Which RAM is better?

[WxAxGxS]

Registered or Unbuffered DDR RAM?
Unbuffered is cheaper, yet I have heard it performs better.

 

[drewski]

take a peek here for a description of Registered memory.

Registered provides a bit more security for your data at the expense of speed. I believe they have extra circuitry to handle that. In addition, I don't think every Mobo will support Registered memory.

If you've just got a desktop system, go for the un-buffered, non-ECC memory. If you've got a mission critical server, go for the ECC + Registered.

 

[WxAxGxS]

So non-ECC is better than ECC for a desktop or is that just for hte sake of money?

 

[NelsonMuntz]

I think Drewski is right. The unbuffered memory is going to be compatible with more devices. I remember when the Athlons were new none of the motherboards supported ECC memory. Now there are some that only support ECC memory but those are pretty rare and they are multiprocessor systems. Almost all single processor systems support Non-ECC RAM and it is cheaper and faster. It's the only to go for me.

 

[Fencer128]

Non-ECC RAM will give you a small performance increase (speed) over ECC RAM. For a desktop computer the extra data integrity check provided by ECC RAM is not usually required (RAM errors seem to be rare), however a server will have a large memory size and will most likely be sending many copies of the same web page(for instance) from memory across the net. In this case the heavy use and reliance upon RAM means that ECC is worthwhile. Therefore 99% of desktops do not use ECC RAM as it is of minimal use to them (and also probably to you too). So, get unbuffered non-registered RAM unless you own a server or do critical work on your desktop.

Hope that helps.

Andy

 

[goul]

What does the EPoX 8K7A take?

 

[WxAxGxS]

ok, thank you