Dell Precision WorkStation 530 Memory
Maximum Memory 2GB
Memory Slots 4 (2 banks of 2) install in pairs
non-removable base memory 0MB


128MB PC600 (400MHZ FSB) ECC 184pin ECC RDRAM module (p/n 311-0901)
128MB Dell 184-pin PC600 8d non-ECC RDRAM RIMM (p/n DELL-XRA128)
256MB Dell Dimension XPS B ECC 16-device RDRAM Memory (p/n 311-1524)
256MB Elpida/Dell Dimension PC800-45ns (400MHz FSB) ECC RDRAM RIMM (p/n 311-8756)
256MB Dell 184-pin PC600 16d non-ECC RDRAM RIMM (p/n DELL-XRA256)
512MB Dell Precision Workstation PC800-45ns 184p ECC RDRAM RIMM Module (p/n 311-5800)

So 4 512 modules would be max.

http://www.memoryx.net/precwor530.html

asked same question of Dell tech in Ireland where I was informed that it was possible to fit matching sticks of ! GB RAM in my two remaining slots which had 2 x 512 on the board already. Thus I could get 2 more 1GB modules in making 3GB altogether (max 4) However, Dell don't supply rdram anymore and the suppliers I tried were all mystified. They seemed to think 2 GB was the maximum the 530 could take and the 1GB modules were never made.

As i need as much RAM as I can get now, and 2 may not be enough, I wonder whether I will have to change the 530. Are the later WSs that much faster?

Super old thread but I have just started working on a Precision 530 which I have began to love!

Originally it had 2 - 2.2ghz xeon's 512KB cache, 1gb ram, scsi and ide, and crazy slow.

Then I upgraded the cpu's for $9 on ebay to the SL79V 3Ghz 4.5MB cache per cpu (9MB Cache Total), and I bought the tall (48KEG), and short riser (16MWP) for $32 total, 8 sticks of 512MB PC800-45 cost me like $40, cheap 4 port PCI Rosewill sata raid card, and threw 2 spare 320gb sata drives in for RAID0 in Windows Server 2008 x86 since it has better support for the x86 4gb "limit" so it allows all 4GB to be used by the operating system.  I also upgraded to the AMD ATI Radeon HD 4670 AGP 1GB of DDR3 which is an awesome card @ $89.99 shipped. 

All in all to renovate this system wasn't too much and it was really fun!

On the 7300gt during 1080p playback in Media player classic home cinema cpu utilization on the Dual 3Ghz Xeon's is a mere 25% utilization.

On the AMD Radeon HD 4670 it's 5% on Media player classic home cinema.  This thing decodes all kinds of hd video and plays games very well with low cpu utilization in-game with smooth awesome framerates.  In games like Battlefield bad company 2 cpu utilization is 60-75% and 40fps at 1920x1080.

The (2) SL79V's 3Ghz Xeon's, 4GB RAM, and Radeon HD4670 AGP 1GB Graphic Card will make this machine very useful for years to come!

Now I can actually get a lot of work done on this thing!  I even stopped using my other newer rigs to use this old one!  It's awesome.  It loads into games faster than everyone else and my ping and download speeds are faster on this server board.

Super old thread but I have just started working on a Precision 530 which I have began to love! Originally it had 2 - 2.2ghz xeon's 512KB cache, 1gb ram, scsi and ide, and crazy slow. Then I upgraded the cpu's for $9 on ebay to the SL79V 3Ghz 4.5MB cache per cpu (9MB Cache Total), and I bought the tall (48KEG), and short riser (16MWP) for $32 total, 8 sticks of 512MB PC800-45 cost me like $40, cheap 4 port PCI Rosewill sata raid card, and threw 2 spare 320gb sata drives in for RAID0 in Windows Server 2008 x86 since it has better support for the x86 4gb "limit" so it allows all 4GB to be used by the operating system.  I also upgraded to the AMD ATI Radeon HD 4670 AGP 1GB of DDR3 which is an awesome card @ $89.99 shipped.  All in all to renovate this system wasn't too much and it was really fun! On the 7300gt during 1080p playback in Media player classic home cinema cpu utilization on the Dual 3Ghz Xeon's is a mere 25% utilization. On the AMD Radeon HD 4670 it's 5% on Media player classic home cinema.  This thing decodes all kinds of hd video and plays games very well with low cpu utilization in-game with smooth awesome framerates.  In games like Battlefield bad company 2 cpu utilization is 60-75% and 40fps at 1920x1080. The (2) SL79V's 3Ghz Xeon's, 4GB RAM, and Radeon HD4670 AGP 1GB Graphic Card will make this machine very useful for years to come! Now I can actually get a lot of work done on this thing!  I even stopped using my other newer rigs to use this old one!  It's awesome.  It loads into games faster than everyone else and my ping and download speeds are faster on this server board.

Hi, your post is very helpful, I am now planning to do all that you did on my Precision 530 MT:emotion-2:

I am wondering why you bought 2 riser cards! The motherboard already has 4 memory slots, so wouldn't one riser card for another 4 slots give you the 8x512?

I may be wrong, but I think you wrote on another thread that not all Precision 530 accept the ''SL79V's 3GHz Xeon's''! I am just wondering how I would know if mine would:emotion-10:

I'd appreciate your reply on this. Thanks.

Cool man glad your doing it!! It's fun playing with these servers.  It's fun once you get 3.5GB ram usable in Windows x86 and the at the time $4,000 CPU's the SL79V's...

As long as you have a Prestonia and A11 bios I believe the latest bios and a Prestonia cpu then the SL79V works fine.  I used two of them and they're great cpu's.

You need 2 risers since you must use them it's in the manual.  One larger and one smaller which droop in the RIMM slots so you have to put some padding on the cpu plastic duct to support the Riser so it doesn't throw codes.  Leave the two upper slots empty to prevent issues no need for CRIMM's in slot 3 and 4.

Don't forget to turn on Hyperthreading and set the processor speeds to "normal" to get the peak 6Ghz of processing power and almost 10 MB of CPU cache.  That's on the SL79V I used for Both sockets for peak performance. 

The main thing that reduces performance of the Dell 530 is I/O mainly and graphics.  I'd invest in a $10 PCI-X 64 bit SATA Raid card so you can pull upwards of 1GB/s of I/O performance.  Even PCI SATA RAID cards peak at 99-100MB/s over RAID0.  If you get 2 small SSD's and RAID0 them you would increase I/O speeds to around 300-500MB/s read/ write.  Over stock SCSI or IDE peak speeds of 50MB/s which makes things load slow.  The PCI-X 64Bit SATA Raid will speed up the computer to today's standards with minimal lag in game as long as you have an HD 3850 AGP 512MB.

Another thing is you might just wanna get 3.5GB meaning in the first riser use 4 x 512MB sticks for 2GB, then on riser 2, use 2 x 512MB and 2 x 256MB = 3584MB

Since when using 8 x 512MB only 3327MB is usable out of 4096MB because of the X86 cpu limitation.  So if you do that above you should reach that 4gb limit and not limit the ram you have. 

I'd also get a Radeon HD 3850 AGP since the HD 4670 is very weak for real solid gaming.  The HD3850 Radeon has 256 bit ram and 16 ROP's which makes it a lot faster than the 8 ROP 128 bit memory HD 4670.

Good Luck

Great! I really appreciate the time you took to give all this info, which was very much needed:emotion-2: Take care and many thanks for your help.

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Bev.    

Yeah no problem bro.  Don't forget to get PC800-45 ram or it'll have issues.  Also if u get all the exact same brand in matching sets will help a lot as well.  Mismatched sticks may perform a bit less but idk really mine are all mismatched im sure its impacting performance.