Geek Help - ECC Memory

[crokett]

I prolly should know this already but..

I have a line on some ECC memory at a very good price for the NAS box I am considering. It is the price that is the attraction, not the ECC part. That is just a bonus. Assuming the memory meets the other specs of what ever motherboard I get, does it require a special BIOS to run ECC or is that just part of the memory?

[jonmulzer]

What motherboard? What memory? What is a good price. The best answer anyone can give you without the first two is, it depends. I can think of both examples, motherboards that would and others that would not, back in the DDR days. Need more info.

[TheChief]

If the chosen motherboard touts support for ECC memory, by default its BIOS should support it as well.

MB's aimed at the desktop/workstation market usually have ECC support disabled by default (ECC memory will still work, it just won't use certain features to detect/correct bit errors). This tends to make the system run a little faster.

For server applications you might want to enter BIOS setup and enable ECC for reliability over speed. Depending on the MB there may be few or many ECC options. In most cases the defaults will be good.

[LinuxRandal]

ECC is hardware related. My father (out of the hospital after 6 weeks, still recovering), passed along a story. The more chips as he says, the more capability. Typically one chip is error checking only, where they system stops. Two chips (or more) does the correcting and continues on.

His story was about his "38 hour day". They had a machine that was locking up when it was bringing up its web/network stuff. It was finally determined that the memory, physically compatible, was not wired compatible (risc memory in a microchannel type machine).

So the moral is, even if the memory is physically compatible, it may not work.

[crokett]

What motherboard? What memory? What is a good price.

A good price is free, or nearly so. I know it is ECC SDRAM, I think PC4100. I care less about the ECC and more about the price. I'd get whatever motherboard is compatible with the memory but don't necessarily need the ECC support if I have to pay more. Sounds like it should work ok, just that the ECC support might not be there.

[jonmulzer]

A good price is free, or nearly so. I know it is ECC SDRAM, I think PC4100. I care less about the ECC and more about the price. I'd get whatever motherboard is compatible with the memory but don't necessarily need the ECC support if I have to pay more. Sounds like it should work ok, just that the ECC support might not be there.

Not always. Some chipsets will not work at all with ECC. RAM is cheap. I would pick up the motherboard I wanted and base all other decisions around that.

That being said, my WAG would suppose that MOST motherboards would work. Murphy usually proves otherwise though.

Also, SDRAM tells us very little. Nearly all RAM has been SDRAM since the early to mid 90's. SDR through current DDR4 are all SDRAM.

[crokett]

I may just skip the whole thing and buy new. Tiger Direct has a barebones kit (case, ps, mobo CPU and 1GB RAM) for 150.00 All I'd need is a couple HDDs. I remember building my first PC. I paid 1100.00 for a Pentuim 133 with 128MB RAM and 100MB HDD. I also had a modem in it, no high-speed then.

[jonmulzer]

That is probably a really good idea. If you have the capability to put your own computer together, go for it. What OS are you going to use? I was kind of wondering why you were splitting hairs over the cheapest part of the build.

[cgallery]

Desktop boards with Intel chipsets typically don't support ECC. Desktop boards with AMD chipsets (some AMD CPU support) DO.

I'm torn when it comes to ECC. Modern RAM is soooo reliable it seems like bits never flip. OTOH, if ECC isn't too expensive, then it is nice peace of mind.

[JSUPreston]

I may just skip the whole thing and buy new. Tiger Direct has a barebones kit (case, ps, mobo CPU and 1GB RAM) for 150.00 All I'd need is a couple HDDs. I remember building my first PC. I paid 1100.00 for a Pentuim 133 with 128MB RAM and 100MB HDD. I also had a modem in it, no high-speed then.

Okay, how young are you? The first machine I built was a 386DX-40. Got the BB kit from the back pages of a Computer Shopper magazine (for you real young guys, it was like computer pron back in the day). During the course of that year, I bought 4MB RAM, a 250GB HD and a 16k VGA card. I was the envy of my friends.

[crokett]

Okay, how young are you?.

That was the first machine I built, not the first I used. The first I used was a TRS-80 that my dad brought home.

As far as the OS question, unRAID is Linux based. So I guess it is running linux, but it is a highly customized version of it. The memory question is also moot. I found a Dell PowerEdge server for free. I will have to get couple larger HDDs for it, but it should work fine.

[cgallery]

Okay, how young are you? The first machine I built was a 386DX-40. Got the BB kit from the back pages of a Computer Shopper magazine (for you real young guys, it was like computer pron back in the day). During the course of that year, I bought 4MB RAM, a 250GB HD and a 16k VGA card. I was the envy of my friends.

I've got you beat. Mine was an H11 (PDP-11/40).

And I'll bet there are some people here that can beat that.

[JSUPreston]

David, just givin' ya a little grief. Only reason why I built my own was that I couldn't afford one all at once while in college. Only reason why I wanted one was for my music arranging classes. Now, here I am the network admin at my shop...never finished the music classes.

I figure you and I are probably about the same age. I just recently started the downhill slide towards 40. BTW: The first one I ever used was the C64 at K-Mart, followed very closely by the Apple II series.

[LinuxRandal]

The memory question is also moot. I found a Dell PowerEdge server for free. I will have to get couple larger HDDs for it, but it should work fine.

Ah, Moot OS, I've been watching that site for a few years, LOL.

You guys are making me feel old. I don't even want to go into my pc (yes it means personal computer) experiences. Remember the serial interface, that hooked to a device, that typed your keys on the typewiter?

[jackellis]

I bought 4MB RAM, a 250GB HD and a 16k VGA card. I was the envy of my friends.

I'll bet you were. GB capacity hard drives weren't even available then
I bought my first 5 GB hard drive back in 1993 or so, for $1500!
!