An overclocker ran 1TB of RAM on an X299 motherboard limited to 256GB

ASRock has announced than the renowned overclocker Nick Shih managed to run 1 TB (terabyte) memory on workstation motherboard ASRock X299 Taichi CLX that officially only supports up to 256 GB of memory.

To achieve this goal, Shih has placed eight SK Hynix LRDIMM modules alongside a Core i9-7900X (load-reduced DIMM) from 128 GB, which is quite interesting considering that the X299 chipset does not support EEC (error-correcting code) memory nor LRDIMM.

It’s unclear what magic Shih did to make that memory work on ASRock’s motherboard. SK Hynix has a pair of 256 GB LRDIMMs in its range, with a maximum frequency of 2666 MHz. The modules used by Shih may not have been released yet.

Based on the screenshot, the LRDIMMs have a part number HMABAGL7MBR4N-WM and a frequency of 2933 MHz with CL21-21-21-47 timing and an operating voltage of 1.2 volts.

What makes Shish’s feat even more spectacular is the fact that he was able to push the LRDIMM to 3471.8 MHz with CL20-24-24-56 timing. This means that the Core i9-7900X’s integrated memory controller undoubtedly has hidden qualities.

For now it is a mere exercise in style, given that the overclocker or ASRock itself will hardly release a firmware to allow everyone to install a 1 TB of memory on the X299. And however much RAM is needed, especially in the workstation field, already 256 GB should cover the needs of many.