Cisco UCS C220 M6 Upgrade Guide
Maximize the performance and lifespan of your UCS C220 M6 (M6). Every upgrade option below is verified compatible.
Verified Specifications
| Processor Options | 2 sockets (1 or 2) 3rd Gen Intel Xeon Scalable (Ice Lake), up to 40 cores per CPU (Platinum 8380 40C); Intel C621A chipset; 2 CPUs required for NVMe drives |
| Memory Configuration | 32 DIMM slots (16 per CPU), DDR4-3200 RDIMM/LRDIMM up to 128GB per DIMM; up to 4TB (32x128GB) or 10TB with 16x128GB DDR4 + 16x512GB Intel Optane PMem |
| Drive Configurations | 1U SFF, 10 front bays: UCSC-C220-M6S up to 10 SAS/SATA HDD/SSD with up to 4 NVMe in bays 1-4; UCSC-C220-M6N up to 10 NVMe only; boot-optimized RAID carrier with 2x M.2 SATA (UCS-M2-HWRAID); 8GB FlexMMC |
| Power Supply Options | Up to 2 hot-swap PSUs, 1+1 redundant: 1050W AC, 1050W DC, 1600W AC, 2300W AC |
| RAID Controllers | One internal controller at a time: SATA interposer (AHCI, up to 8 SATA, slots 1-8); Cisco 12G RAID controller (up to 10 SAS/SATA, RAID 0/1/5/6/10); Cisco 12G SAS HBA (JBOD/pass-through, up to 10 drives) |
| Networking Options | 2x 10Gbase-T LOM + 1GbE mgmt; mLOM: VIC 1467 quad 10/25G SFP28 (UCSC-M-V25), VIC 1477 dual 40/100G QSFP28 (UCSC-M-V100); PCIe: VIC 1455 quad 10/25G, VIC 1495 dual 40/100G; OCP-style 25G/100G NIC options (UCSC-O-N6CD25GF/N6CD100GF) |
| Specification Source | Cisco official documentation (verified 2026-07-02) |
Upgrade Storage
Moving from spinning disk to SSD or NVMe storage provides the largest single performance improvement — often 10-50x faster I/O. Consider NVMe for boot drives and high-IOPS workloads.
Cisco 1.2-TB 12G 10K 2.5 SAS HDD
Cisco 1.6TB 2.5" SFF Enterprise Performance 12Gb/s SAS SSD (3X DWPD)
Cisco 1.6TB 2.5" U.2 NVMe Intel P5600 High Perf Medium Endurance SSD
Cisco 1.6TB 2.5" U.2 NVMe Intel P5620 High Perf High Endurance (3X) SSD
Cisco 1.6TB NVMe High Perf SSD 2.5"
Cisco 1.6TB NVMe SFF 2.5" Intel 3 DWPD High Endurance
Upgrade Power & Cooling
This category provides verified compatible upgrade paths. ICD engineers validate every part for compatibility with your specific server model and workload requirements.
Cisco 2811 Fan Kit CISCO2811 Fan Kit
Cisco 36076 04 Cooling Fan for UCS C240 M3
Cisco Air Duct for Intel 5TH Gen Xeon Processors (C220 M7)
Cisco C5020 Fan Fan Module for Nexus 5020 Series
Cisco Catalyst 3850 Type 1 Replacement Fan Module
Cisco Catalyst 9300 Fan Tray
Upgrade Controllers
Upgrading your RAID controller enables faster disk I/O, larger cache, and support for newer drive technologies. Essential when adding NVMe or SAS-4 drives.
Cisco 12G Modular SAS 6-PORT HBA Controller Card (UCSC-SAS-M5HD)
Cisco 12G Modular SAS HBA Max 26 Drives for UCS C-series M5
Cisco 24G SAS HBA (Tri-Mode pass-through) for UCS C-Series M7
Cisco M6 12G SAS HBA 32 Drives for UCS C-series M6
Upgrade Processors
CPU upgrades deliver more cores and higher clock speeds. If your workload is CPU-bound (compilation, analytics, HPC), upgrading from 8-core to 16+ core processors provides significant throughput improvement.
Cisco Intel Xeon Gold 5315Y 3.2GHz 8-Core 12MB 140W Processor
Cisco Intel Xeon Gold 5317 3.0GHz 12-Core 18MB 150W Processor
Cisco Intel Xeon Gold 5318N 2.1GHz 24-Core 36MB 150W Processor
Cisco Intel Xeon Gold 5318S (3RD Gen Ice Lake) for C-series M6 Processor
Cisco Intel Xeon Gold 5318Y 2.1GHz 24-Core 36MB 165W Processor
Cisco Intel Xeon Gold 5320 2.2GHz 26-Core 39MB 185W Processor
Upgrade Memory
Memory is the most impactful upgrade for virtualization and database workloads. Upgrading from 64GB to 128GB or 256GB can dramatically improve VM density and application response times.
Cisco 128GB DDR4 LRDIMM 3200MHz 4DRx4 3DS Memory
Cisco 128GB DDR4 LRDIMM 3200MHz 4Rx4 Memory
Cisco 128GB DDR5 RDIMM 4800MHz 4Rx4 3DS ECC Memory
Cisco 128GB DDR5 RDIMM 4800MHz 4Rx4 Memory
Cisco 128GB DDR5 RDIMM 4800MHz 4Rx4 Memory (UCS X-Series)
Cisco 128GB DDR5 RDIMM 5600MHz 4Rx4 3DS ECC Memory
More UCS C220 M6 Resources
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