Is ECC really necessary?

[gadhero]

I'm building a P4 1.5Ghz machine on a Asus P4T with 512mb 800Mhz memory(4x 128mb). Would ECC memory make any difference in performance? Or is it just for reliability? There isn't too much of a difference in price between ECC and non-ECC, so I was gearing towards the ECC sticks. Any suggestions/comments?

Thanks

 

[aberant]

Well, ECC has an ever so slight performance cost, but we're talking tiny here - and compared to the extra reliability it gives, i'd say stick with ECC. just my two penneth

 

[Davegod75]

performance down.
stability/reliability up

 

[HansXP]

You won't notice the performance difference, but you probably won't notice much (if any) stability difference. If you have the money, I'd get ECC.

 

[AndyHui]

Read the FAQ Article on this issue.

 

[shathal]

As long as you don't have a server, ECC isn't really necessary. It's a "nice" feature that may well prevent the odd-crash or so from occuring (when you would have a single-bit error that would cause your system to collapse). But that's reasonably rare - so not something I would worry about normally. Not on a "normal" desktop at any rate.

If you're worried about uptime & stability (i.e.: decide to (ab)use the P4 as a server, then go for ECC) .