CentOS - Jun 2013 - dmidecode Output

Hey Y'all,

How much can I trust the output of dmidecode?

The manual that came with my MB says that my MB can support up to 2 Gb 
of DDR2 RAM.  dmidecode seems tell me that I can load up to 8 Gb on this MB.

As 4 Gb DDR2 sticks cost about $100 each I figured maybe I should ask, 
what's the chances that I can plug in two 4 Gb sticks in this machine 
and actually have it work?

[root at mushroom ~]# dmidecode | more
<<SNIP>>
Memory Controller Information
	Error Detecting Method: 64-bit ECC
	Error Correcting Capabilities:
		None
	Supported Interleave: One-way Interleave
	Current Interleave: One-way Interleave
	Maximum Memory Module Size: 4096 MB
	Maximum Total Memory Size: 8192 MB

-- 
     _
    ?v?
   /(_)\
    ^ ^  Mark LaPierre
Registered Linux user No #267004
https://linuxcounter.net/
****

On 6/24/2013 5:43 PM, Mark LaPierre wrote:
> The manual that came with my MB says that my MB can support up to 2 Gb
> of DDR2 RAM.  dmidecode seems tell me that I can load up to 8 Gb on this
MB.
>
> As 4 Gb DDR2 sticks cost about $100 each I figured maybe I should ask,
> what's the chances that I can plug in two 4 Gb sticks in this machine
> and actually have it work?
what chipset/cpu does this MB use?  that drives what can be supported, 
and what might actually work.    a given memory configuration also 
requires BIOS support to properly initiallize the system memory 
controller for the memory size/shape/speed.

MB manuals are often full of errors, and are generally not updated once 
published with an initial version of a product, using boilerplate text 
from previous versions.   of course, this varies widely with mobo 
makers... Intel documentation tends to be more accurate and complete 
than most others, especially if you dig up and include the Technical 
Specification Updates....


-- 
john r pierce                                      37N 122W
somewhere on the middle of the left coast