Can you mix ECC and non-ECC ram?

[Hobbes28]

I have some pieces and parts and thought about throwing together a spare box and had a question...

Can you mix Micron PC100 ECC SDRAM and Kingston PC100 non-ECC SDRAM on a MSI K7TPro2-A (KT133A) motherboard? I know the Kingston works in this motherboard but I did not want to risk putting the ECC SDRAM in without checking first.

Thanks in advance...

 

[Hobbes28]

Bump to the first page...

I don't wanna blow anything up.

 

[mpbruin108]

Generally, you should be able to mix the 2 types but the ecc would be deactivated and work like non-ecc. I read this somewhere but anyone feel free to correct me as I have not personally mixed the two before. In any case, I doubt you'll blow anything up. Worst is that the system won't boot up with non compatible ram.

 

[mechBgon]

I've mixed the two types on an old Intel i440LX-based board and it has a POST comment that the ECC feature is not supported, but the memory still works in non-ECC mode. Not sure if your KT133A board has this trait, or what will happen if you try it. If you want, you could use this as an excuse to upgrade to some CL2 PC133, I suppose...

 

[Lonyo]

I also saw somewhere you could mix the two types and make them both work like non ECC stuff would, so yes as people said, you should be fine

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I have a stick of 256mbCrucial 2100DDR ECC im my 8K3A with a 128mb stick of regular unbuffered Crucial 2100DDR and they are running@166mhz, 2.6v and stable. As the others stated, the ECC function just isn't utilized when regular memory is installed with it.

 

[CaptnKirk]

Anybody yet try to stuff un-buffered 256DDR into the 4th stack on an ABIT? Anything happen?

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