We have a from-the-factory configured Dell PowerEdge t410 server purchased in 07/2011 which we would like to now upgrade to 48GB RAM at the least cost possible as we are a non-profit trying to stretch our dollars. It currently has 24GB installed (six DDR3 1333MHz registered dual rank 4GB RDIMMs installed in slots A1-A3 and B1-B3 (optimizer mode). The machine has two Intel Xeon E5630 processors. According to OMSA the BIOS is version 1.6.3 released 02/01/2011. The server runs Windows Server 2008 R2 Enterprise and is the host system to 3 Hyper-V machines also running Server 2008. All has gone well, but we are seeing the need to allocate more memory to the VMs and it isn't there, thus the need to upgrade.
I'm no hardware/server guru, but have done a little research and was hoping that we could purchase and install either 2 8GB sticks (add to empty slots) to take the system to 40GB; or buy 4 8GB sticks (& remove 2 4GB sticks) to take the system to 48GB. If we could afford it, the latter would be preferred. Here's the RAM I was looking to purchase: http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=bsd&cs=04&sku=A6996808&baynote_bnrank=0&baynote_irrank=0&~ck=baynoteSearch
My problem is that I am very confused by the diagrams, and the 'rules' I've read in the manual as to what will work. I've also read some forums indicating that I may need to upgrade BIOS.
So, do I need to upgrade BIOS?
Can I purchase the memory above (hopefully 4 modules) and install them for a 48GB working system? If so, how do I configure module placement? I was thinking 4GB sticks in slots 4 & 1 (both A & B making 8GB channels); and 8GB sticks in slots 2 & 3 (both A & B - single channel slots so each their own channel with 8GB each) or is this wrong?
Your help would be appreciated. Thank you.