In 2021, Samsung announced the first DDR5 memory based on High-K Metal Gate (HKMG). The use of this memory doubled the speed of DDR4 and reduced power consumption by 13%. Samsung’s DDR5 is made up of eight layers of 16Gb DRAM chips, resulting in a capacity of no less than 512GB.
Fast forward to 2024, and at Computex, ServeTheHome came across the Gigabyte R283-ZK0 motherboard, pictured above. Integrating the maximum number of DIMM slots into servers, especially those that utilize modern configurations with 12 DDR5 channels per CPU socket and two DIMMs per channel (24 DIMMs per socket in total), presents significant challenges in terms of both ensuring the DIMMs work together correctly and managing the physical space required to fit all of these components into the server chassis. This is a problem that the Gigabyte R283-ZK0 motherboard tackles expertly.
Not just any server board, this powerhouse features 48 cleverly placed DDR5 memory slots, allowing for up to 24TB of RAM when equipped with Samsung’s 512GB DDR5 modules.
Twisted slots
From the outside, the R283-ZK0 looks like your typical 2U server with its 12x 2.5” hot-swap NVMe/SATA/SAS drive bays and a large fan wall, but the magic is revealed once you remove the lid. Inside, the server reveals a single CPU slot located on the rear, just ahead of a set of PCIe risers. But the real wonder lies at the top of the system, where the motherboard boasts an impressive array of 24 DDR5 RDIMM slots per CPU – a total of 48 slots in a dual 2nd Gen AMD EPYC 9004-series arrangement.
If ServeTheHomeCliff Robinson says: “To accommodate so many DIMMs, the CPUs can’t be lined up side by side. Instead, there are stacked sets of 6-2-4-4-2-2-4 DIMM slots. The slots are angled on the motherboard to allow for some overlap of the slots and sockets.” It’s certainly an impressive feat of engineering.
Other features of the Gigabyte R283-ZK0 include two 10Gb/s LAN ports (Intel X710-AT2), one PCIe Gen5 x16 FHFL (full-height, full-length) slot, and one OCP 3.0 Gen5 x16 LAN mezzanine slot for use with network cards.