Just curious if on a Supermicro X7SBE whether or not it makes any difference to have a quantity of 2 ram chips or 4 ram chips performance wise?

 

So for example 2 x 4gb

or

4 x 2gb chips

You are less likely to have problems with 2x4GB of matched memory.  Any slowness that would be introduced (assuming the 4 chips are the same speed/specification) would be something you'd only ever see in a benchmark and real world performance would not be noticeable in any significant way. 

Just curious if on a Supermicro X7SBE whether or not it makes any difference to have a quantity of 2 ram chips or 4 ram chips performance wise?

 

So for example 2 x 4gb

or

4 x 2gb chips

 

Definitely better to only install 2 modules.  That's true on any board that uses unbuffered RAM.  With buffered modules (RDIMMs or FBDIMMs) it doesn't matter, as the load is only one load/module ... but with unbuffered modules there are 16-32 loads/module, so there's significant signal deterioration if you install 4 modules.    This results in a slowdown of the RAM access ... either by reducing the clock or increasing latency, or (if that compensation is not done) can result in less reliable operation.

 

Would this slow down drive read/write access times?

So if I currently have 4 2GB chips, would I get better performance removing 2 of them and going to 4gb total?

You will not get better performance removing the extra ram modules.

You should not see a performance degradation using all 4 modules either.

 

I've used that board with 4 2GB modules without any issue.

The supermicro boards are usually designed very well.  They are sometimes picky on Ram, however supermicro testes the boards with recommended ram.

 

The critical issue would be to have matched ram.

If you use variance in speed across the banks it could make the machine unstable.

 

If anything, it's stability that could be compromised.

 

latency in the ram chips alone is more noticable when virtualizing and/or using the machine as a desktop for gaming.  For a server where most of the ram is going to be used for caching the disks, ram will still be much faster then direct disk access.  There comes a point of diminishing returns on investment.

 

If you have the matched ram try it. run memtest for a good length of time.

I've been using supermicro server boards since the mid 90s. If you have quality ram, they are usually rock solid.  They will not be as fast as a gaming machine, but they will be solid.

 

If the 2GB modules are only single-sided, they may only be loading the bus with 8 loads/module, or at most 16.  Double side modules present either 16 or 32 loads/module (18 or 36 with ECC modules).

 

4 low-load modules will work okay; but one thing is ALWAYS true for unbuffered boards:  2 modules will be more reliable than 4.    Doesn't mean 4 can't be reliable, but your signaling will absolutely be less reliable  (VERY easy to see on an O'Scope).

 

I agree, however, that if you have 4 2GB chips and it's running well, there's no reason to change.