The AMD Threadripper ECC DDR4-2666 Testing That Wasn't

Recently in our forums there has been a lot of interest in Threadripper 2 builds using ECC DDR4 memory and the impact on performance, especially now with the Threadripper 2 family being rounded out by the 2920X and 2970WX. So I set out to do some DDR4-2666 ECC UDIMM testing with Threadripper 2, but that hasn't turned out well.

Due to the growing interest in Threadripper 2 + ECC memory builds by Linux users (especially among the supportive premium crowd), I ordered a quad-kit of DDR4-2666 ECC UDIMM for testing... While the latest Threadripper 2 processors support DDR4-2933, DDR4-2666MHz is the fastest that can currently be found for ECC UDIMMs. As I only have a couple older DDR4-2133 ECC UDIMMs sticks in some Xeon E3 v5 boxes and the rest of my DDR4 ECC being Registered DIMMs that are not supported by Threadripper CPUs, I ordered some.

But even finding DDR4-2666 ECC UDIMMs proved particularly difficult as most US Internet retailers listing them are marked discontinued or out-of-stock with DDR4-2400 being more common. Most of the memory compatibility lists from the different motherboard vendors with X399 products also only lists DDR4-2400 models when it comes to ECC UDIMMs.

When shopping for the memory, the only prominent Internet retailer listing DDR4-2666 ECC UDIMMs was NewEgg with several different listings for NEMIX RAM. NEMIX RAM advertises itself as a Florida-based memory product company founded in 2007 with its products backed by a lifetime warranty. I never touched NEMIX memory before but given no other viable option, I ordered a quad kit of their 8GB DDR4-2666 ECC Unbuffered memory.

The memory arrived after opting for overnight shipping. Unfortunately I have yet to get this memory working in any of my Threadripper X399 systems. I've tried the MSI X399 MEG CREATION, ASUS ROG ZENITH EXTREME, and Gigabyte X399 Aorus Gaming 7 to no avail either in quad or dual-channel configurations. Trying this memory on an MSI C236A WORKSTATION board also did not work.

I am waiting on hearing back from NEMIX if there is any magic or an RMA is hopefully in store.

With the odd over-hanging placement of their memory stickers and feeling the stickers on each of the DIMMs, it became clear that there was a second sticker behind. When carefully peaking behind, this does indeed appear to be some re-branded memory that is being sold. When looking back on NewEgg, others have also reported their memory kits having been re-labeled, RMAs going through other companies, etc.

So unfortunately it doesn't look like any ECC Threadripper 2 benchmarking will be coming up anytime soon until finding some working DDR4-2666+ ECC UDIMMs... As consolation, here are some fresh DDR4 (non-ECC) Threadripper 2990WX Linux memory benchmarks with some G.SKILL DIMMs at 2 x 8GB DDR4-3200, 4 x 8GB DDR4-2666, 4 x 8GB DDR4-2933, 4 x 8GB DDR4-3200 that I started before abandoning the tests due to the non-working ECC DIMMs.