1. Have not done it myself, but ALL documentation points to 8GB DIMM's as being supported.
2. Don't use cheap chinese no-name RAM. Any recognizable brand will be fine, but be sure to check the specs of the RAM needed (ECC DDR2 667MHz).
3. It is far past time to replace this thing (it is well more than 10 years old), so there is only so far you can go performance-wise. RAM maxes out at 64GB, and other than upgrading the CPU (which may or may not have a noticeable impact on performance, depending on what it is doing), you could try some SSD's for storage.
3B. PERC 6 would be ideal, but neither controller handles SSD very well. Sure it will improve performance, but 1) you WILL get notifications in the logs that the drives are non-certified/not supported (there are no validated SSD's for the 2970), 2) you LIKELY will have the drive status light displaying amber as if it is failed even if it is not, and 3) they may not work at all, or worse, may work intermittently, depending on the model.
4. RAM will be auto-recognized. There is nothing you'll need to do in the BIOS to enable the upgrade from 32GB to 64GB.
Just to reinforce what Flash is saying, we had supported 8GB memory DIMMs for the model. I'm looking at part number CT336 right now, it's an 8GB 667MHz single ranked DIMM.
As for increasing your performance, there's not anything I'd feel comfortable suggesting, certainly not without knowing what may be slowing you down or what level of performance you're trying to get to. Due to the system's age, I wouldn't expect there to be much you can do to make it significantly faster.
theflash1932
9 Legend
•
16.3K Posts
0
February 18th, 2020 09:00
1. Have not done it myself, but ALL documentation points to 8GB DIMM's as being supported.
2. Don't use cheap chinese no-name RAM. Any recognizable brand will be fine, but be sure to check the specs of the RAM needed (ECC DDR2 667MHz).
3. It is far past time to replace this thing (it is well more than 10 years old), so there is only so far you can go performance-wise. RAM maxes out at 64GB, and other than upgrading the CPU (which may or may not have a noticeable impact on performance, depending on what it is doing), you could try some SSD's for storage.
3B. PERC 6 would be ideal, but neither controller handles SSD very well. Sure it will improve performance, but 1) you WILL get notifications in the logs that the drives are non-certified/not supported (there are no validated SSD's for the 2970), 2) you LIKELY will have the drive status light displaying amber as if it is failed even if it is not, and 3) they may not work at all, or worse, may work intermittently, depending on the model.
4. RAM will be auto-recognized. There is nothing you'll need to do in the BIOS to enable the upgrade from 32GB to 64GB.
Dell-DylanJ
4 Operator
•
2.9K Posts
0
February 18th, 2020 12:00
Just to reinforce what Flash is saying, we had supported 8GB memory DIMMs for the model. I'm looking at part number CT336 right now, it's an 8GB 667MHz single ranked DIMM.
As for increasing your performance, there's not anything I'd feel comfortable suggesting, certainly not without knowing what may be slowing you down or what level of performance you're trying to get to. Due to the system's age, I wouldn't expect there to be much you can do to make it significantly faster.