Support for 16 GB memory modules on Z97E-ITX/ac

duck4 wrote: Hello. I've got a Z97E-ITX/ac mainboard with a Broadwell CPU an I was wondering if it is possible to use 16 GB DDR3 UDIMM memory modules for a total of 32 GB. Examples for such modules are: Intelligent Memory IMM2G64D3(L)DUD8A or Transcend TS2GLK64W6Q Both are UDIMM modules with 2 ranks. Intelligent Memory says that a BIOS/UEFI update might be needed to support those modules. As far as I can tell Broadwell CPUs have enough address lines to support such large modules and lots of Broadwell Laptops do support configurations with 16 GB DDR3 modules. Since Broadwell-H CPUs are almost identical to their Laptop counter parts, it looks like it could work, but I'd rather not buy such modules only to find out it doesn't work. So does it work? Is a BIOS update needed? Has anyone tried such modules on a regular desktop mainboard?

I can't give you an answer to your question, sorry to say, but we can check the specs of Z97 boards and compatible processors.

Checking the memory support lists of the ASRock boards most likely to support large amounts of memory, the maximum DIMM capacity I see is 8GB.

Intelligent Memory states they were the first to provide 16GB (and 32GB!) DDR3 DIMMs, so DDR3 memory of that capacity is new, at least in the PC market.

The main factor for compatibility may be the the memory controller on the processor. This is from the Intel 5th Generation (Broadwell) processor datasheet:



http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/core/desktop-5th-gen-core-family-datasheet-vol-1.html

The Intelligent Memory product specs for their 16GB and 32GB DIMMs tell us they are using 8Gbit memory chips, while the Intel specs include up to 4Gbit memory chips. The IM memory products in some cases are 4 rank DIMMs, while the Intel specs state 2 rank maximum.

The Intel specs show a maximum DIMM capacity of 8GB.

You mentioned Broadwell based laptops support 16GB DIMMs, but the Intel specs for SO-DIMMs don't seem to support that.

If these are absolute hard limits, that cannot be changed with a UEFI/BIOS update, I don't know. Intel would be the best source for an answer to that question.

Given how rare DDR3 16GB DIMMs seem to be, I doubt many people have even tried them.