Radeon R9 290 card....Exact same problem, only 3 are recognized, so either the card is defective( now finding out which one of the 4 it is will be fun given that it's water cooled), or it's a bios limitation....The only other thing to solve is that some SSD's and hard drives are seen in the bios( in black, not blue), the ports they use are listed and I can see them listed on the screen when the system is booting, but windows itself can't see them at all.

Could all drives be controlled by the marvel controller or the Sata controller built into the chipset, which is set to raid....

[parsec]

Re: Memory compatibility for Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard

Your board has two separate SATA controllers, the main Intel and the secondary Marvell. The four Marvell ports are the white ports on the board. These SATA controllers cannot be combined and have separate drivers, and cannot control the ports of the other controller.

If the drives that cannot be seen are new drives, they must be initialized in Windows Disk Management.

[shadow001]

Re: Memory compatibility for Z9PE-D8 WS motherboard

That's actually the weird thing... if I disable raid on the motherboard bios( I mean the intel one, not the marvel one) and set it to either IDE or AHCI, all the drives are seen in windows so we can rule out bad power connections or faulty Sata cables, and if I re-enable raid in the bios they're all gone again?

I'm running bios 5103, so it isn't the latest bios either( Bios bug perhaps?)