We have been in the same situation. "Super-Talent" is a cheap DIMM assembler and they use various types of chips. You can usually find out what chips they are using based on the part number. I believe for the FB-DIMMs, they use either Samsung or Qimonda chips, which are generally pretty good. I have a PE1800 that uses 16GB of SuperTalent DIMMs with Qimonda chips; no problems for several years now.
we also have a PE2900-III (similar platform to your 2950-III), and I also bought 3rd party FB-DIMMs that use Micron chips (which are also considered high quality) and have had no problems; the DIMMs have a lifetime warranty too. For price comparison, we paid USD $1050 for 48GB (12x4GB FB-DIMMs) in April of 2009. If you're interested in the supplier we used, feel free to contact me directly. When going 3rd party, I think it's important to look at what chips the DIMM assembler is using and try to use only the high quality components. It's also good to make sure that the 3rd party has a compatibility guarantee so you can get your money back if it doesn't work and they claim it will work for your server. I don't see a problem using 3rd party components on Dell servers. There will be a few times perhaps when it doesn't always work out, but the cost savings is often worth it when you multiply the number of servers involved. Another point to consider, Dell certified RAM comes with a 3yr warranty if you get the NBD service; many high quality 3rd party offer lifetime warranty (not that you really need it since server can become obsolete in under 5 yrs). -B. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Gene Tang Sent: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 4:04 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Ram Types for PE2950 Hi there, This may seem like a silly question that is easily solved, however, I am asking before the fact, so I don't waste money on purchasing components that won't work. We are currently looking to purchase RAM for our PowerEdge 2950 Gen III Servers. The servers use DDR2-667 FBDIMM Ram. After receiving a quote from Dell, they want to charge us $1600 for 16GB (4 x 4GB Dimm) of RAM. Our local supplier can provide the same amount for $800, however, the catch is that the RAM is Super Talent branded RAM. The OEM Ram that comes with the servers are Hynix branded (Part number: HYMP151F72CP8D5-Y5). What we want to do is shift all the Hynix Ram from one server into another PE2950, and place all the Super Talent RAM into this server. This would prevent different a server having a mixture of RAM types from different makers (as well as prevent potential speed differences and so on). I suspect it should be fine, but want to double check if this would indeed work with no issues? Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me. Regards, Gene Tang
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