Here is the next in my series of posts as I tweak the new tools server to reach its full potential. I recently added a Intel i7 965 Extreme chip to the server and I am trying to get all the kinks ironed out. One thing I suspect is that the ram is not operating at its full potential. Both the ram and the chip list that they are capable of reaching a 1600 MHz speed so I want to get them running at that speed. Normally these things are fairly easy in Windows where we have a GUI and all kinds of fancy oveclockers tools but as you know from previous articles this server is a extreme definition of hybrid and it also runs a server version of Cent OS so we have no GUI. This has brought me to discover many new and interesting Linux CLI tools. Today I will show two different ways to check your ram speed and also get some other useful information.
The first tool I found was called dmidecode and its man page is here
On my system the tool was already installed. It actual gives lots of useful BIOS related information however I was only concerned with the ram. The out put is arranged in types so ram is type 17.
Issue the command with type 17 as the argument:
[root@tools ~]# sudo dmidecode --type 17
# dmidecode 2.10
SMBIOS 2.5 present.
Handle 0x0011, DMI type 17, 27 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x000F
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 72 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 2048 MB
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: DIMM0
Bank Locator: BANK0
Type: Other
Type Detail: Other
Speed: 1333 MHz
Manufacturer: Corsair
Serial Number: 00000000
Asset Tag: AssetTagNum0
Part Number: CMD12GX3M6A1600C8
Handle 0x0013, DMI type 17, 27 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x000F
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 72 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 2048 MB
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: DIMM1
Bank Locator: BANK1
Type: Other
Type Detail: Other
Speed: 1333 MHz
Manufacturer: Corsair
Serial Number: 00000000
Asset Tag: AssetTagNum1
Part Number: CMD12GX3M6A1600C8
Handle 0x0015, DMI type 17, 27 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x000F
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 72 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 2048 MB
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: DIMM2
Bank Locator: BANK2
Type: Other
Type Detail: Other
Speed: 1333 MHz
Manufacturer: Manufacturer02
Serial Number: 00000000
Asset Tag: AssetTagNum2
Part Number:
Handle 0x0017, DMI type 17, 27 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x000F
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 72 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 2048 MB
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: DIMM3
Bank Locator: BANK3
Type: Other
Type Detail: Other
Speed: 1333 MHz
Manufacturer: Corsair
Serial Number: 00000000
Asset Tag: AssetTagNum3
Part Number: CMD12GX3M6A1600C8
Handle 0x0019, DMI type 17, 27 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x000F
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 72 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 2048 MB
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: DIMM4
Bank Locator: BANK4
Type: Other
Type Detail: Other
Speed: 1333 MHz
Manufacturer: Corsair
Serial Number: 00000000
Asset Tag: AssetTagNum4
Part Number: CMD12GX3M6A1600C8
Handle 0x001B, DMI type 17, 27 bytes
Memory Device
Array Handle: 0x000F
Error Information Handle: Not Provided
Total Width: 72 bits
Data Width: 64 bits
Size: 2048 MB
Form Factor: DIMM
Set: None
Locator: DIMM5
Bank Locator: BANK5
Type: Other
Type Detail: Other
Speed: 1333 MHz
Manufacturer: Manufacturer05
Serial Number: 00000000
Asset Tag: AssetTagNum5
Part Number:
Or to just get the speed:
[root@tools ~]# sudo dmidecode --type 17 | grep Speed
Speed: 1333 MHz
Speed: 1333 MHz
Speed: 1333 MHz
Speed: 1333 MHz
Speed: 1333 MHz
Speed: 1333 MHz
As you can see my ram is not operating at 1600 MHz which is what I initially suspected. Now since I am not familier with this Linux tool I decided to get a second opinion.
I found a second tool called lshw and its man page is here
This tool was not installed on my system but it was available in my local repo. I also checked the debian repo and the Gentoo repo and it was available in both of those.
A simple yum install lshw was all I needed to install it:
[root@tools ~]# yum install lshw
After reviewing the man page I determined the correct command syntax:
[root@tools ~]# lshw -C memory
*-firmware
description: BIOS
vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
physical id: 0
version: P2.60 (10/30/2009)
size: 64KiB
capacity: 960KiB
capabilities: pci upgrade shadowing cdboot bootselect socketedrom edd int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer int10video acpi usb ls120boot zipboot biosbootspecification netboot
*-cache:0
description: L1 cache
physical id: 5
slot: L1-Cache
size: 256KiB
capacity: 256KiB
capabilities: internal write-through instruction
*-cache:1
description: L2 cache
physical id: 6
slot: L2-Cache
size: 1MiB
capacity: 1MiB
capabilities: internal write-through unified
*-cache:2
description: L3 cache
physical id: 7
slot: L3-Cache
size: 8MiB
capacity: 8MiB
capabilities: internal write-back unified
*-memory
description: System Memory
physical id: f
slot: System board or motherboard
size: 12GiB
*-bank:0
description: DIMM 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
product: CMD12GX3M6A1600C8
vendor: Corsair
physical id: 0
serial: 00000000
slot: DIMM0
size: 2GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
*-bank:1
description: DIMM 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
product: CMD12GX3M6A1600C8
vendor: Corsair
physical id: 1
serial: 00000000
slot: DIMM1
size: 2GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
*-bank:2
description: DIMM 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
vendor: Manufacturer02
physical id: 2
serial: 00000000
slot: DIMM2
size: 2GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
*-bank:3
description: DIMM 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
product: CMD12GX3M6A1600C8
vendor: Corsair
physical id: 3
serial: 00000000
slot: DIMM3
size: 2GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
*-bank:4
description: DIMM 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
product: CMD12GX3M6A1600C8
vendor: Corsair
physical id: 4
serial: 00000000
slot: DIMM4
size: 2GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
*-bank:5
description: DIMM 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
vendor: Manufacturer05
physical id: 5
serial: 00000000
slot: DIMM5
size: 2GiB
width: 64 bits
clock: 1333MHz (0.8ns)
Or there is actually a short version:
[root@tools ~]# lshw -short -C memory H/W path Device Class Description ======================================================= /0/0 memory 64KiB BIOS /0/4/5 memory 256KiB L1 cache /0/4/6 memory 1MiB L2 cache /0/4/7 memory 8MiB L3 cache /0/f memory 12GiB System Memory /0/f/0 memory 2GiB DIMM 1333 MHz (0.8 ns) /0/f/1 memory 2GiB DIMM 1333 MHz (0.8 ns) /0/f/2 memory 2GiB DIMM 1333 MHz (0.8 ns) /0/f/3 memory 2GiB DIMM 1333 MHz (0.8 ns) /0/f/4 memory 2GiB DIMM 1333 MHz (0.8 ns) /0/f/5 memory 2GiB DIMM 1333 MHz (0.8 ns)
So now I have two linux command line tools telling me that my memory is only operating at 1333 MHz so I definitely need to look into why and how to fix it.
I think once I get all this work done I may create a script which will install all these tools and excecute them and create a sort of report for people who are interested in Linux over clocking and general hardware performance.
Tags: 1366 mhz, 1600 mhz, CLI, dmidecode, Linux, lshw, RAM, shell, speed
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