DDR ECC vs Non-ECC

[polaris]

Question
DDR ECC - what are the advantages/uses for this type over NON-ECC DDR ? (PC2100 DDR266)
Want to use my sys for games/internet/CAD - which is more suitable and any cost/benefit opinions people have would be real useful (and No - I'm not going for RDRAM)
Even a site/review that compared the two would be great.
My planned sys is going to be
AMD TB 1.2c
ASUS A7A266
GF2 GTS
Enermax 450W
Deskstar 40GB HD
256-512MB DDR (probably 3 x 128MB)

Thanx a meg


If you don’t like my driving - get off the footpath!<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by polaris on 05/13/01 11:44 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

ECC = Error Code Check

This type of memory is safer to use, as it can auto-correct simple memory errors on the fly. Of course, it costs you some performance but not much, usually about 2% or so. Still, since nowadays memory errors are rare, you probably don't need ECC memory unless you run mission-critical server applications where you absolutely cannot afford to skip a beat.

Leo

P.S. A minor note. ECC memory is usually also registered. Some motherboards can support more registered memory than non-registered one. But that's quite rare. The only example I know is the older version of K7 Master, the one with 4 DIMM slots, now taken out of production. You cannot use more than two non-registered DIMMs there, but can use full four of registered ones.

 

[Guest]

Polaris,

Not too sure how relevent this will be to you, but I have an Asus A7A266 motherboard, 1000mhz AMD Athlon processor, GF2 mx (hercules), WD 40gig Ata 100 harddrive, and an enermax pwr supply and i'm running 128mb stick of pc2100.
The damn thing was flaky as hell until I underclocked the fsb to 132mhz. It seems like it was the non-ecc pc2100 stick that was the cause of the problem, though I'm not sure whether the fact that it's non-ecc mattered.

 

[Spdy_Gonzales]

http://www.mushkin.com/cgi-bin/Mushkin.filereader?3aff50fb1b6120c227400a00010205af+EN/products/990587#six

<b> Help stamp out reality </font color=orange>

 

[Guest]

Well, it could be the quality of your memory stick. It does depend on how it was manufactured. Micron Crucial PC1600 (yes, even PC1600) runs stable at 150 MHz bus settings.

Leo

 

[rcf84]

I would never use anything but ECC. Im like my system safe and secure.

The only nice Intel guy.