Xeon E5-2670 v2 ES and non-ECC RAM

[theeloguy]

Hello,

Does the Xeon E5-2670 v2 work with non-ECC un-buffered RAM?

Does the Xeon E5-2670 v2 ES QDNR L1 stepping work with non-ECC un-buffered RAM?

I think non-ECC un-buffered RAM should work with both, but i was told it doesnt work on ES CPUs. Anyone has some knowledge on this?
I know 8 cores Sandy Bridge ES CPUs work with non-ECC un-buffered RAM. Could it be different with the new IB ES CPUs?

Thanks.

 

[Cerb]

For a retail/OEM CPU, the limitation would be the motherboard. For the ES...hardly anybody has ES CPUs, much less Xeon E5 ES CPUs. Hopefully you didn't buy an ES...

 

[HeavyClocker]

I believe they work.I'm also using a ES Xeon with NON-ECC GSkill rams

 

[DigDog]

i feel the need to point out here that ECC ram is cheaper than dirt on ebay.

 

[Morbus]

It's cheaper than dirt everywhere, really.

I don't like it because it's marginally slower.

 

[theeloguy]

Thanks for the answers, they dont need ECC for single socket, but they do for dual socket mobos

 

[Micrornd]

SB and IB ES xeons and production SB and IB xeons all work with non-ecc ram in either single, dual, or quad sockets.

If you were told different, that would be a source of advice to avoid in the future.

Using ecc reg. memory does allow them to use about (generally, but not always) 2-4 times as much memory in most boards.

This is all part of the design of this series' memory controller to encourage xeon usage rather than consumer chips (finally after years of user requests).
This has been one of the selling/marketing points, as many feel ram is of such a higher quality these days, that ecc and the speed penalty that comes with it are no longer needed as it was a decade ago.

 

[Cerb]

SB and IB ES xeons and production SB and IB xeons all work with non-ecc ram in either single, dual, or quad sockets.

If you were told different, that would be a source of advice to avoid in the future.

Using ecc reg. memory does allow them to use about (generally, but not always) 2-4 times as much memory in most boards.

This is all part of the design of this series' memory controller to encourage xeon usage rather than consumer chips (finally after years of user requests).
This has been one of the selling/marketing points, as many feel ram is of such a higher quality these days, that ecc and the speed penalty that comes with it are no longer needed as it was a decade ago.

I think you've got it mixed up. Actually, since at least the publishing date of Google's RAM study, I am 100% confident of that. The speed penalty is zilch, and the user requests are for the consumer chips and chipsets to also support ECC (but we won't mind if they leave registered RAM to server-only parts).

 

[Micrornd]

I think you've got it mixed up. Actually, since at least the publishing date of Google's RAM study, I am 100% confident of that. The speed penalty is zilch, and the user requests are for the consumer chips and chipsets to also support ECC (but we won't mind if they leave registered RAM to server-only parts).

Yeah, my context was not good, what I meant for it to read as was -
"This is all part of the design of this series' memory controller to encourage xeon usage, rather than consumer chips for servers and workstations (finally after years of user requests).
This has been one of the selling/marketing points, as many feel ram is of such a higher quality these days, that ecc and the speed penalty that comes with it are no longer as needed as it was a decade ago."

Funny how it can be perfectly clear in your head and muddy when you get it in print

Yes, I agree the speed penalty has been reduced to a negligible amount with DDR3 and will be totally gone with the next shift to DDR4, if for no other reason than the sheer speed of the ram chips.

Multi-socket workstation users have been asking for xeons and chipsets that didn't require ecc since DDR2, when Intel hinted they would consider it IF the marketplace felt the need for it, and more realistically, the competition gained enough ground in that arena.

I haven't seen any consumer demand for ecc supporting chips and chipsets though.
At least none beyond the (relatively) few sales of consumer single socket X79S/C606 based boards.
Where are you seeing this consumer demand for ecc?

From what I've seen most consumers all seem to think there is still a huge speed penalty and a premium price difference with ecc, and since realistically, nothing they really do matters enough for ecc, they didn't care.
That and the quality of ram has improved so much that ecc isn't the factor in stability it once was.

But you're still going to need registered ram for maximum ram chip count for the next 2 gens of DDR4 based stuff from what I've seen. However, I doubt that will have any noticeable impact on either server or consumer markets as the next gen DDR4 memory controllers will go 128 to 256gb without registered.

 

[Cerb]

Where are you seeing this consumer demand for ecc?

Where are the parts? With the machine cost being generally $150+ over regular, there isn't demand, but market segmentation by the suppliers. It needs to be only the $20-30 for the RAM. There was for a short period of time for it, prior to Nehalem, with Phenom IIs on AM-series sockets, but now AMD can barely even give away desktop/mobile CPUs.

That and the quality of ram has improved so much that ecc isn't the factor in stability it once was.

It rarely was a factor in stability, as far as I recall, at least in PCs. It's a factor in knowing data correctness or not, which is well-handled everywhere by the RAM.