What are the different types of RAM?

[hardware_guy]

This might be a newbie question, but I needed this information as I am building my first PC. What is the difference between EEC, Non-EEC and Non-EEC Unbuffered memory?

[TheNinjaNextDor]

 

Not quite what you wanted, but just get regular non EEC RAM.

[hawthorne]

EEC is error correcting ram, this is used in server computers and is not recommended for gaming. 

[Guest]

Don't worry about ECC; you don't need it, you can't use it, and you won't have any use for it.

 

ECC only applies to CPUs and chipsets that support it, for example all Xeons and their respective Cxxx chipsets. All memory is prone to errors, and ECC helps prevent the problems that might result from this by self-checking. The self-check ability is enabled by the inclusion of a separate controller onto the DIMM, which is bad for gaming/general usage because it makes your RAM slower by adding latency. Plus ECC RAM is super expensive. ECC-registered RAM is also called "buffered" RAM.

 

Regular RAM is non-ECC, unbuffered RAM. That's the kind you want.