Dell PowerEdge R820 Quick start guide

ii PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
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May 2012 | Rev 1.1

iii PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
Table of contents
1System overview..................................................................................................................................................................5
Introduction.........................................................................................................................................................................5
New technologies ............................................................................................................................................................. 6
2System features ...................................................................................................................................................................7
Comparison of PowerEdge systems ...............................................................................................................................7
Specifications ..................................................................................................................................................................... 8
3Chassis views and features ............................................................................................................................................. 10
Chassis views.................................................................................................................................................................... 10
Chassis features ................................................................................................................................................................12
4Processor............................................................................................................................................................................15
Processor features............................................................................................................................................................15
Supported processors......................................................................................................................................................15
GPU support ......................................................................................................................................................................16
Chipset................................................................................................................................................................................16
5Memory...............................................................................................................................................................................17
Supported memory ..........................................................................................................................................................17
Memory configurations ...................................................................................................................................................18
Memory speed ..................................................................................................................................................................19
Memory RAS features...................................................................................................................................................... 20
6Storage ................................................................................................................................................................................21
Internal storage .................................................................................................................................................................21
External storage ............................................................................................................................................................... 22
Storage controllers.......................................................................................................................................................... 22
Optical drive ..................................................................................................................................................................... 23
Tape drive.......................................................................................................................................................................... 23
7Networking and PCIe ...................................................................................................................................................... 24
Select Network Adapter.................................................................................................................................................. 24
PCIe expansion ................................................................................................................................................................ 26
8Power, thermal, and acoustics ...................................................................................................................................... 28
Power consumption and energy efficiency................................................................................................................ 28
Power supply units .......................................................................................................................................................... 29
Thermal and acoustics.................................................................................................................................................... 30
9Rack rails and cable management ................................................................................................................................ 33
Sliding and static rail systems ........................................................................................................................................ 33
Cable management arm................................................................................................................................................. 35
10 Operating systems and virtualization ........................................................................................................................... 36
Supported operating systems........................................................................................................................................ 36
Supported virtualization ................................................................................................................................................. 37
11 Dell OpenManage systems management.................................................................................................................... 38
Systems management solutions ................................................................................................................................... 38
OpenManage systems management ........................................................................................................................... 39
Dell server management operations............................................................................................................................ 43
Additional specifications.......................................................................................................................... 46Appendix A.
Chassis dimensions ......................................................................................................................................................... 46
Chassis weight..................................................................................................................................................................46
Power supply specifications .......................................................................................................................................... 46
Environmental specifications ........................................................................................................................................ 47
Video specifications ........................................................................................................................................................ 48
Rack rail specifications ................................................................................................................................................... 49
USB peripherals................................................................................................................................................................ 49

iv PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
Standards compliance ............................................................................................................................. 50Appendix B.
Additional resources..................................................................................................................................51Appendix C.
Table 1. New technologies ................................................................................................................................................ 6
Table 2. Comparing the PowerEdge R810 to PowerEdge R820 .................................................................................7
Table 3. Technical specifications...................................................................................................................................... 8
Table 4. Chassis features...................................................................................................................................................12
Table 5. Security features..................................................................................................................................................14
Table 6. Supported processors ........................................................................................................................................16
Table 7. GPU cards supported .........................................................................................................................................16
Table 8. Memory technologies supported.....................................................................................................................17
Table 9. DIMMs supported................................................................................................................................................18
Table 10. Memory speed capabilities ................................................................................................................................19
Table 11. Memory RAS features ........................................................................................................................................20
Table 12. Supported hard drives ........................................................................................................................................21
Table 13. Supported RAID controllers.............................................................................................................................. 22
Table 14. Supported Select Network Adapter options and features .......................................................................... 25
Table 15. Select Network Adapter selection for racks .................................................................................................. 25
Table 16. Supported NICs and HBAs................................................................................................................................ 27
Table 17. Additional supported PCIe expansion cards ................................................................................................. 27
Table 18. Power tools and technologies ......................................................................................................................... 28
Table 19. Power supply efficiency .................................................................................................................................... 30
Table 20. Acoustical performance.................................................................................................................................... 32
Table 21. Supported rack types......................................................................................................................................... 34
Table 22. Primary operating system support .................................................................................................................. 36
Table 23. Virtual guest operating system support ......................................................................................................... 37
Table 24. Virtualization support ........................................................................................................................................ 37
Table 25. iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller functions and benefits........................................................................... 39
Table 26. Feature comparison for iDRAC7 Express and Enterprise ............................................................................40
Table 27. One-to-one and one-to-many operations ..................................................................................................44
Table 28. Power supply specifications ............................................................................................................................. 46
Table 29. Environmental specifications ........................................................................................................................... 47
Table 30. Supported video modes....................................................................................................................................48
Table 31. Rail adjustability range....................................................................................................................................... 49
Table 32. Industry standard documents .......................................................................................................................... 50
Table 33. Additional resources ...........................................................................................................................................51
Figure 1. Front view without bezel .................................................................................................................................. 10
Figure 2. Front view with bezel......................................................................................................................................... 10
Figure 3. Back view .............................................................................................................................................................. 11
Figure 4. Internal view ......................................................................................................................................................... 11
Figure 5. LCD control panel...............................................................................................................................................13
Figure 6. QRL location ........................................................................................................................................................13
Figure 7. Rack network daughter card............................................................................................................................ 24
Figure 8. 750W power supply unit ...................................................................................................................................30
Figure 9. Sliding rails with optional CMA ........................................................................................................................ 33
Figure 10. Static rails............................................................................................................................................................. 34
Figure 11. Dell systems management solutions.............................................................................................................. 38
Figure 12. Systems management server lifecycle ...........................................................................................................44
Figure 13. System dimensions ............................................................................................................................................46

Designed to excel at running a wide range of applications and virtualization environments for both
mid-size and large enterprises, the Dell™PowerEdge™R820 rack server is a compute-intensive
performance platform with highly scalable memory (up to 1.5TB) and impressive I/O capabilities to
match. With four Intel®Xeon®E5-4600 processors and the ability to support dual RAID controllers,
the R820 can readily handle very demanding, mission critical workloads, like data warehousing,
e-commerce, virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI), databases, and data node high performance
computing (HPC).
Keep pace with the explosion of data in the virtual age with the flexible, powerful I/O and storage
capabilities of the R820. Up to 16 internal hard drives and integrated PCI Express®(PCIe) 3.0 enabled
expansion slots greatly increase your capacity, while optional hot-plug, front-access Express Flash
PCIe solid-state drives (up to four) enable performance-enhancing, in-box storage tiering.
Moreover, Dell Select Network Adapters, our flexible NIC technology, let you choose the right
network fabric to match your needs without using up a valuable PCIe slot.
Boost the performance of your HPC or 2D VDI environment by combining the PowerEdge R820’s
memory density with an optional graphics processing unit (GPU) accelerator. Choose from a range
of GPU options for greater assisted performance.
Maximize your data center’s application capacity by expanding your virtual environment using the
PowerEdge R820’s large memory footprint, I/O options, flexible fabric choices, and up to 32 cores in
a four-processor configuration. Choose an industry-leading hypervisor and take advantage of our
system management capability to manage both physical and virtual assets. The R820 can also help
maximize your virtual machines’ uptime using redundant failsafe hypervisors on its internal dual SD
module. Finally, the Dell Virtual Integrated System (VIS) solution lets you enable complex
virtualization environments in just a few mouse clicks.
The Dell OpenManage™ systems management portfolio includes the Integrated Dell Remote Access
Controller 7 (iDRAC7) with Lifecycle Controller. Innovative embedded management features help 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. OpenManage
integrates and connects to third-party systems management solutions so you can maintain your
single point of control and capitalize on your existing investment. OpenManage simplifies the
lifecycle of deploying, updating, monitoring, and maintaining your Dell PowerEdge servers.

6 PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
Table 1 summarizes the newest technologies used in the Dell PowerEdge R820 rack server.
New technologies
Detailed descriptions
Intel Xeon processor
E5-4600 product family
This new family of Intel processors has embedded PCIe lanes for improved I/O
performance. See the Processor section for details.
Intel C600 series chipset
The Intel Platform Controller Hub (PCH) chip is implemented on the R820 server.
1600 MT/s DDR3
memory
Certain models of E5-4600 series processors support 1600 MT/s memory. The
R820 supports four DIMMs per channel at 1600 MT/s with these processors. See
the Memory section for details.
LRDIMM
This new memory option, load-reduced DIMM (LRDIMM), is designed with a buffer
chip (or chips) to replace the register to help minimize loading. LRDIMMs can
increase overall server system memory capacity and speed. See the Memory
section for details.
Flexible LOM
The Dell Select Network Adapter options allow you to customize your LAN port
combinations from your choice of controller vendors. See the Networking and
PCIe section for details.
Next generation PERC
options
The R820 supports the new 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, 1, 5 and 10; supports maximum
of four hot-plug SATA hard drives or SATA solid-state drives. See the Storage
section for details.
Express Flash drives
Dell Express Flash PCIe solid-state drives provide fast performance without
requiring processor resources or capturing DRAM. The R820 supports up to four
Express Flash drives. 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 Dell
OpenManage systems management section for details.
Internal GPU support
The R820 supports internal graphics processing units (GPUs) for extreme
computing power to solve HPC needs. See the Processor section for details.
DC power supply
A new 1100W DC power supply option is available for the R820. See the Power,
thermal, and acoustics section for details.
Advanced power
management
The R820 supports advanced power monitoring and power capping tools that can
help manage power consumption. See the Power, thermal, and acoustics section
for details.
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.
Failsafe hypervisors
The internal dual SD module is a modular fail-safe design that is dedicated for an
embedded ESX hypervisor or other embedded operating system. See the
Supported virtualization for details.

7 PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
Compared to the previous generation of Dell PowerEdge servers, the R820 has more drive bay
options, more PCIe slots, PCIe 3.0 support, more memory, a dual RAID controller option, optional
Express Flash PCIe solid-state drives, internal graphics processing unit (GPU) support, advanced
system management, and hot-plug redundant cooling.
The PowerEdge R820 is a direct replacement for the R810. Table 2 compares some of the features
of the R820 to the R810. For the latest information on supported features, visit Dell.com.
PowerEdge R810
PowerEdge R820 (new)
Chassis
2U rack
2U rack
Processors
IntelXeonprocessors 6500, 7500,
E7-2800, E7-4800 and E7-8800 series
Intel Xeon processor E5-4600 product
family
Internal interconnect
Intel QuickPath Interconnect
Intel QuickPath Interconnect
Memory1
32 x DDR3 RDIMM and UDIMM
Up to 1TB
48 x DDR3 RDIMM, UDIMM, and LRDIMM
Up to 1.5TB
Hard drive bays
(hot-plug)
6 x 2.5”
16 x 2.5”
RAID controller
PERC H200, H700, H800
PERC H310, H710, H710P, H810
Dual PERC option
Express Flash drives
N/A
Up to 4 Flash Express drives
PCI slots
7 PCIe 2.0 slots
7 PCIe 3.0 slots
Embedded NICs
4 x 1GbE with optional TOE
Select Network Adapter: minimum
configuration of 4 x 1GbE, 10GbE
(optional)
Power supplies
Hot-plug, redundant 1100W AC
Hot-plug, redundant 750W AC, 1100W AC,
1100W DC2
Systems management
Dell OpenManage
Dell Management Console
Lifecycle Controller 1.x
Dell OpenManage Essentials
Dell Management Console
Lifecycle Controller 2.x
Remote management
iDRAC6 (Express or Enterprise) with
Lifecycle Controller 1.x
iDRAC7 (Express or Enterprise) with
Lifecycle Controller 2.x
Support for internal
GPU
No
Yes
Power efficiency
Gold
Platinum
Availability
Hot-plug drives
Hot-plug redundant cooling
Hot-plug redundant power supply units
Internal dual SD modules
Hot-plug drives
Hot-plug redundant cooling
Hot-plug redundant power supply units
Internal dual SD modules
1GB means 1 billion bytes and TB equals 1 trillion bytes; actual capacity varies with preloaded material and operating
environment and will be less.

8PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
Table 3 summarizes the specifications for each of the PowerEdge R820 features. For the latest
information on supported features for the PowerEdge R820, visit Dell.com.
Feature
PowerEdge R820 technical specification
Form factor
2U rack
Processors
Intel Xeon processor E5-4600 product family
Processor sockets
4
Internal interconnect
2 Intel QuickPath Interconnect (QPI) links: 6.4 GT/s, 7.2 GT/s, 8.0 GT/s
Cache
2.5MB per core with core options of 4, 6, or 8
Chipset
Intel C600
Memory1
Up to 1.5TB (48 DIMM slots): 2GB/4GB/8GB/16GB/32GB DDR3 up to 1600 MT/s
PCIe slots
7 PCIe slots:
2 x16 full-height, half-length
1 x8 full-height, half-length
3 x8 half-height, half-length
1 x8 full-height, half-length for the RAID controller
RAID controller
Internal controllers:
PERC H310
PERC H710
PERC H710P
External HBAs (RAID):
PERC H810
External HBAs (non-RAID):
6Gbps SAS HBA
Hard drives
(hot-plug)
Drive bay options:
Up to 16 x 2.5-inch hot-plug SAS, SATA, or SSD
Hard drive options:
2.5-inch Express Flash, SAS SSD, SATA SSD, SAS (15K, 10K), nearline SAS (7.2K), SATA
(7.2K); self-encrypting drives (SEDs) available
Embedded NIC
Select Network Adapter options:
Broadcom®5720 1GbE 4P Base-T
Intel I350 1GbE 4P Base-T
Broadcom 57810S 2x1Gb+2x10Gb Base-T
Broadcom 57810S 2x1Gb+2x10Gb SFP+
Intel X540 2x1Gb+2x10Gb Base-T
Power supply
Auto-ranging, Platinum efficiency 495W, 750W, or 1100W AC
Gold efficiency 1100W DC
Availability
High-efficiency, hot-plug, redundant power supplies; hot-plug hard drives; TPM;
dual internal SD support; hot-plug redundant fans; optional bezel; information tag;
ECC memory; interactive LCD screen; extended thermal support; ENERGY STAR®
compliant; switch independent partitioning
Remote management
iDRAC7 with Lifecycle Controller
iDRAC7 Express (default), iDRAC7 Enterprise (upgrade option)
8GB vFlash media (upgrade option), 16GB vFlash media (upgrade option)

9 PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
Feature
PowerEdge R820 technical specification
Systems management
Dell OpenManage Essentials and Dell Management Console
Dell OpenManage Power Center
Dell OpenManage Integrations and Connections:
OpenManage Integration Suite for Microsoft®System Center
Dell Management Plug-in for VMware®vCenter™
Connections for HP Operations Manager, IBM Tivoli® Netcool®and CA Network
and Systems Management
IPMI 2.0 compliant
Rack support
ReadyRails™ sliding rails with optional cable management arm for 4-post racks
(optional adapter brackets required for threaded hole racks)
Operating systems
Microsoft Windows Server®2008 R2 SP1, x64 (includes Hyper-V™ v2)
SUSE®Linux®Enterprise Server
Red Hat®Enterprise Linux®
Optional embedded hypervisors:
Citrix®XenServer™
VMware vSphere™
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization®
For more information on the specific versions and additions, visit
Dell.com/OSsupport.
1GB means 1 billion bytes and TB equals 1 trillion bytes; actual capacity varies with preloaded material and operating
environment and will be less.

10 PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
The Dell PowerEdge R820 is a 2U, 4-socket rack server. For additional system views and features,
see the Dell PowerEdge R820 Systems Owner’s Manual on Support.Dell.com/Manuals.
Figure 1 shows the features on the front of the R820 chassis including sixteen 2.5-inch hard drives,
control panel, USB connectors, power button, system identification button, optical drive,
information tag, video connector, and vFlash media card slot.
Figure 2 shows the optional lockable bezel on the front of the R820 chassis.

11 PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
Figure 3 shows the features on the back panel of the R820 including USB connectors, Ethernet
connectors, serial connector, video connector, system identification button connector, iDRAC7
Enterprise port, PCIe slots, and power supplies.
The chassis design of the R820 is optimized for easy access to components and for airflow for
effective and efficient cooling. The R820 supports up to 48 DIMMs, 4 processors, hot-plug
redundant fans, and many other components and features described in this guide.

12 PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
Table 4 lists the features on the R820 chassis. For additional information, see the Dell PowerEdge
R820 Systems Owner’s Manual on Support.Dell.com/Manuals.
Feature
Description
Power button
ACPI-compliant power button with an integrated green power LED
Front bezel
Covers the system’s front-loading hard drives and locks for security
NMI button
Used to troubleshoot software and device driver errors; use only if directed
to do so by qualified support personnel or by the operating system's
documentation
System identification button
Buttons on the back and front of a system to help identify the unit in a data
center environment
Hard drives
Up to sixteen 2.5-inch drives
USB connectors
Connects USB devices to the server
vFlash media reader
Activated when iDRAC Enterprise is enabled
Information tag
Slide-out label panel for recording system information
Video connector
Connects a monitor to the server
LCD panel and buttons
Displays system ID, status information, and system error messages; two
navigation buttons to scroll through the menu on the LCD and one select
button
Optical drive
Optional slim DVD or DVD+RW drive
Tape drive
Optional external tape drive through the SAS 6Gbps HBA
Power supply units
Supplies power to the server
Power supply indicators
Indicates whether server has power
NIC indicators
Indicates network activity and status
PCIe slots
Connects PCIe expansion cards to the server
Ethernet connectors
Connects integrated 10/100/1000 NICs to the server
Serial connector
Connects a serial device to the server
iDRAC7 Enterprise port
Dedicated management port for optional iDRAC Ports card
The R820 control panel is located on the front of the chassis as shown in Figure 5. For more
information about the LCD control panel, see the Dell PowerEdge R820 Systems Owner’s Manual on
Support.Dell.com/Manuals.

13 PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
A useful feature included with Dell PowerEdge 12th generation servers is the Quick Resource Locator
(QRL)—a model-specific Quick Response (QR) code that is located inside the R820 chassis cover
(see Figure 6). Use your smartphone to access the Dell QRL app to learn more about the server.
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.
The latest generation of PowerEdge servers has the features listed in Table 5 to help ensure the
security of your data center.

14 PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
Security feature
Description
Cover latch
A tooled latch is integrated in the side cover to secure it to the rack chassis.
Bezel
An optional metal bezel is mounted to the chassis front to provide the Dell ID. A
lock on the bezel is used to protect un-authorized access to hard drives. System
status is viewable on the LCD screen when the bezel is installed.
TPM
The Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is used to generate/store keys,
protect/authenticate passwords, and create/store digital certificates. It also
supports the Intel Xeon TXT functionality. TPM can also be used to enable the
BitLocker™ hard drive encryption feature in Windows Server 2008. TPM 1.2 is
supported. No TPM version is available for China or Russia.
Power-off security
BIOS has the ability to disable the power button function.
Intrusion alert
An internal switch is used to detect chassis intrusion.
Secure mode
BIOS has the ability to enter a secure boot mode through system setup. This
mode includes the option to lock out the power and NMI switches on the
control panel or set up a system password.

15 PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
The Dell PowerEdge R820 features the Intel Xeon processor E5-4600 product family, which offers
an ideal combination of performance, power efficiency, and cost. These processors provide high
performance no matter what your constraint is—floor space, power, or budget—and on workloads
that range from the most complicated scientific exploration to crucial web-serving and
infrastructure applications. In addition to providing raw performance gains, improved I/O is also
made possible with Intel Integrated I/O, which can reduce latency by adding more lanes and
doubling bandwidth. This helps to reduce network and storage bottlenecks, unleashing the
processor’s performance capabilities.
The new Intel Xeon processor E5-4600 product family adds the following new features:
Four-socket processor design with power and dimensions optimized for density
Up to eight execution cores per processor
Intel Hyper-Threading technology enables up to 16 computational threads
Micro-architecture on 32nm process for greater performance per watt
Support for more memory—14 additional DIMMs (up to 48 DIMM slots) and support for up to
32GB DIMMs, which increases memory capacity from 1 TB to 1.5 TB
Integrated memory controller with four channels of DDR3 and 46-bit physical addressing
facilitate greater memory capacity
Intel Integrated I/O has support for up to 160 lanes of PCIe 3.0, which can reduce latency
Faster connections throughout the system with support for DDR3 1600 MT/s memory and
8.0 GT/s QPI
Intel Data Direct I/O (DDIO) allows 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
High bandwidth, low latency, bidirectional ring interconnect allows faster access to the 20MB
multi-banked last level cache
Intel Advanced Vector Extensions offer 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, which are integral to many technical,
financial, and scientific computing problems
Intel Turbo Boost Technology 2.0, which allows processor cores to run faster than the base
operating frequency if it's operating below power, current, and temperature specification limits,
delivers up to double the boost than the previous generation
Continued improvements to both Intel TXT and AES-NI help to better protect systems and data
For more information on the Intel Xeon processor E5-4600 product family, visit Intel.com.
The R820 supports up to four processors with up to eight cores per processor. Table 6 lists the Intel
Xeon processors supported by the PowerEdge R820. For the latest information on supported
processors, visit Dell.com/PowerEdge.

16 PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
Model
Speed
TDP
Cache
Cores/
threads
QPI
Turbo
E5-4650
2.7GHz
130W
20MB
8/16
8.0 GT/s
Yes
E5-4650L
2.6GHz
115W
20MB
8/16
8.0 GT/s
Yes
E5-4640
2.4GHz
95W
20MB
8/16
8.0 GT/s
Yes
E5-4620
2.2GHz
95W
16MB
8/16
7.2 GT/s
Yes
E5-4617
2.9GHz
130W
15MB
6/6
7.2 GT/s
Yes
E5-4610
2.4GHz
95W
15MB
6/12
7.2 GT/s
Yes
E5-4607
2.2GHz
95W
12MB
6/12
6.4 GT/s
NA
E5-4603
2.0GHz
95W
10MB
4/8
6.4 GT/s
NA
For information on processor installation and configuration, see the Dell PowerEdge R820 Systems
Owner’s Manual on Support.Dell.com/Manuals.
The R820 supports graphics processing unit (GPU) technology, which provides accelerated
performance for a variety of applications including virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) and HPC
implementations.
The R820 supports up to two 75W GPUs. Each GPU can support up to 1 GB of dedicated GDDR5
memory and is actively cooled. An internal GPU is available through certified factory installation (CFI)
or field upgrade only. For a list of supported GPUs, see Table 7.
GPU card
Width
Power consumption
NVIDIA® Quadro®2000
Single
62W
Some operating systems have not been validated to support GPUs. See Table 22 and Table 23 for
more information on operating system support of GPUs.
The Intel C600 chipset is implemented on the PowerEdge R820. For more information, visit
Intel.com.

17 PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
More memory options are available than ever before with the Dell PowerEdge R820—greater
capacities, higher frequencies, and more flexibility. The R820 supports up to 1.5 TB of memory
(48 DIMM slots) and speeds of up to 1600 MT/s, providing high performance in a variety of
applications.
In addition to supporting existing unbuffered DIMMs (UDIMM) and registered DIMMs (RDIMM), the
R820 supports load-reduced DIMMs (LRDIMM), which use a buffer to reduce memory loading and
provide greater density, allowing for the maximum platform memory capacity. High memory density
provides a richer, no compromise virtualization environment. While the buffer in the LRDIMM
reduces memory bus loading and allows 50% higher capacity in a system, the buffer does introduce
additional latency, which will have a small impact on system performance.
Increase your uptime and reduce data loss with RAS features like memory mirroring, sparing, and
many others. RAS aids in the rapid and accurate diagnosis of faults that require service, increasing
your memory reliability.
The R820 supports the memory technologies shown in Table 8.
Feature
UDIMM
RDIMM
LRDIMM
Register
No
Yes
Yes
Buffer
No
No
Yes
Frequencies
800, 1066, or
1333MT/s
800, 1066, 1333, or
1600MT/s
1066 or 1333MT/s
Ranks supported
1 or 2
1, 2, or 4
4
Capacity per DIMM
2 or 4GB
2, 4, 8, 16, or 32GB
32GB
Maximum DIMMS per channel
2
3
3
DRAM technology
x8
x4 or x8
x4
Temperature sensor
Yes
Yes
Yes
ECC
Yes
Yes
Yes
SDDC
Yes (with advanced
ECC mode)
Yes
Yes
Address parity
Yes
Yes
Yes

18 PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
The R820 supports the DIMMs listed in Table 9. For the latest information on supported memory,
visit Dell.com.
Capacity
(GB)
Speed
(MT/s)
Type
Ranks per
DIMM
Data
width
SDDC support
Voltage
2
1333
RDIMM
1
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
2
1333
UDIMM
1
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
2
1600
RDIMM
1
x8
Advanced ECC
1.5
4
1333
RDIMM
2
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
4
1333
RDIMM
1
x4
All modes
1.35
4
1333
UDIMM
2
x8
Advanced ECC
1.35
4
1600
RDIMM
2
x8
Advanced ECC
1.5
8
1333
RDIMM
2
x4
All modes
1.35
8
1600
RDIMM
2
x4
All modes
1.5
16
1066
RDIMM
4
x4
All modes
1.35
16
1333
RDIMM
2
x4
All modes
1.35
16
1600
RDIMM
2
x4
All modes
1.5
32
1333
LRDIMM
4
x4
All modes
1.35
32
1333
RDIMM
4
x4
All modes
1.35
Flexible memory configurations are supported on the R820, ranging from capacities of 2 GB to
1.5 TB. The system supports up to 12 DIMMs per processor (up to 48 DIMMs in a four-processor
configuration). The R820 has four memory channels per processor, with each channel supporting
up to three DIMMs.
The R820 supports a flexible memory configuration according to these 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, RDIMM, and LRDIMM cannot
be mixed.
The following additional memory population guidelines apply to the R820:
Up to two quad-rank (QR) DIMMs and up to three dual-rank (DR) or single-rank (SR) DIMMs may
be populated per channel. Although an LRDIMM is physically a QR DIMM, logic on the LRDIMM
can make it appear as a DR DIMM to the system, allowing up to three LDRIMMs 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, see the Dell PowerEdge R820 Systems Owner’s
Manual on Support.Dell.com/Manuals.

19 PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
The R820 supports memory speeds of 1600 MT/s, 1333 MT/s, 1066 MT/s, and 800 MT/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 systems run 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 10 lists memory configuration and performance details for the R820 based on the population
of the number and type of DIMMs per memory channel.
DIMM
type
DIMM 0
DIMM 1
DIMM 2
Number
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
∞
∞
LRDIMM
QR
1
∞
∞
QR
QR
2
∞
∞
QR
QR
QR
3
∞

20 PowerEdge R820 Technical Guide
Reliability, availability, serviceability (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 that require service. Table 11 describes the RAS
features supported on the R820.
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
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, it is moved to the spare area while the operating
system is running to prevent the error 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 R820
Systems Owner’s Manual on Support.Dell.com/Manuals.