The speed seems to be the question. That is set not by the memory but by the BIOS and chipset. The same goes for memory size plus the wiring to the memory socket. There's little support outside of a list of supported sticks which can infuriate some. But at the end it appears you want to install 16GB.
16GB support would have to be noted by the device/PC/box maker. Or you just try it.
Hey folks.
I have a weird situation I can't figure out. I'm hoping someone more advanced than I can answer this. (I'm by no means a newb)
Sooo.... There were these thecus w2000 NAS box's on sale for a hundred bucks from newegg about a month ago. I was in the market to build a new FreeNAS but figured for 100.00 bucks I'd see if I could do some upgrades because on paper this thing is sweet. Turns out it's pretty great off papper too.
It has a devoted ssd standard 2.5 drive hidden in the box to contain the OS, two bays, dual channel RAM, & a 2.3ghz dual atom. Like any good geek I tore it apart before I even plugged it in. I didn't want the windows server that came with it, and planned to either throw freeNAS on if I could upgrade the 2gbs it came with to 8, or through xpenology, or openmediavault on. I've not ever come across a modern chipset that won't take more than 4gb even when the manufacturer max is officially 4. That's the case with this thecus box, & Intel's spec on the atom inside is max 4. So this came with one stick of 2gb ram while the other slot sat empty. When I reached in I found something very odd though. The 2gb ddr3l 1600 that was supposed to be in that line slot turned out to be an 8gb stick of adata 1600 ddr3l. I happened to have 2 sticks of the exact same RAM from an old qnap upgrade I had done for 2x8gb or 16gb total. Not sure what to expect I stripped Windows, & initially put xpenology on. My 16gbs defaulted to the stated max of 4. What bugged me was this 8gb stick andd the relatively beafy specs of the rest of the components for an entry level nas. Everything else screams 600.00 NAS, except that limiting RAM. I started to look up info on other thecus nas's & found that the generation prior had a latch to upgrade to 8gb and some folks claimed 16 which I'm sure was true. I can't remember, but I think the forums where talking about achieving this nlt through BIOS, but rather edittimg a config script in /etc or something. So I'm guessing it came with a distro. My version came with Ms server essentials though, so no dice there.... And the BIOS werent recognizing it anyhow so I didnt think short of a bios edit or hidden options screen is get it to pop over 4gb. Then I posted on the website that I originally saw the thecus on for sale (slick deals) in the forum to see if anyone else tore their unkt apart. Alot of novices there who thought 2x8 meant 2gb by 8 slots & didn't think anything of it. This started bugging me again because nkt only did this thing have 2 slots, it has a manufacturer & chipset both officially stating 4gb max. Bit i couldn't get over the fact that this company would be breaking up 8 gb pairs to throw into a system that only accepts 2gb per channel. Why would they put 4 times the total amount of RAM maximum on just a single channel? I would have chalked it up to me getting b stock that they just threw whatever into, or a return by accident. But other people got it too.
So... For no good reason I was on Amazon and came across a wearhouse deal for dual channel 2x4gb kit for 20bucks. I have no good reason as to why I bought it, but I did. It's Kingston ddr3l 1600 sodim 204pin. Same as the adata which was 16gb bit defaulted to the max 4gb.
After I put it in, I started the machine, went to bios, & sure enough, all 8gb are recognized. It is throttling the speed down to 1066 though. So, what gives? How could the same spec at 16gb default to 4, when a lower amount of RAM gets recognized at 8gb? Why would one work & the other not?
I have a theory, and it's likely wrong but if you know the answer is live to know.
I'm wondering if the BIOS recognizes adat and maybe keeps the voltage down to ddr3l while the Kingston which is also ddr3l is jumping up to meet a perceived higher voltage? So maybe 1.5 instead of 1.35?
Any help would be great! And if you do know the answer, would that mean 16gb is likely to work as well?
Thanks!

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