19

Is it possible to query through Terminal how much ram my motherboard can take?

I'm looking to see if i can even upgrade.

2
  • 1
    Additional to reverendj1's answer I suggest to view your motherboard manual, as not all configuration's of filling empty RAM slots may work and some RAM manufacturers maybe supported/preferred etc.
    – math
    May 25, 2012 at 6:50
  • Good point. Luckily in my case it was accurate!
    – chrisjlee
    Jun 1, 2012 at 20:30

2 Answers 2

26

You can easily find it out with the below command:

sudo dmidecode -t 16

This command will tell you how much is in each slot already:

sudo dmidecode -t 17
3
  • 4
    You may also want to inspect -t 2, which can provide information about the motherboard, including the model number. This model number can then lead to documentation, which could be more helpful to you.
    – Charles
    May 21, 2012 at 19:53
  • 3
    And in a one liner: sudo dmidecode -t16,17
    – Insperatus
    Jan 7, 2013 at 17:22
  • 2
    sudo dmidecode -t memory is equivalent and excludes handle, type, and size info which may be considered extraneous
    – Insperatus
    Jan 7, 2013 at 17:29
9

lshw (list hardware) with sudo, -Class memory:

sudo lshw -C memory
[sudo] password for stefan: 
  *-firmware              
       description: BIOS
       vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
       physical id: 0
       version: 0208 (01/31/2005)
       size: 64KiB
       capacity: 448KiB
       capabilities: isa pci pcmcia pnp apm upgrade shadowing escd cdboot bootselect socketedrom edd int13floppy1200 int13floppy720 int13floppy2880 int5printscreen int9keyboard int14serial int17printer int10video acpi usb agp ls120boot zipboot biosbootspecification netboot
  *-cache:0
       description: L1 cache
       physical id: 5
       slot: L1-Cache
       size: 32KiB
       capacity: 32KiB
       capabilities: pipeline-burst internal varies data
  *-cache:1
       description: L2 cache
       physical id: 6
       slot: L2-Cache
       size: 2MiB
       capacity: 2MiB
       capabilities: pipeline-burst internal varies unified
  *-memory
       description: System Memory
       physical id: 1b
       slot: System board or motherboard
       size: 1GiB
       capacity: 3GiB
     *-bank:0
          description: DIMM SDRAM Synchronous
          product: PartNum0
          vendor: Manufacturer0
          physical id: 0
          serial: SerNum0
          slot: DIMM0
          size: 512MiB
          width: 64 bits
     *-bank:1
          description: DIMM SDRAM Synchronous
          product: PartNum1
          vendor: Manufacturer1
          physical id: 1
          serial: SerNum1
          slot: DIMM1
          size: 512MiB
          width: 64 bits

The part:

   size: 1GiB
   capacity: 3GiB

is what you're looking for. My system has 1GiB, but would take 3.

2
  • Is there any way I can have it show the maximum RAM capacity per slot? Oct 28, 2016 at 11:44
  • Sorry, I don't know. Oct 29, 2016 at 0:34

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .