Is Crucial Registerred DDR slower than Unbuffered DDR?

[JmanSanDiego]

This is a scary thought for me.. I just purchased 512mb of Crucial PC2100 DDR Registered ECC memory for my Abit-KG-7 mobo which supports this format of memoy and now I've read that this memory type is SLOWER than it's cheaper unbuffered type...

Tell me this isn't true..

Jon

 

[John]

If it is slower, it is only going to be seen while running a benchmark. Unless you are running a mission critical server you do not need ECC memory.

 

[JmanSanDiego]

Well, my motherboard states that if you plan to use all four DIMM slots you must use Registered ECC type of memory.. I only bought two sticks but figured I may want to buy two more down the line so I went ahead and bought the "good stuff" now...

But I guess that MAYBE was a mistake.... Although from what you are telling me, it is a VERY small difference...

 

[Noriaki]

Registered and ECC are two separate things....

Registered (also called Buffered) vs Unbuffered, is for using large amounts of RAM in a single board.

Your board may require Registered modules to populate all the slots.

The speed difference should be negligable, if any.



ECC vs non-ECC.
ECC has better error correcting and checking, so it lowers the chance of a corruption, though the chances are quite small anyways.
ECC is both more expensive, and slower. But the slower is also very small.

Personally I go non-ECC since it's a bit cheaper, but ECC is not going to be significantly slower enough that you'll notice it. And it will be more stable, though probably not enough of a difference that you'll notice it.