Our R410 server will be reconfigured to run 5 virtual machines, 3 running Server 2008r2 and 2 Windows Server 2003 Enterprise. The R410 has 2 Quad core Xeon E5620 procesors at 2.4ghz. My original thought was to replace the 16 gigs (8x2) with 4 new 16gb sticks brining up the memory to 64gb. I then went onto Crucial's and Kingston's sites and saw the 3x16 gb configuration. I chatted with both companies and now I am totally confused as to how much memory I should get and how it should be installed. They both told me to either get the 3x16 or 8x8 gb configuration to get to 64gb. After reading the whitepapers they told me to read I am so confused. I want to use the 16gb sticks so that we would have the option to max out the server at 128 gb if we wanted to in the future.

Can someone help me understand this and what should I get? The only thing I think I understood was that I needed to get the PC8500 Registered ECC memory if I wanted to use the 16gb modules.

I have a $1000 to spend and please tell me what to get.

Thanks and Happy Holidays!