Opteron 165 RAM requirements

[issaid]

Hello all, and thanks in advance.

I am looking to make an Apache/MySQL box and am leaning towards the Opteron 165.
I have found a Tyan S2865 MB from ZipZoomFly that seems to meet all my needs. I am a little unclear about what RAM I need though. The board supports both Non-ECC and ECC RAM. Is it basically that I need ECC if I load an Opty in there, and if it's Just an Athalon, Non-ECC. If the Opty can use Non-ECC RAM, what is the consequence in doing this.

Also what perf diff could I expect if I bump Ram from 1GB to 2GB. I'm not expecting much for a web server(~250,000 hits/day).

 

[jonspd]

Nothing most people are using non ecc ram with there opty's afaik.

 

[ribbon13]

Both A64s and Opterons support ECC, and neither require it. It's just one extra safety measure for industrial PCs.

 

[issaid]

Thanks, I just wasn't sure. For some reason I thought it was required. Do you think 1GB of RAM is enough.

I also have a new question also, I was looking at getting a WD Raptor 74GB. But some people are telling me its a waste on a webserver. This isn't a fancy box really, probably dropping ~1,000.

Thanks again.

 

[w00t]

one gig is enough for most but if you do want to get a gig make sure you get a one gig stick instead of two 512mb which would prevent you from getting two gigs later on. The AMD64 & Opteron's have a built in memory controller on the chip, but it does not support more than two sticks of ram.

 

[ub3rnewb]

It does support >2 sticks, just not at a 1T rate.

 

[w00t]

Originally posted by: ub3rnewb
It does support >2 sticks, just not at a 1T rate.

the memory controller is not ment to support more than two sticks you can use more than two its just bad for the memory controller and ussually adds more heat also as you states you have to run it at 2T which is bad performance.