ECC or Not ECC... that is the question

Post by **TSR2** » 13 Dec 2006, 16:50

Anyonesuggest is it worth going for ECC (error checking) memory over non ECC stuff.

New MB has arrived so the next month I'm going to buy the memory for it (component per month sort of thing) :roll:

Quixoticish · Post by **Quixoticish** » 13 Dec 2006, 17:35

ECC will slow you down a little, (all of 2%), so if you aren't running something that requires the error checking and correcting circuitry I wouldn't bother. It's just extra money for something you aren't ever going to use at the end of the day and the failure rate for non ECC and ECC are so similar that unless it was for a high end system running something incredibly important it isn't really worth it.

ianhind · Post by **ianhind** » 13 Dec 2006, 21:49

Doesn't it also depend whether the motherboard will take either/both?

Ok, so I'm running ancient hardware here, but at least one motherboard doesn't recognise ECC RAM.

Has that changed with the latest chipsets?

Quixoticish · Post by **Quixoticish** » 13 Dec 2006, 21:56

ianhind wrote:Doesn't it also depend whether the motherboard will take either/both?

Ok, so I'm running ancient hardware here, but at least one motherboard doesn't recognise ECC RAM.

Has that changed with the latest chipsets?

Every motherboard I've had supports both, although there are some on the market that won't support ECC.

Post by **TSR2** » 13 Dec 2006, 22:48

The new board does support both, so I'll go with the non-ecc. The board..

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductI ... tID=459241

P5WDG2 WS Professional

I chose the board as I need a PCI - X 133 Mhz slot for my U320 SCSI RAID card. The board has a good mix of technology and supports the latest intel quad cores too so should be ok.