I'm thinking about upgrading my system soon but I want it to be fully compatible with Windows Vista. I remember reading that Microsoft was recommending using ECC RAM in all Vista based systems to ensure stability with its new power management features. Since then I haven't seen any more discussion on the subject. Also, the current motherboards that will support Core 2 Duo don't appear to support ECC either. Did Microsoft decide ECC wasn't necessary or will I be kicking myself for not buying a motherboard with ECC support? :?: :?:

I think they were talking out of their ass a little on that one.

While it is certainly true that ecc ram will add stability to your machine, it is pretty unlikey that mobo manufacturers are going to implement ecc on desktop boards anytime soon. ecc is vital for servers and workstaions that run mission critical applications, where reliably = money.

If your desktop crashes while you are workin on something, its a pain, but it probably wont result in large sums of cash being lost. furthermore desktop boxes dont normally run the 8-32 gbs of ram enterprise machines do, so it doesnt add that much stability. on top of that ecc ram adds latency and is more expensive than non ecc ram. there really is no demand in the market for ecc. no one wants to spend extra on ecc products for consumer use, if no one will buy it.

there may come a time when ecc ram or perhaps future versions of fb-dimm could become commonplace on the desktop, but there would have to be a real requirement for mobo manufacturers, chipset producers, oem assemblers, and consumers to swallow the extra cost of ecc.

Good excuse for buggy software imho …. Blame it on the memory !!!

Don't worry too much about vista. I tried it for 3 days, and removed it from my system. It's too big (3-4 gigabytes), doesn't work with nero suite, didn't work well with my internet browser program, and seems slower then previous windows, even with 2 gigs of memory. I'm sure the final version will work better, but I'm not buying it. It's overkill.

No way in hell Microsoft are gona start making us use server grade components to run their OS.

People are starting to see that using server parts such as Opterons (a la PowerPC in Mac) is a great way to have a stable base - as well as overclocking like a b!atch - but that's just enthusiasts; I doubt very much Dell with it's new AMD deal are going to start building Opteron-equipped Dimensions any time soon.

Theres no way Microsoft are suddenly going to force people to run a server as a home PC in order to run Vista.