RE: How Much is too Much RAM?

  • From: "Chris Nielsen" <cnielsen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "'[ExchangeList]'" <exchangelist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Wed, 14 May 2003 10:23:01 -0600

BTW, I'm not the same Chris that started this thread. Just wanted to chime
in about the 4GB/32-bit thing.

Thanks for the info. I'll be reading those articles as I can throughout the
day.

Chris Nielsen
Systems Administrator
New Dawn Technologies

-----Original Message-----
From: paul_lemonidis@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:paul_lemonidis@xxxxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 4:19 AM
To: [ExchangeList]
Subject: [exchangelist] RE: How Much is too Much RAM?

http://www.MSExchange.org/

Hi Chris

You can go beyond 4GB although in principle you are quite right. See TechNet
articles 268363, 283037, 255600 and 170756 and I think all will become
clear. As I understand the applications don't even know of the extra memory
and don't need to. I must admit this is something I only recently found out
about.

I have to confess that I really don't see why you need so much memory
especially considering it is DDR 1600. I really do believe the money would
be better spent elsewhere. the machine spec. I attached was for the exact
same machine you are considering.

Hope that helps and don't hesiate to get back to me if I can help further at
all.

Regards,

Paul Lemonidis.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Nielsen" <cnielsen@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "[ExchangeList]" <exchangelist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2003 2:29 AM
Subject: [exchangelist] RE: How Much is too Much RAM?


http://www.MSExchange.org/

I may be wrong on this; if so correct me...

In the 32-bit computing world 4GB of memory is a hard limit. 32-bit
processors and 32-bit applications are incapable of addressing more memory
than that (2^32 = 4GB). I also believe in the Intel MP arena the processors
share the memory bus so even MP boxes can't use more than 4GB. The machines
you're listing are likely non-Intel chipsets or specialized high-end MP
chipsets, and if so they're above my knowledge horizon and could very well
handle more than 4GB.

But I think the 4GB limit for any single 32-bit application still holds true
(which should even include all 32-bit versions of Windows Server). I'm not
familiar with Advanced Server's ability to address more than 4GB of RAM.
This is something I'd very much like to learn about.

Chris Nielsen
Systems Administrator
New Dawn Technologies

-----Original Message-----
From: paul_lemonidis@xxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:paul_lemonidis@xxxxxxxxxxx]
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 5:49 PM
To: [ExchangeList]
Subject: [exchangelist] RE: How Much is too Much RAM?

http://www.MSExchange.org/

Hi

Exchange will use whatever the OS can supply. Windows 2000 Advanced Server
does up to 4GB out of the box or with /pae in the boot.ini 8GB.

I hope you don't mind me saying but if I were you I would go with 2GB and
get 3Ghz processors instead. Also make sure you use 15K drives. I believe
you will get much better performance than simply supplying more memory. I am
confused why you are giving so little disk space to the  Store since the
smallest drives Dell do for that server are 36GB? I asume you will be
running a R1 + R5 + HS disk combination? Remember that in practice the Store
should never consume more than half of the available space at the most to
allow for maintenance operations.

In fact why do you need Advanced server and with so little disk space in
your suggested combination why use E2K Advanced at all? Windows 2000
Standard supports 4GB of RAM and Exchange 2000 Standard supports a database
size of up to 16GB. Are you planning on multiple stores. Is the extra cost
for Exchange Advanced server for that worth it for only 50 users.

Below is a basic spec of the sort of machine I hope to purchase soon as I am
considering the same machine with similar user base.size.


      Standard Features:  Intel E7500 Chipset - with tri-peer architecture
and interleaving/set-combining memory
      Up to 6GB DDR SDRAM on a 533MHz system bus
      Space - saving tool-less chassis - available as tower or 5U
rack-mountable
      Seven slots in total (2x64 bit/133Mhz,4x64 bit/100Mhz,1x32 bit/33Mhz)
      Integrated 10/100/1000 Gigabit Adapter
      Dual channel embedded Ultra320 RAID PERC 4/Di with 128Mb SDRAM and
battery backed cache (optional)
      Storage Expansion for up to six 1'' hot-plug Ultra320 SCSI hard drives
and a further two hot-plug drives in the media bay
      Dual U320 embedded SCSI with optional external port
      Supplied with CD-ROM drive & 3.5'' Floppy Drive.
      The Dell OpenManage suite to enable automated/rapid operating system
installation, and complete network management with IT Assistant.
      30-day Getting Started Support - Technical support for new
installations.
      Purchase your preferred Operating System from Dell and we will factory
install it free of charge.

      Maintenance Service:  3 Years Gold Service (Direct access to Dell
experts 24x7)

      Business Installation:  No installation

      Special Requirement Installation Service:  Please contact us at Dell
to discuss your specific requirements

      Chassis Orientation Options:  Tower Chassis

      Rack Mount Kits:  Not Included

      Processor(s):  Dual Intel® XeonT DP 3.0GHz processor with 512K cache
(+ GBP £1,409)

      Hot-Plug Power Supplies:  Hot-plug 730W Power Supply for Redundancy (+
GBP £67)

      Memory:  2Gb DDR SDRAM (4x512Mb 266MHz DIMMs) (+ GBP £418)

      Keyboard:  Dell Performance Midnight Grey Keyboard

      Mouse:  Microsoft PS/2 mouse (2 button)

      Monitor:  Dell 17'' Flat Panel Value Monitor (Midnight Grey) (+ GBP
£330)

      Storage Device and Recordable Media:  24x Max IDE CD-ROM

      Main Bay Hard Drive Backplane:  1x6 with 1'' Drives

      1st Internal Hard Drive:  36GB 15,000rpm 1'' U320 SCSI hard drive (+
GBP £133)

      2nd Internal Hard Drive:  36GB 15,000rpm 1'' U320 SCSI hard drive (+
GBP £292)

      3rd Internal Hard Drive:  36GB 15,000rpm 1'' U320 SCSI hard drive (+
GBP £292)

      4th Internal Hard Drive:  36GB 15,000rpm 1'' U320 SCSI hard drive (+
GBP £292)

      5th Internal Hard Drive:  36GB 15,000rpm 1'' U320 SCSI hard drive (+
GBP £292)

      6th Internal Hard Drive:  36GB 15,000rpm 1'' U320 SCSI hard drive (+
GBP £292)

      Internal Tape Backup or Extra Hard Drives (Media Bay):  Not Included

      External PowerVault Tape Backup Drive:  Not Included

      1st Controller Card:  Not Included (use on board SCSI)

      2nd Controller Card:  Not Included

      Internal Hard Drive RAID Configuration:  RAID 1 Boot Partition, RAID 5
data and Hot Spare - requires at least six hard drives

      Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters (HBAs):  Not Included

      Additional Network Card(s) - embedded NIC already included:  IntelT
1000XT Copper Gigabit NIC with 6.0 drivers (+ GBP £140)

      OpenManage Subscription Service:  No OpenManage Subscription

      Tape Backup Software (Not Factory Installed):  Not Included

      PowerConnect Network Switch:  Not Included

      Uninterruptible Power Supplies:  APC Smart-UPS 1500i, 980W (+ GBP
£259)

      Factory Installed Operating System:  Not Included

      System Documentation:  Paper documents not included (electronic
version on Dell OpenManage CD)

      Asset Tagging Service:  Customer Name #2 Asset Tag (+ GBP £7)


Hope that helps and you don't mind the suggestions. Please feel free to
comment or disagree even.

Regards,

Paul Lemonidis.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris" <clembo@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "[ExchangeList]" <exchangelist@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2003 8:02 PM
Subject: [exchangelist] RE: How Much is too Much RAM?


> http://www.MSExchange.org/
>
> I know it will run fine, I am not worried about that.  I am looking for
> what would be the maximum Exchange would actually use; no matter how many
> users or the size of the stores.  Is there a number where Exhange will say
> "I will not touch anything more than this"?
>
> Chris
>
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