T130 memory vs T30 memory differences

Question

I have a T30 that works very well with non-ECC UDIMM DDR4 memory.  We recently picked up a few T130 servers on a good deal.  Considering the T30 and T130 use the same CPU series and use the exact same chipset, we expected that memory that works in the T30 would work in the T130.  But that is not the case.   When I take the non-ECC UDIMM memory out of the T30 and put it in the T130, it immediately shows a screen saying the memory is incompatible.  It seems that the system will ONLY work with ECC UDIMMS. Since the T30 and T130 are identical CPU and chipset systems, does Dell program the T130 to fail with non-ECC memory?  What other reason could there be that non-ECC works in the T30 but not in the T130?  The problem is, this ECC UDIMM memory required in the T130 is sort of uncommon and rare.  And expensive.  For a low-end server, why require expensive, odd-ball memory?   Did the T130 ever accept non-ECC and Dell modified the BIOS at some point to fail with them?

Daniel My · Answer

Hello

Did the T130 ever accept non-ECC

No, the T130 does not support non-ECC memory. You can find memory requirements, guidelines, and population rules in the manual for the system. The T130 only lists ECC memory as supported on page 70 of the manual.

www.dell.com/support/home/product-support/product/poweredge-t130/

Thanks

LANCORP_88b25e · Answer

Page 21 (which comes before page 70 if I were looking for information) of the same manual isn't so clear on needing ECC:

Straight out of the T130 owners manual that is on the Dell.com support site (pg.21):

Memory specifications

Architecture: 1600 MT/s, 1866 MT/s, 2133 MT/s, or 2400 MT/s DDR4 Unbuffered DIMMs

Support for advanced ECC or memory optimized operation

Memory module sockets: Four 288-pin sockets

Memory module capacities (UDIMM): 4 GB (single-rank), 8 GB (single- and dual-rank), 16 GB (single- and dual-rank)

Minimum RAM: 4 GB

Maximum RAM: 64 GB

While it says the system supports ECC (like the T30 does) it doesn't say it requires ECC, unlike the T30.

Apart from words in a manual, I'm wondering why the memory requirements differ between the T30 and the T130 when the CPU and chipset are the same?

PowerEdge Hardware General

Was this post helpful?