I need to increase the RAM on a couple of DL380p Gen8 servers (dual Xeon CPU E5-2640). 24 DIMM slots. The servers run VMWare ESXi 5.5.
I do not intend to use the existing 8 GB RDIMMs, but just install 16 new 16GB RDIMM or LRDIMMs (256 GB total). The server only supports DDR3 (RDIMM, LRDIMM or UDIMM).
Initially I was intending to use LRDIMMs, but then I came across this article:
https://www.microway.com/hpc-tech-tips/ddr4-rdimm-lrdimm-performance-comparison/
Many of our HPC customers are looking for high speed and low latency. In that realm, RDIMMs are the hands down winner.
Under LRDIMM:
When very large quantities of RAM are the goal, then LRDIMMs are the way to go.
If I read the article correctly, RDIMMs might actually result in better server performance than LRDIMMs in our scenario.
My question is: given the server hardware + amount of RAM + the intended use of this server, is LRDIMMs likely to result in noticeably/measurably better server performance (for tasks where RAM speed matters)? If not, I might just as well get RDIMMs (less $)
Here are the specific modules:
LRDIMM: 647653-081 (HPE 16GB 2Rx4 PC3L-10600R-9 Kit)
RDIMM: 672612-081 (HPE 16GB 2Rx4 PC3-12800R-11 Kit)
Note: I plan to use the HPE Server Memory Configurator (https://h22195.www2.hpe.com/MemoryTool/Home/SelectServer) to determine what slots to populate, etc.
Best Answer
I'd suggest 16GB RDIMMS for that platform. For cost, performance and availability reasons.