L2 Cache EEC Enabled/Disabled?

Well, as far as I know, ECC check should give you high reliability, and you will using it when working on critical programs/information. I have never tested, but I remeber some "performance tips" around the net saying it should be disabled to run a little bit faster.

I think motherboards use to have this option. If I'm not wrong, my Epox 8KHA+ have it. I can check it tonight if you want. I will also look what the manual says.

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rofl.


<i>if <b>you know</b> <font color=white>you don't know<font color=black>, the way could be more easy ...

Well, probably my mobo's manual says the same as yours, but just in case:

" This control if the CPU's L2 Cache will support Error Checking and Correcting (ECC) " Also says the same performance drop, 2%-4%

Just for the definition, seems that the usual ECC done by RAM modules can also be done by the processor (suposing that the CPU supports it), at least with the data stored in the L2.

Hope this helps.

DIY: read, buy, test, learn, reward yourself!

Ya well, Do you know anyone who's had it disabled and was runnig the CPU and doing some intensive work. If so, did he experience any weird errors or crashes? All I'm saying is it help against memory errors, even if they are rare.

at last!
some info on ECC
<A HREF="http://www.rojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/New_BIOS_Guide/CPU_L2_Cache_ECC_Checking.htm" target="_new">http://www.rojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/New_BIOS_Guide/CPU_L2_Cache_ECC_Checking.htm</A>

interesting

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Hey, that's great! Well done.
But a question arises: current CPU (Intel Pentium 3 and 4, AMD Tbird and XP) are able to ECC L2? It's possible to run some program to know if a specific processor can handle it?

DIY: read, buy, test, learn, reward yourself!

I HAVE used ECC on my old comp (I'm still using the comp, but it's old now), but it only runs PC100 SDRAM. I don't even know if they have ECC DDR SDRAM. I think that you might be able to enable it on mobos targetted to workstations rather than desktops, as they would need it more. Specifically, I think that Registered modules are the only ones capable of enabliing it, and it won't work on Unregistered modules, but don't quote me on that, hopefully someone on here will be able to give you a little better idea as to whether or not that's true.

OK, here's the lowdown. I used it for over a year before I got a non-ECC memory module, which forces you to disable the feature. I was going from 128MB of SDRAM to 256MB, so I would guess that the performance I saw was from disabling that and getting more RAM at the same time. Regardless, there was a performance gain that was obvious to both me and a few of my friends who played on my computer regularly. Mind you that this was 2 years ago when it wasn't absolutely neccessary to have 256MB of RAM, and I still had Win98, which isn't able to utilize that much RAM as well as Win2k. I also didn't see any more or less errors after disabling the feature. I would disable it unless I had something important to work on. If I used the comp for sensitive documents that couldn't be corrupted, I might enable it. For you, my guess would be enjoy the sped without it.

OK, that should answer that question.

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You should still be able to use the cache ECC even if you don't have ECC RAM. Most of the systems I've played with have not had ECC RAM, but would still let you change the cache setting. And your RAM doesn't have to be registered, either. Registered RAM is a multiprocessor feature mostly, and can also let some single-cpu boards hold more memory. The exact usage of the registered chips escapes me at the moment. And they do still make the ECC in the DDR modules, as well as the RDRAM.

And that performance increase could have been from the 100% memory increase, or perhaps the cache ecc was interfering with another process in your system. In some setups, it can do more than a 4% impose on your CPU's power.

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indeed. that what the bios guides seem to be saying.

wonder if it would have helped with my tbird i fried from overclocking too high

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