Dell PowerEdge M520 Quick start guide

A feature-rich,
two-socket, half-height
blade server, the
PowerEdge M520 delivers
an extraordinary balance
of value and performance
for mainstream business
applications.
PowerEdge M520
Technical Guide

ii PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
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September 2013| Version 5.0

iii PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
Table of contents
1System Overview.................................................................................................................................................................5
Introduction.........................................................................................................................................................................5
New technologies ............................................................................................................................................................. 6
2System features ...................................................................................................................................................................7
Comparison of PowerEdge systems ...............................................................................................................................7
Specifications ..................................................................................................................................................................... 8
3Module views and features.............................................................................................................................................. 11
Module views.....................................................................................................................................................................11
Module features ................................................................................................................................................................13
4Processors ..........................................................................................................................................................................15
Processor features............................................................................................................................................................15
Supported processors......................................................................................................................................................16
Chipset................................................................................................................................................................................16
5Memory...............................................................................................................................................................................17
Supported memory ..........................................................................................................................................................17
Memory configurations ...................................................................................................................................................18
Memory speed ..................................................................................................................................................................19
Memory RAS features.......................................................................................................................................................19
6Storage ................................................................................................................................................................................21
Internal storage .................................................................................................................................................................21
Storage controllers...........................................................................................................................................................21
7Networking and mezzanine cards ................................................................................................................................ 24
System management integration ................................................................................................................................. 24
Mezzanine cards .............................................................................................................................................................. 24
8Power, thermal, and acoustics ...................................................................................................................................... 26
Power consumption and energy efficiency................................................................................................................ 26
Power supply units .......................................................................................................................................................... 27
Thermal and acoustics.................................................................................................................................................... 27
9Operating systems and virtualization ........................................................................................................................... 29
Supported operating systems........................................................................................................................................ 29
Supported virtualization ................................................................................................................................................. 30
10 Dell OpenManage systems management.....................................................................................................................31
Systems management solutions....................................................................................................................................31
OpenManage systems management ........................................................................................................................... 32
Dell server management operations............................................................................................................................ 37
Appendix A. Additional specifications.......................................................................................................................... 39
Module dimensions and weight.................................................................................................................................... 39
Video specifications ........................................................................................................................................................ 39
Environmental specifications ........................................................................................................................................40
USB peripherals.................................................................................................................................................................41
Appendix B. Standards compliance ............................................................................................................................. 42
Appendix C. Additional resources................................................................................................................................. 44
Appendix D. System board block diagram .................................................................................................................. 46

iv PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
Tables
Table 1. New technologies ................................................................................................................................................ 6
Table 2. Comparison of PowerEdge M520, M620 and R420.......................................................................................7
Table 3. Technical specifications...................................................................................................................................... 8
Table 4. Module features...................................................................................................................................................13
Table 5. Supported processors ........................................................................................................................................16
Table 6. Memory technologies supported.....................................................................................................................17
Table 7. DIMMs supported................................................................................................................................................18
Table 8. Memory speed capabilities ................................................................................................................................19
Table 9. Memory RAS features ........................................................................................................................................20
Table 10. Hard drive backplane options ...........................................................................................................................21
Table 11. Supported hard drives ........................................................................................................................................21
Table 12. RAID controller feature support ...................................................................................................................... 22
Table 13. Supported mezzanine cards............................................................................................................................. 24
Table 14. Power tools and technologies ......................................................................................................................... 26
Table 15. M520 acoustical performance......................................................................................................................... 28
Table 16. Primary operating system support .................................................................................................................. 29
Table 17. Virtual guest operating system support ......................................................................................................... 29
Table 18. Virtualization support ........................................................................................................................................ 30
Table 19. iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller functions and benefits........................................................................... 32
Table 20. Feature comparison for iDRAC7 Enterprise and iDRAC7 Express for Blades .......................................... 33
Table 21. One-to-one and one-to-many operations .................................................................................................. 38
Table 22. Supported video modes.................................................................................................................................... 39
Table 23. Environmental specifications ...........................................................................................................................40
Table 24. Industry standard documents .......................................................................................................................... 42
Table 25. Additional resources ..........................................................................................................................................44
Figures
Figure 1. M520 front view................................................................................................................................................... 11
Figure 2. M1000e chassis enclosure with M520 blades ...............................................................................................12
Figure 3. M520 internal module view...............................................................................................................................12
Figure 4. QRL code located on module ..........................................................................................................................14
Figure 5. Dell systems management solutions...............................................................................................................31
Figure 6. Systems management server lifecycle ........................................................................................................... 37
Figure 7. Module dimensions............................................................................................................................................ 39
Figure 8. M520 system board block diagram ................................................................................................................ 46

5 PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
1System Overview
Introduction
Enjoy excellent performance and exceptional value with the Dell™PowerEdge™M520 system’s
well-balanced processing capabilities and memory capacity in a compact half-height blade form
factor. With up to 16 processor cores and up to 12 DIMMs of RAM, the scalability and performance
of the M520 makes it a natural fit for general business applications such as email and databases, as
well as mid-tier virtual environments.
Achieve business continuity
Ensure maximum uptime with the fully redundant M-series power, cooling and networking
infrastructure, designed to provide the stability and resiliency our customers demand for
enterprise-class deployments. The M520 system’s design matches Dell’s commitment to reliability,
with features such as multiple hardware RAID choices and our unique failsafe virtualization
technology, which uses redundant SD media to provide failover capabilities for embedded
hypervisors.
Simplified systems management, without compromise
The Dell OpenManage™ systems management portfolio, includes Integrated Dell Remote Access
Controller 7 (iDRAC7) with Lifecycle Controller. This embedded feature helps IT administrators
manage Dell servers in physical, virtual, local and remote environments, operating in-band or
out-of-band, with or without a systems management software agent installed. OpenManage iDRAC
with Lifecycle Controller integrates and connects to leading third-party systems management
solutions (such as those from Microsoft, VMware, and BMC Software), so users can maintain a single
point of control and capitalize on an existing systems management investment. OpenManage
simplifies the lifecycle of deploying, updating, monitoring and maintaining your Dell PowerEdge
servers.
The PowerEdge M-series blade server line
Implement the right combination of features and performance scalability with the PowerEdge
M-series blade servers, which can handle tough workloads in a data center of any size. In addition to
the world-class management features provided in all PowerEdge servers, the M520 also takes
advantage of the capabilities of the Dell PowerEdge M1000e’s Chassis Management Controller
(CMC). The CMC allows M-series blades to be managed individually or as groups, in single or
multiple chassis, and within a data center or in multiple geographically dispersed locations around
the globe without requiring a single agent or additional hardware. PowerEdge M-series blade servers
use the redundant power, cooling and networking infrastructure provided by the M1000e blade
enclosure, which is exceptionally easy to deploy and manage and maximizes power and cooling
efficiency.

6 PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
New technologies
A number of new technologies are featured on the PowerEdge M520 system, as shown in Table 1.
Table 1. New technologies
New technology
Detailed description
Intel®Xeon®processor
E5-2400 product family
This new family of Intel processors works with the Intel C602 chipset and has
embedded PCI Express®(PCIe) lanes for improved I/O performance. See the
Processors section for details.
Intel C602 series chipset
The Intel Platform Controller Hub (PCH) chip is implemented on the M520.
Next-generation PERC
options
The M520 supports new Dell PERC controller cards with improved functionality
and faster performance. See the Storage section for details.
PERC S110 software
RAID solution
This new software RAID solution supports RAID 0 and 1. See the Storage section
for details.
iDRAC7 with Lifecycle
Controller
The new embedded system management solution for Dell servers features
hardware and firmware inventory and alerting, in-depth memory alerting, faster
performance, a dedicated gigabit port and many more features. See the Systems
management section for details.
Advanced power
management
The M520 supports advanced power monitoring and power capping tools that can
help manage power consumption in the data center.
Failsafe hypervisors
The internal dual SD module enables Dell's unique failsafe virtualization
architecture, ensuring uptime by providing failover capability for embedded
hypervisors, such as VMware®vSphere®ESXi™.
Fresh Air cooling
Dell has tested and validated an integrated data center solution that enables you to
operate at higher temperatures or even chiller-less. See the Power, thermal, and
acoustics section for details.

7 PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
2System features
The new half-height M520 has more memory, processor cores, and networking options than ever
before. Features include the new family of Intel®Xeon®ES-2400 processors, DDR3 memory, PCI
Express 3.0, dual internal SD module, and the Dell next-generation iDRAC solution known as
iDRAC7 Enterprise with Lifecycle Controller.
Comparison of PowerEdge systems
Table 2 compares the features of the Dell™PowerEdge™M520 system with the features of similar
current- and previous-generation PowerEdge systems. For the latest information on supported
features, visit Dell.com/PowerEdge.
Table 2. Comparison of PowerEdge M520, M620 and R420
Feature
PowerEdge M520
PowerEdge M620
PowerEdge R420
Chassis;
enclosure
Half-height blade;
PowerEdge M1000e
Blade Enclosure
Half-height blade;
PowerEdge M1000e
Blade Enclosure
1U rack
Processors
Intel Xeon processors
E5-2400 series
Intel Xeon processor
E5-2600 and
E5-2600v2 product
families
Intel Xeon processor
E5-2400 series
Internal
interconnect
Intel QuickPath
Interconnect
Intel QuickPath
Interconnect
Intel QuickPath
Interconnect
Memory
12 x DDR3 RDIMM and
UDIMM
24 x DDR3 RDIMM,
UDIMM, and LRDIMM
12 x DDR3 RDIMM
Hard drive
bays
(hot plug)
2 x 2.5”
2 x 2.5”
4 x 3.5”
8 x 2.5”
Embedded
NIC
2 x 1GbE dual-port LOM
Dual Port Select
Network Adapter, 3
options of 2 x 10GbE
1 x 1GbE dual-port
LOM
RAID
S110, H310, H710, H710P
S110, H310, H710,
H710P
S110, H310, H710,
H710P, H810
Express Flash
drives
Not supported
Up to 2
Not supported
I/O slots
2 x PCIe 2.0 x8
mezzanine card slots
2 x PCIe 3.0 x8
mezzanine card slots
2 PCIe 3.0

8 PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
Feature
PowerEdge M520
PowerEdge M620
PowerEdge R420
Optional SD
port
Yes (redundant
hypervisor + vFlash
media)
Yes (redundant
hypervisor + vFlash
media)
Yes (redundant
hypervisor + vFlash
media)
Dell
OpenManage
Systems
Management
OpenManage Essentials
OMSA Agent
OpenManage Power
Center (requires iDRAC7
Enterprise with Lifecycle
Controller)
Chassis Management
Controller 4.x (available
with the M1000e
Modular Blade
Enclosure)
OpenManage
Integrations and
Connections
iDRAC7 Express for
Blades with Lifecycle
Controller (standard
option)
OpenManage Essentials
OMSA Agent
OpenManage Power
Center (requires iDRAC7
Enterprise with Lifecycle
Controller)
Chassis Management
Controller 4.x (available
with the M1000e
Modular Blade
Enclosure)
OpenManage
Integrations and
Connections
iDRAC7 Express for
Blades with Lifecycle
Controller (standard
option)
OpenManage
Essentials
OMSA Agent
OpenManage Power
Center (requires
iDRAC7 Enterprise
with Lifecycle
Controller)
OpenManage
Integrations and
Connections
iDRAC7 Express with
Lifecycle Controller
(standard option)
Specifications
Table 3 lists the technical specifications for the PowerEdge M520 blade server. For the latest
information on supported features, visit Dell.com/PowerEdge.
Table 3. Technical specifications
Feature
Technical specification
Form factor;
enclosure
Half-height blade;
Dell PowerEdge M1000e Blade Enclosure
Processors
Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family
Internal interconnect
2 Intel QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) links: 6.4GT/s, 7.2GT/s, 8.0GT/s
Cache
2.5MB per core; core options: 2, 4, 6, 8
Memory1
Up to 384GB (12 DIMM slots): 2GB/4GB/8GB/16GB/32GB DDR3 up to 1600MT/s
Chipset
Intel C602
Video
Integrated Matrox®G200
Primary storage
Hot-plug hard drive options:
Up to two 2.5” SATA HDD/SSD or SAS HDD/SSD
External storage:

9 PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
Feature
Technical specification
For information about Dell external storage options, visit Dell.com/Storage
USB ports
2 front, 1 internal
NIC/LOM
2 Broadcom 5720 1Gb dual-port LOMs (4 x 1Gb ports)
I/O mezzanine card
options
1Gb/10Gb Adapters:
Broadcom®5719 Serdes 4P 1Gb
Intel I350 Serdes 4P 1Gb
Broadcom 57810S-k 2P 10Gb
Intel X520-x/k 2P 10Gb
Qlogic®QME8262-k 2P 10Gb
Brocade®BR1741M-k 2P 10Gb
InfiniBand™:
Mellanox®ConnectX®-3 Dual Port FDR10 40Gb
Mellanox ConnectX-3 Dual Port QDR 40Gb
Fibre Channel:
QLogic QME2572 2P 8Gb
Emulex®LPe1205-M 2P 8Gb
I/O slots
Fully populated mezzanine card slots and switch modules yields three redundant
I/O fabrics per blade
RAID controller
Internal controllers:
PERC S110 (software RAID)
PERC H310
PERC H710
PERC H710P
Power supplies and
fans
Supplied by M1000e blade enclosure
Dell OpenManage
Systems Management
(Agent-free or with
OpenManage Server
Administrator (OMSA
Agent)
OpenManage Essentials
OMSA Agent
OpenManage Power Center (requires iDRAC7 Enterprise with Lifecycle
Controller)
Chassis Management Controller 4.x (available with the M1000e Modular Blade
Enclosure)
OpenManage Integrations and Connections:
—OpenManage Integration Suite for Microsoft®System Center
—OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter™
—Connections for HP®Operations Manager, IBM®Tivoli®Netcool®and CA
Network and Systems Management
iDRAC7 Express for Blades with Lifecycle Controller (standard option)
—Upgrade to iDRAC7 Enterprise with Lifecycle Controller
—Upgrade to 8GB vFlash media or 16GB vFlash media for iDRAC7 Enterprise
with Lifecycle Controller
—Trial evaluation available for IDRAC7 Enterprise with Lifecycle Controller

10 PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
Feature
Technical specification
Operating systems
Microsoft Windows Server®2012
Microsoft Windows Server®2008 R2 SP1, x64 (includes Hyper-V®)
Novell®SUSE®Linux Enterprise Server
Red Hat®Enterprise Linux®
Virtualization options:
Citrix®XenServer®
VMware vSphere ESXi
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization®
For more information on the specific versions and additions, visit
Dell.com/OSsupport.
Embedded hypervisor
Two internal SD cards dedicated for hypervisor, or
One dedicated for vFlash media support
For more information about the Dell blade solution, see the PowerEdge M1000e Technical Guide or the
M1000e Blade Chassis Spec Sheet on Dell.com/PowerEdge.
1GB means 1 billion bytes and TB equals 1 trillion bytes; actual capacity varies with preloaded material and operating
environment and will be less.

11 PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
3Module views and features
The Dell PowerEdge M520 implements a new module design that supports up to 12 DIMMS and
two processors. The M520 is a half-height blade server that requires a PowerEdge M1000e chassis
to operate. The M520 occupies one slot vertically in the M1000e for a maximum of 16 blade servers
in one M1000e chassis. The M520 can be mixed with other existing Dell blades of half-height and
full-height form factors.
The following sections provide external and internal views of the system and describe the module
features. For more detailed information on features and descriptions for the M520, see the Dell
PowerEdge M520 Systems Owner's Manual on Dell.com/Support/Manuals.
Module views
Figure 1, shows that the M520 module supports up to two front-accessible, hot-plug hard drives,
and two USB ports.
Figure 1. M520 front view
The chassis design of the M520 is optimized for easy access to components and for airflow for
effective and efficient cooling. Figure 2 shows the M1000e chassis enclosure populated with M520
modules.

12 PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
Figure 2. M1000e chassis enclosure with M520 blades
The M520 module shown in Figure 3 supports up to 12 DIMMS, two processors, and many other
features described in this guide.
Figure 3. M520 internal module view
For additional system views, see the Dell PowerEdge M520 Systems Owner’s Manual on
Dell.com/Support/Manuals.

13 PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
Module features
Table 4 lists the modules features for the M520 system. For additional information on these features,
see the Dell PowerEdge M520 Systems Owner’s Manual on Dell.com/Support/Manuals.
Table 4. Module features
Feature
Description
USB connectors
Two front-accessible USB connectors
Status indicator
Indicator for M520 power status
Hard drives
Two front-accessible, hot-plug, 2.5-inch hard drives; see the Storage
section for details
Hard drive activity LEDs
Indicate the status and activity of the hard drives
Blade handle release button
Release button on the front handle of the blade server
USB key
Internal USB connector for a USB flash memory key that can be used
as a boot device, security key, or mass storage device
Trusted Platform Module (TPM)
TPM is used to generate/store keys, protect/authenticate passwords,
and create/store digital certificates; it also supports the Intel Xeon
TXT functionality
Quick Resource Locator (QRL)
This code on the module can be scanned by a smartphone
application to access information about the server
LCD control panel
The M1000e chassis enclosure LCD control panel is located on the front of the M1000e chassis to
provide user access to buttons, display, and I/O interfaces. For more information on the M1000e
LCD control panel, see the Dell PowerEdge Enclosure Owner's Manual on
Dell.com/Support/Manuals.
Quick Resource Locator
Dell PowerEdge 12th generation servers feature a Quick Resource Locator (QRL) —a model-specific
Quick Response (QR) code (shown in Figure 4) that is located on the server. Use your smartphone to
access the Dell QRL application to learn more about the server.

14 PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
Figure 4. QRL code located on module
This QRL code allows you to:
View step-by-step videos, including overviews of system internals and externals, as well as
detailed, concise, task-oriented videos and installation wizards
Locate reference materials, including searchable owner’s manual content, LCD diagnostics, and
an electrical overview
Look up your service tag so you can quickly gain access to your specific hardware configuration
info and warranty information
Contact Dell directly (by link) to get in touch with technical support and sales teams and provide
feedback to Dell
These codes provide an easy way to retrieve the critical support information you need when you
need it, making you more efficient and effective in managing your hardware.
M1000e chassis enclosure features
For more information on the M1000e chassis enclosure features, see the Dell PowerEdge Enclosure
Owner's Manual on Dell.com/Support/Manuals.

15 PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
4Processors
The Dell PowerEdge M520 system features the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family, which
offers an ideal combination of performance, power efficiency and cost. Featuring eight-core
processing to maximize performance and performance per watt for data center infrastructures and
highly dense deployments, E5-2400 processors provide high performance no matter your
constraint —floor space, power, or budget—and handle workloads that range from the most
complicated scientific exploration to crucial web-serving and infrastructure applications. In addition
to providing raw performance gains, Intel’s integrated I/O can reduce latency by adding more lanes
and doubling bandwidth, which helps to reduce network and storage bottlenecks and unleash the
processor’s performance capabilities.
Processor features
The new Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family is designed specifically for servers and
workstation applications. A summary of what’s new and improved includes the following:
Up to eight cores per processor and 64-byte cache line size
Intel Integrated I/O supporting up to 24 lanes of PCIe 3.0, which can reduce latency
Faster connections provided throughout the system with support for DDR3 1600 MT/s memory
and up to 8.0GT/s QPI
Intel Data Direct I/O (DDIO) allowing I/O traffic to skip the main system memory and be directed
straight to the processor cache, which can provide a significant reduction in latency as well as
allowing memory to remain in a low-power state
Intel Advanced Vector Extensions offering up to double the floating-point operations per clock
cycle by doubling the length of registers, which can be useful for addressing very complex
problems or dealing with large-number calculations that are integral to many technical, financial,
and scientific computing problems
Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 delivering up to double the boost of the previous-generation
turbo technology
Continued improvements to both Intel TXT and AES-NI helping to better protect systems and
data.
Enhanced Intel SpeedStep®Technology
For more information on the Intel Xeon processor E5-2400 product family, visit Intel.com.

16 PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
Supported processors
The M520 supports up to two processors with up to eight cores per processor. Table 5 lists the Intel
Xeon processors supported by the PowerEdge M520. For the latest information on supported
processors, visit Dell.com/PowerEdge.
Table 5. Supported processors
Model
Speed
Cache
QPI
Cores
Turbo
TDP
E5-2470
2.3GHz
20M
8.0GT/s
8
Yes
95W
E5-2450L
1.8GHz
20M
8.0GT/s
8
Yes
70W
E5-2450
2.1GHz
15M
7.2GT/s
8
Yes
95W
E5-2440
2.4GHz
15M
7.2GT/s
6
Yes
95W
E5-2430L
2.0GHz
15M
7.2GT/s
6
Yes
60W
E5-2430
2.2GHz
15M
7.2GT/s
6
Yes
95W
E5-2420
1.9GHz
15M
7.2GT/s
6
Yes
95W
E5-2407
2.4GHz
10M
6.4GT/s
4
No
80W
E5-2403
1.8GHz
10M
6.4GT/s
4
No
80W
For information on processor installation and configuration, see the Dell PowerEdge M520 Systems
Owner’s Manual on Dell.com/Support/Manuals.
Chipset
The Intel C602 chipset is implemented on the PowerEdge M520. For more information, visit
Intel.com.

17 PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
5Memory
More memory options are available than ever before with the Dell PowerEdge M520 —greater
capacities, higher frequencies and more flexibility. The M520 supports up to 384GB of memory
(using 12 DIMMs) and speeds up to 1600MT/s, providing high performance in a variety of
applications. High memory density means there is no compromise when it comes to virtualization.
Increase your uptime and reduce data loss, due to the Dell focus on reliability, availability and
serviceability (RAS) features. RAS aids in the rapid and accurate diagnosis of faults that require
service, increasing your memory reliability. System uptime is reinforced with RAS features like
memory mirroring, sparing, and many others.
Supported memory
Table 6 lists the memory technologies supported by the M520.
Table 6. Memory technologies supported
Feature
UDIMM
RDIMM
Register
No
Yes
Buffer
No
No
Frequencies*
800, 1066, 1333 or 1600MT/s
800, 1066, 1333 or 1600MT/s
Ranks supported
1 or 2
1, 2, or 4
Capacity per DIMM
2 or 4GB
2, 4, 8, 16, or 32GB
Maximum DIMMs per channel
2
3
DRAM technology
x8
x4 or x8
Temperature sensor
Yes
Yes
Error Correction Code (ECC)
Yes
Yes
Single Device Disable Code
(SDDC)
Yes (with advanced ECC mode)
Yes
Address parity
Yes
Yes
*Although the M520 supports DIMM speeds of 800MT/s and 1066MT/s, you can only purchase this system with DIMM
speeds of 1333MT/s and 1600MT/s on Dell.com/PowerEdge.

18 PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
Table 7 lists the DIMMs that are supported on the M520. For the latest information on supported
memory, visit Dell.com/PowerEdge.
Table 7. DIMMs supported
Only
Capacity
(GB)
Speed
(MT/s)
Type
Ranks
per
DIMM
Data
width
SDDC support
Voltage
2
1600
RDIMM
1
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
2
1333
RDIMM
1
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
2
1600
UDIMM
1
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
4
1333
RDIMM
2
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
4
1600
RDIMM
2
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
4
1333
RDIMM
1
x4
All modes
1.35
4
1333
RDIMM
2
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
4
1600
UDIMM
2
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
8
1333
RDIMM
2
x4
All modes
1.35
8
1600
RDIMM
2
x4
All modes
1.35
16
1600
RDIMM
2
x4
All modes
1.35
16
1333
RDIMM
2
x4
All modes
1.35
32
1333
RDIMM
4
x4
All modes
1.35
Memory configurations
The M520 server supports flexible memory configurations ranging from capacities of 2GB to 384GB,
and up to 6 DIMMs per processor (up to 12 DIMMs in a dual-processor configuration). Each
processor has 3 memory channels, with each channel supporting up to 2 DIMMs.
Flexible memory configuration
The M520 supports a flexible memory configuration, according to the following basic rules:
Speed: If DIMMs of different speeds are mixed, all channels across all processors operate at the
slowest DIMM’s common frequency.
DIMM type: Only one type of DIMM is allowed per system: UDIMM or RDIMM. These types
cannot be mixed.
The following additional memory-population guidelines also apply to the M520:
Up to two quad-rank (QR) DIMMs and up to three dual-rank (DR) or single-rank (SR) DIMMs may
be populated per channel.
DIMMs must be installed in each channel, starting with the DIMM farthest from the processor.
DIMMs should be installed with largest rank count to smallest. For example, if DR DIMMS are
mixed with SR DIMMs, DR DIMMS should be placed in the lowest DIMM slots, followed by the SR
DIMMs.
For more information on memory configuration and population, see the Dell PowerEdge M520
Systems Owner’s Manual on Dell.com/Support/Manuals.

19 PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
Memory speed
The M520 server supports memory speeds of 1600MT/s, 1333MT/s, 1066MT/s and 800MT/s,
depending on the DIMM types installed and the configuration. All memory on all processors and
channels run at the same speed and voltage. By default, the system runs at the highest speed for the
channel with the lowest DIMM voltage and speed. The operating speed of the memory is also
determined by the maximum speed supported by the processor, the speed settings in the BIOS, and
the operating voltage of the system.
Table 8 lists the memory configuration and performance details for the M520, based on the
population of the number and type of DIMMs per memory channel.
Table 8. Memory speed capabilities
DIMM
type
DIMM 0
DIMM 1
DIMM 2
# of
DIMMs
Speed (MT/s)
800*
1066*
1333
1600
UDIMM
SR
1
∞
∞
∞
∞
DR
1
∞
∞
∞
∞
SR
SR
2
∞
∞
∞
∞
SR
DR
2
∞
∞
∞
∞
DR
DR
2
∞
∞
∞
∞
RDIMM
SR
1
∞
∞
∞
∞
DR
1
∞
∞
∞
∞
QR
1
∞
∞
∞
SR
SR
2
∞
∞
∞
∞
SR
DR
2
∞
∞
∞
∞
DR
DR
2
∞
∞
∞
∞
QR
SR
2
∞
∞
QR
DR
2
∞
∞
QR
QR
2
∞
∞
SR
SR
SR
3
∞
∞
∞
SR
SR
DR
3
∞
∞
∞
SR
DR
DR
3
∞
∞
∞
DR
DR
DR
3
∞
∞
∞
*Although the M520 supports DIMM speeds of 800MT/s and 1066MT/s, you can only purchase this system with DIMM
speeds of 1333MT/s and 1600MT/s on Dell.com/PowerEdge.
Memory RAS features
RAS features help keep the system online and operational without significant impact to
performance, and can decrease data loss and crashing due to errors. RAS aids in rapid, accurate
diagnosis of faults which require service. Table 9 describes the memory RAS features supported on
the M520.

20 PowerEdge M520 Technical Guide
Table 9. Memory RAS features
Feature
Description
Dense configuration
optimized profile
Increased memory reliability can be a result from this selectable platform profile
that adjusts parameters to reduce faults regarding refresh rates, speed,
temperature and voltage.
Memory demand and
patrol scrubbing
Demand scrubbing is the ability to write corrected data back to the memory once
a correctable error is detected on a read transaction. Patrol scrubbing proactively
searches the system memory, repairing correctable errors.
Recovery from single
DRAM device failure
(SDDC)
Recovery from Single DRAM Device Failure (SDDC) provides error checking and
correction that protects against any single memory chip failure as well as multi-bit
errors from any portion of a single memory chip.
Failed DIMM isolation
This feature provides the ability to identify a specific failing DIMM channel pair,
thereby enabling the user to replace only the failed DIMM pair.
Memory mirroring:
intra-socket
Memory mirroring is a method of keeping a duplicate (secondary or mirrored)
copy of the contents of memory as a redundant backup for use if the primary
memory fails. The mirrored copy of the memory is stored in memory of the same
processor socket.
Memory address parity
protection
This feature provides the ability to detect transient errors on the address lines of
the DDR channel.
Memory sparing (rank)
Memory sparing allocates one rank per channel as a spare. If excessive correctable
errors occur in a rank or channel, they are moved to the spare area while the
operating system is running to prevent the errors from causing an uncorrectable
failure.
Memory thermal
throttling
This feature helps to optimize power/performance and can also be used to
prevent DIMMs from overheating.
For information on memory mirroring and sparing configurations, see the Dell PowerEdge M520
Systems Owner’s Manual on Dell.com/Support/Manuals. Memory RAID is not supported.