While I was working on replacing the hard drive of my server(if you don’t know it’s Part One of the series), I stumbled across something. I had a bunch of equipment lying around and came across RAM modules. I recalled acquiring them from a job site that was about to be thrown out. They also happen to be compatible with my server. I was curious if I could utilize these before making the decision to dispose them. So i decided to undertake the task of upgrading my server’s RAM.
Implementation
When looking at this, I quickly just added them to the other available slots. However, when I booted my machine my RAM capacity didn’t increase. I was curious as to why. I confirmed the RAM was compatible again. The next thing I did was check the specifications of the server. I found this on the back of the case door. As it turns out the second RAM slots are for the second processor chip…. that I don’t have installed. This would make sense. In my mind, computers that run with multiple processors would need dedicated RAM when executing computations.
Luckily, this was no big deal, as the RAM that was installed already was only 2GB and these ones were 4GB. I swapped out the RAM sticks to the appropriate RAM slots and BOOM! my RAM capacity doubled.
Future Work
When I found out that I was able to add in a second processor and more RAM into this server, it got me thinking of future projects. This would be nice to consider as I was debating in how much more money to put into this server. The fork in the road is making the decision to either buy a new server tower or keep this and upgrade and hope it can last to save money.
For now, I will attempt to look for the appropriate processor and other equipment and enhance this server to see what I can do with it.
Takeaway
I was glad I quickly able to resolve this by looking at the instructions. Usually servers come with this as companies need to properly plan before buying equipment and need an idea of how to scale in the future. Point is, definitely look at the specs provided. This was a small learning experience about how things work within a server and i’m humbled to learn that. Good reason to run into this in a lab versus in the work field on a production environment.