Memory ?'s ECC? Registered Dimm?

[oneye]

Hey all,

Looking to get some 256mb dimms for a PC133 machine, non-overclocked (for now at least) machine which will be run as a test-bed webserver/file server. Im looking at PC133 memory from crucial but they are listing CL2, CL2 ECC and CL2 ECC "Registered" DIMMS all within around $10 of each other. Is getting ECC or ECC registered going to do me any good? Can anyone explain or link me an explanation of what the benefits will be of going to Registered Dimms?

much thanks on any help,
oneye

prices I am looking at Crucial price list

 

[AndyHui]

Registered DIMMs only work on motherboards that require Registered memory.

ECC is Error Checking and Correction. Normally RAM is reliable enough these days not to need it and is certainly not required in standard desktop systems, where it incurs a very small performance penalty. ECC RAM is normally used in servers, where data integrity is more important that a minor hit to performance. f there is not much price difference between standard SDRAM and ECC SDRAM, and you are going to use it in a server, you should look at getting the ECC SDRAM.