Non-ECC Compatible Motherboard

[Kipper]

I'm in the market for a new motherboard after my old one croaked, and I've been looking at ASUS boards. It was brought to my attention that some of them aren't ECC compatible, and since I plan on sticking 512 MB of PC2100 into it, I was wondering if anybody had had BAD experience with non-compatible boards, whether or not they booted up. I've heard stories all across the board, ranging from the fact that the board recognized it as non-ECC and used it as if it were regular PC2100, to where it won't boot up at all.

Any input? Thanks.

 

[Vette73]

I was working on a Asus nForce board and it would not boot with a slab of my Reg. ECC ram in it.

But that was just one board. I THINK Via chipsets may be able to use it as Reg. DDR ram, but wait for someone else to write in.

What kind of Ram is it, i.e Chip maker and PCB maker and is it a single 512 slab??

 

[Kipper]

We're looking at PC2100 ECC Registered, Crucial. Micron chips, obviously. 2x256. The board will probably be an ASUS A7X333 (hope I got that model # right). Will a simple bios update fix it or should I trade these for standard non-parity chips? I had an EPoX 8k7a previously, which supported the ECC...

Edit: Apparently it's unbuffered, so that opens my choices up a bit. Thanks for all the help.

 

[mechBgon]

A7V333, right? Its manual says it will only take unbuffered modules. Considering that the board will run the 333MHz-bus AthlonXPs that are coming out (or overclock to that level with the current ones), this may be a good time to get some PC2700 or faster while you're at it.

 

[Kipper]

I don't plan on OCing this system, nor can I buy the RAM because I'm on a budget.

If possible I'd like to use my current RAM with the board...oh well. I guess I'll have to invest in some PC2100...

 

[Kazuo]

I don't plan on OCing this system, nor can I buy the RAM because I'm on a budget.

If possible I'd like to use my current RAM with the board...oh well. I guess I'll have to invest in some PC2100...

Overclocking has nothing to do with getting PC2700 RAM. It's just faster, you can run the CPU and the RAM asynchronously (like Durons could run PC133).
Plus, should you ever decide to upgrade, you'll need PC2700 RAM to go with a 333FSB AthlonXP. SDRAM won't run slower than the CPU (as far as I know). So PC2700 is a good choice to keep you safe from having this problem again in the future.
Also, if you're not getting PC2700 RAM, you don't need anything with a KT333 chipset or the like, do you? So you might as well go with the cheaper KT266A or SiS 735 boards.

 

[Kipper]

First off:

I'm responding to mechBgon's comment, "or overclock to that level with the current ones...". I wasn't "unclear" on anything that was posted at all.

Secondly, I realize that the PC2700 will be compatible with the new CPU's which are coming out. That has nothing to do with it. If I'm gonna dump around $100 into a board, I figure it might as well have some expandability with it. That involves getting on which is CAPABLE of higher speeds, but it doesn't mean I have to dump the cash into it right away (and I don't have that cash). So the bottom line is: no, I'm not getting the new memory. But I might have the money in less than three months or so for a new CPU and RAM. In that case, it would be in my best interest in terms of upgradability to be a KT333 or even KT400A (sp?) -based board.

But as of now, I still need something which will run my ECC sticks, regardless of whether or not they run with the ECC or not.

 

[Peter]

Careful, guys. "Registered" and "ECC" are separate things.

ECC means the DIMM has a data word width of 72 bits (as opposed to the normal 64) for error detection and correction redundancy. Chipsets that don't support ECC simply will leave those extra eight bits unused.

Registered DIMMs have extra hardware on (the register chips) that reduce the electrical load imposed by the DIMM onto the address lines of the mainboard. To use these, you need a chipset that knows how to serve the register chips. Normal "unbuffered" DIMMs hook the SDRAM chips directly to the mainboard's memory bus.

So BIOS stubbornnesses aside, a DIMM being ECC shouldn't hold a non-ECC-capable chipset back. However, you need to choose the electrically correct kind (standard Unbuffered, or server-grade Registered) supported by the chipset.

regards, Peter

 

[Kipper]

Thank you VERY much for making that clear. It was pretty confusing, even reading Crucial's site, going through Google searches, etc. You made it nice and simple.

Looks like I'm now in the market for new RAM.

Edit: Just checked the part # with Crucial, turned out it's unbuffered ECC. Crucial's registered ECC has a sideways chip which goes lengthwise, instead of the nine which I have vertically arranged. I'll have to order a board and just pray it works.