to ecc or not to ecc?

[Crellion101]

i accidentally posted this in the wrong forum... but now it's in the right one (i hope) anyways.... i heard with rd-ram there are two types ones with ecc and ones without ecc. now i have a hp pavalion 9870 wihch uses the old pc-600 rd-ram... now i want to upgrade to 512 mb... so how do u know which memorytype will work for me... can i use pc-800 memory... and how do i find out if need ecc or non-ecc memory. please respond. thanx for reading guys.

 

[Storm]

Originally posted by: Crellion101
i accidentally posted this in the wrong forum... but now it's in the right one (i hope) anyways.... i heard with rd-ram there are two types ones with ecc and ones without ecc. now i have a hp pavalion 9870 wihch uses the old pc-600 rd-ram... now i want to upgrade to 512 mb... so how do u know which memorytype will work for me... can i use pc-800 memory... and how do i find out if need ecc or non-ecc memory. please respond. thanx for reading guys.

Theres a great tool called google when I entered "Hp Pavilion 9870"
I got a link to this
You might be able to get a better deal at pricewatch
Be sure to use resellerratings to check the feedback from other customers of online merchants.

I dont know any specific places to buy rd-ram off the top of my head. Maybe www.newegg.com

But to make sure your hp pavilion can use that type of ram check hp

 

[Smilin]

ECC (Error correcting) memory is generally used for servers. It runs just a tad slower than non-ecc memory but is a little bit more stable. Generally speaking if you don't really know what ECC is or don't have a specific reason to use it you should stick with non-ecc.

 

[HumbleFish]

I used ecc pc100 memory once and it would cut about 6 fps off my games; and didn't seem to make my system anymore stable... I'd say save your money and get the non-ecc.

 

[Zepper]

I always use ECC RAM if the mobo supports it, and many Intel-based mobos do (look in your BIOS setup). Many mobos that support ECC will allow you to enable/disable it in the BIOS setup, so you can get back your 6fps if you really need it and still have the "belt and suspenders" for serious work. I've been wondering for a while if there is some utility that can tell you if the ECC ever catches and corrects a memory error. I imagine that would be hard to do without slowing the machine down a great deal. But I've never had a problem that I could trace to memory errors (unless I'm OC'd too much ). ECC usually doesn't cost much more than standard - go for it!
.bh.