mini itx boards with 64GB of ram support, not gonne happen, even there aren´t any socket 2011 mini itx boards, as far as my knowledge goes.because socket 2011 is a way to large for mini-itx. only a few micro atx boards, with max 32GB of ram support, only the Msi X79MA-GD45 is a m-atx board with 64GB support. on 4 slots.
Hasswell only supports upto 32GB of ram, so you will need socket 2011 sandy-e or ivy-e
anyway how in the world do you max out 32GB of ram ?
Well I mentioned this is my LAB, so I am running a host of VM's and virtual appliances.
I am looking at a portable form factor with 64 GB Memory support and a supporting processor.
Any suggestions?
As a backup plan --- What are the best option for a 32 GB machine ---small form factor.
You know a single machine with a single CPU is not going to slice 64 or 32 GB very well with clients. You can cut the memory up but the CPU is not going to be able to handle it very well.
In my lab I have a i7 with 16GB and the CPU was maxed out way before the memory. I have 5 or 6 VM's running (Linux server, Linux ubuntu, 3 x windows 7 and sometimes Server 2008) on ESX.
But when I boot up my HP server which has 4 physical Xeon's the CPU cores beat the memory. I also work with with Cisco UCS which is blade based servers with multi Xeons and 198GB of memory per blade and full racked for enterprise level VDI/VHD.
What I am saying in short is consider the limits of the CPU cores as well as the memory.
Wait till DDR4 in 2014, there will be 32GB modules, but I think they will be expensive, maybe server grade at first and not supported by consumer platforms. I think you will see 16GB consumer sticks but since ITX only has 2 slots I think you wont achieve this. You would be better getting a proper workstation grade platform with 128GB of ram.
well if you realy need 64GB of ram i would recommend a ATX build maybe there is a small case. i don´t know what your budget is, but i would trow in a socket 2011 ivy-e i7-4820K or if you can afford a i7-4930K 6 core. look for the smallest atx case you can get, or one with a handle so you can cary it.
if you look for a 32GB small formfactor pc, you can go with an micro atx build socket 2011 or socket 1150, thats something to decide. i dont know what your budget is, and what parts you need? but most mini-itx boards only supports 16GB of max ram, so that would be a no go for you unfortunatly
for a 32 GB micro atx build i made this.
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1FIy3
you probably won´t need a great gpu that is highly overclockable, so i choosed to trow in the Gigabyte Radeon 7950 windforce, this card is on sale for only $203
But if you realy need 64GB i would recommend an ATX build, socket 2011 ivy -E i7-4820K or if you can afford 4930K 6 core 12 threads. and try to find the smallest atx case to get.
something like this: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/1FIDj
Dedicate an SSD as a page file?
I'd wait until DDR4 arrives, they already have single ddr4 modules that are 32gb but adata mentioned something about 128GB modules in the future...
So yeah just wait for haswell-e to come along with DDR4 support, you can easily fit a single 64GB module in there and not have it max out the CPU (and still have room for a second module later on), knowing Asus they will probably have an m-ITX 2011-3 board ready because they jumped the zomg mitx small powerfull PCs bandwagon.
For now unless you go 2011 ATX you won't get to enjoy 64GB of ram.
Waiting is what I am trying to do (current gen hasn't improved much) DDR4/PCIE4.0 and Sata Express are such a big deal (massively greater ammounts of system memory, much faster SSDs not to mention alot of things are migrating towards using PCIE lanes[i.e. sata, thunderbolt]). Not to mention that this gen of intel processors wasn't much of a performance improvement over the last. I have a feeling we will get shafted somehow with the feature-set for next year (i.e. limitation of memory quantity/lack of sata-express/no pcie-4.0 except on workstation sockets??...). Also I think that 64/128GB will be a bit in the future (like it was with DDR3) and all DDR4 memory expensive.
But can you imagine it, socket 2015(maybe 16), rocking with 1,024GB of ram, dual xeons and multi-terrabyte raided SSDs using multiple PCIE 4.0 lanes (2GB/s per lane). Its insane, it really is, what will you do with it. Realistically though I think at launch 16GB dimms will be the new 8 with 32GB being expensive until higher capacities come out.
I have a solution for you, it's not ideal since you want Mini ITX form-factor, however in some ways it's better since you get more options that mini ITX simply cannot provide. Just get an LGA-1366 ASUS Rampage Gene III, update it to it's last BIOS reléase, buy an X5690 off of E-bay if possible, then buy this specific memory, http://www.antarespro.com/8653742-item-Crucial-CT2K16G3ERVLD4160B-649528763990.aspx . You'll need to buy a quantity of 3 of those 2x16 GB kits to max out the number of slots the board has, however once you do you will have 96 GB RAM, this exceeds your 64 GB requirement, and you'll have the most powerful LGA1366 CPU ever made (mine scores a passmark of over 11,500!, overclocked, that translates into about 2000 per thread!!!). BTW the X5690 supports a máximum of 288 GB of RAM!!! However, DDR3 memory modules don't go over 16 GB for 1.35 volt low profile memory, so although the CPU can support a massive amount over 96 GB, the low voltage modules I recommend are limited to 16 GB. This is the case I recommend to house this massive amount of power in: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144141 . The case I recommend has an alluminum handle in front which allows for portability and so this really is your best solution right now.