Can someone give me the pro's and con's of ECC Registered Memory ?

[KingLeo]

Can someone give me the pro's and con's of ecc registered memory. I got myself two sticks for 80$ from a CL deal ?

 

[SuperNaruto]

can you even use it ? ecc registered wont boot on normal pc... ecc are usually slightly slower..

 

[Aluvus]

Pro: It can correct (some) errors, ensuring they don't cause problems later on.

Con: It will be somewhat slower.

 

[KingLeo]

what about if I team it up with ecc registered memory that I have on a current server but it's not the same speed one is ddr2 667 the other is ddr2 400. I don't think it will work .

 

[Roguestar]

I don't think that will work. ECC memory is much more pedantic about wanting identical sticks, etc, from what I'm led to believe.

 

[BladeVenom]

The benefit is that you'll no longer have to fear cosmic rays. The downside is that it's slower and more expensive.

 

[Steve]

ECC = Error Checking & Correction. Extra chip(s) to help detect and correct errors, usually caused by bits flipped over from cosmic particles.

Registered is an electrical difference, in this case the extra chip(s) isolate/reduce the electrical load on the memory bus, so you can use more DIMMs per channel.

It is possible to have DIMMs that are ECC and unbuffered (not registered), and you can also have RAM that is registered and not ECC.

In order to make use of either, your board's BIOS and chipset (or else memory controller) must support these. Also, it's sometimes possible to use ECC RAM in a non-ECC board, as the board will simply ignore the unknown feature. However, registered RAM can only be used in boards supporting that feature.

 

[Lemon law]

Its actually easy to tell which is which---just count the large black chips on the ram module---if its even dividable by 3 or 9---its ecc. If not its non-ecc.

In terms of the dreaded cosmic ray--I ran across a claim on the corsair web site that
this will happen at random roughly once every 750 hours of operation.

 

[Zepper]

You can get ECC and registered features separately. Used to be that ECC support was in the mobo chipset now it can be either place. Intel based mobos used to more commonly support ECC to the user. Only the Via chipsets for AMD (and AMD's own chipset back when they made one dor Sock-A) supported ECC, but often the mobo maker didn't pass the feature thru to the user mainly to reduce support problems. All the 64 bit AMD processors handle memory management and ECC within the CPU now so theoretically it could be available on all such systems - but the Enable/Disable option needs to be included in the BIOS setup and some don't. Generally even if ECC isn't supported by the mobo, the modules will work and ECC will be ignored. Registered is usually reserved to mobos that have numerous RAM sockets and has to be implemented in the mobo chipset and architecture. What it does is line up all memory accesses with the edge of the waveform so that timing issues are rendered moot. ECC can be a bit slower and registered is significantly slower than normal modules. Registered modules usually won't work at all on mobos that don't support it.

I think I've seen ECC and registered memory support on some normal (meaning non-server grade) mobos lately but usually registered is seen on server mobos with 6, 8 or more RAM sockets. If I was running RAID 0, I'd definitely want ECC memory. To be sure what modules work with your mobo, use the memory selector at top brand memory sites like Crucial. They will generally list all the types of modules that they carry that will work with your mobo. If the feature is not listed there, don't buy it.

.bh.

 

[0roo0roo]

wonder how many more % stable a ecc system is in general?

 

[Rubycon]

Originally posted by: sm8000
ECC = Error Checking & Correction. Extra chip(s) to help detect and correct errors, usually caused by bits flipped over from cosmic particles.

In the old days bit flips were occurring even in well shielded rooms at sea level! The culprit? Trace amounts of radium in the lead solder was bombarding the chips with alpha particles! :Q