ECC Memory Compatibility- Xeon E5-2670

[v-raze]

Okay, so I'm building a workstation with a Xeon E5-2670 processor and a Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 motherboard. Obviously the Xeon supports ECC RAM, but the motherboard does not. I would like to use ECC DDR3 for this build because it is far cheaper, and because the error correction would be beneficial for my client's workload.

 

Would ECC memory work with this configuration? I wouldn't really mind if the actual error correction was disabled because of the price advantage. But will it even function properly? I've heard that DDR2 ECC will usually work with unsupported boards/processors but with the ECC function disabled, does this hold true for DDR3?

 

Thanks for the help.

[LabRat]

buy standard DDr3 1600 ram.

[v-raze]

2 minutes ago, LabRat said:

buy standard DDr3 1600 ram.

Here's the point:   .

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here's you. I think you may have missed.

[LabRat]

i don't know what the hell that means but I run 1333 on my xeon build and have had ZERO problems for years.

 

 If you're that worried about it buy a proper server board.

[v-raze]

3 minutes ago, LabRat said:

i don't know what the hell that means but I run 1333 on my xeon build and have had ZERO problems for years.

 

 If you're that worried about it buy a proper server board.

*facepalm*

I'm not buying ECC RAM because I need error correction. I said that in my original post. I want it because it's cheaper, I just need to know if it will work at all. As I said, I don't really mind if the ECC functionality is disabled.

[Syntaxvgm]

23 minutes ago, LabRat said:

buy standard DDr3 1600 ram.

 

18 minutes ago, LabRat said:

i don't know what the hell that means but I run 1333 on my xeon build and have had ZERO problems for years.

 

 If you're that worried about it buy a proper server board.

Lol '1333' is not a type of memory, it's a speed. The keyword here is ECC

42 minutes ago, v-raze said:

Okay, so I'm building a workstation with a Xeon E5-2670 processor and a Gigabyte GA-X79-UD3 motherboard. Obviously the Xeon supports ECC RAM, but the motherboard does not. I would like to use ECC DDR3 for this build because it is far cheaper, and because the error correction would be beneficial for my client's workload.

 

Would ECC memory work with this configuration? I wouldn't really mind if the actual error correction was disabled because of the price advantage. But will it even function properly? I've heard that DDR2 ECC will usually work with unsupported boards/processors but with the ECC function disabled, does this hold true for DDR3?

 

Thanks for the help.

 

13 minutes ago, v-raze said:

*facepalm*

I'm not buying ECC RAM because I need error correction. I said that in my original post. I want it because it's cheaper, I just need to know if it will work at all. As I said, I don't really mind if the ECC functionality is disabled.

I think whether it's buffered ECC will affect this. I think , and this is based on what I've heard, buffered ECC will NOT work but registered ECC memory MIGHT work, or at least I've heard the latter claimed to work. 

I would wait for a more definitive opinion than mine before buying it, I've never actually tried it

[juretrn]

If the motherboard does not support ECC, then don't buy ECC, duh.

[LabRat]

CMON SYNTAX..................... DUH!

[Syntaxvgm]

3 minutes ago, juretrn said:

If the motherboard does not support ECC, then don't buy ECC, duh.

That's certainly safest. 

3 minutes ago, LabRat said:

CMON SYNTAX..................... DUH!

Says they guy who had no idea what he was asking, or maybe missed the point. He's asking if it will work because it has a price advantage. 

Don't get shitty with me for giving him an honest answer, which is 'maybe'

[v-raze]

5 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

I think whether it's buffered ECC will affect this. I think , and this is based on what I've heard, buffered ECC will NOT work but registered ECC memory MIGHT work, or at least I've heard the latter claimed to work. 

I would wait for a more definitive opinion than mine before buying it, I've never actually tried it

That's the impression I got as well, from what little I've found about it. If I find a good enough deal, I might just go for it and see if it works. If I have issues I could always resell it or use it in a different build. Thanks for actually trying to answer the question.

[Syntaxvgm]

3 minutes ago, v-raze said:

That's the impression I got as well, from what little I've found about it. If I find a good enough deal, I might just go for it and see if it works. If I have issues I could always resell it or use it in a different build. Thanks for actually trying to answer the question.

TBH, I wouldn't try it.

[v-raze]

Just now, Syntaxvgm said:

TBH, I wouldn't try it. 

Sure is a good thing there are crazy people like me in the world then!

[Syntaxvgm]

3 minutes ago, v-raze said:

Sure is a good thing there are crazy people like me in the world then!

From what I know some boards actually support ECC buffered memory as they use some of the same parts as their workstation counterparts, but some literally disable it to not compete with their workstation lines. So this 'maybe' is a pretty messy maybe, and I don't even know how that affects registered memory, I'm the wrong person to know that much. 

[v-raze]

This thread from AnandTech has some useful information about ECC RAM in general. No definitive answers to my question, but it does indeed seem likely that I either need unregistered ECC (which is uncommon and therefore not cheap, defeating the purpose) or I'd need a chipset with support for registered memory. I know some X series boards support registered DIMMs though, so it might still be worth a shot even if it's not specifically stated as being compatible. I'll probably just buy the cheapest 512MB stick I can find to see if it works or not.

 

EDIT: To clarify, unregistered ECC modules are rather common, but not in the high capacity I'm looking for. 1GB unregistered ECC DIMMs are frequently sold for use in Mac Pro systems.

[SLAYR]

2 hours ago, v-raze said:

This thread from AnandTech has some useful information about ECC RAM in general. No definitive answers to my question, but it does indeed seem likely that I either need unregistered ECC (which is uncommon and therefore not cheap, defeating the purpose) or I'd need a chipset with support for registered memory. I know some X series boards support registered DIMMs though, so it might still be worth a shot even if it's not specifically stated as being compatible. I'll probably just buy the cheapest 512MB stick I can find to see if it works or not.

 

EDIT: To clarify, unregistered ECC modules are rather common, but not in the high capacity I'm looking for. 1GB unregistered ECC DIMMs are frequently sold for use in Mac Pro systems.

They make unregistered ecc ddr3 in 2gb, 4gb, 8gb, and possibly 16gb dimms. Unregister ram is labeled for example pc3-12800e which is for ddr3 1600 unregistered ddr3, if the "e" is replaced by an "r" then it is registered.

 

How cheap are you looking for if you are buying it second hand then that will be ten times cheaper then new.

[v-raze]

13 hours ago, SLAYR said:

They make unregistered ecc ddr3 in 2gb, 4gb, 8gb, and possibly 16gb dimms. Unregister ram is labeled for example pc3-12800e which is for ddr3 1600 unregistered ddr3, if the "e" is replaced by an "r" then it is registered.

 

How cheap are you looking for if you are buying it second hand then that will be ten times cheaper then new.

I am of course buying secondhand. My point is that registered DIMMS are crazy cheap ($12 + $4 shipping for 16GB, so $1 per GB) whereas unregistered ECC is comparable in price to normal unregistered non-ECC memory. There's more variety and better performance in ordinary unregistered DIMMs than in unregistered ECC, and I don't need the ECC function enough to justify that tradeoff. With the Registered memory, I am completely willing to take the performance hit for the unbeatable price. So I'm waiting until I have $16 kicking around to buy some.

[Syntaxvgm]

4 hours ago, v-raze said:

I am of course buying secondhand. My point is that registered DIMMS are crazy cheap ($12 + $4 shipping for 16GB, so $1 per GB) whereas unregistered ECC is comparable in price to normal unregistered non-ECC memory. There's more variety and better performance in ordinary unregistered DIMMs than in unregistered ECC, and I don't need the ECC function enough to justify that tradeoff. With the Registered memory, I am completely willing to take the performance hit for the unbeatable price. So I'm waiting until I have $16 kicking around to buy some.

holy crap where? I'm ordering parts for a dual xeon workstation right now actually, also ddr3. 

 

I mean I noticed it's a lot cheap used, odd for memory, so I'll be looking at that instead of buying new for sure. I'm finding like 30-50USD per 16GiB stick 

[v-raze]

1 hour ago, Syntaxvgm said:

holy crap where? I'm ordering parts for a dual xeon workstation right now actually, also ddr3. 

 

I mean I noticed it's a lot cheap used, odd for memory, so I'll be looking at that instead of buying new for sure. I'm finding like 30-50USD per 16GiB stick 

Good ol' american Ebay has some great offers. 4GB HP registered ECC sticks for $3.00 apiece plus shipping at this listing. 8GB modules for $15 apiece here, here, here, here, or here. 16GB stick for $37 here, otherwise they're about $60 each here, here, or here.

 

The price jump for the 16GB sticks is understandable considering they don't generally come that large in unregistered memory of any kind, and there aren't as many DIMMs on the market anyways. I would just get a mobo with plenty of slots and fill it up with 8GB sticks. You could easily have 32GB or even 64GB per CPU that way.

[Syntaxvgm]

26 minutes ago, v-raze said:

Good ol' american Ebay has some great offers. 4GB HP registered ECC sticks for $3.00 apiece plus shipping at this listing. 8GB modules for $15 apiece here, here, here, here, or here. 16GB stick for $37 here, otherwise they're about $60 each here, here, or here.

 

The price jump for the 16GB sticks is understandable considering they don't generally come that large in unregistered memory of any kind, and there aren't as many DIMMs on the market anyways. I would just get a mobo with plenty of slots and fill it up with 8GB sticks. You could easily have 32GB or even 64GB per CPU that way.

Yah, the board I'm gonna get only has 8 slots as I wanted it to be atx if possible, plus it was one of the few boards I could get at a reasonable price. I wanted to get 4 16GiB sticks and fill the rest of the slots later, but I guess I could go for 8 8GiB stick, I see those for 100-120 USD. 64GiB is is still a lot of memory, and considering the total cost of the system it's a pretty solid workstation for a pretty damn good price. Still haven't 100% committed to a case though. 

[v-raze]

1 hour ago, Syntaxvgm said:

Yah, the board I'm gonna get only has 8 slots as I wanted it to be atx if possible, plus it was one of the few boards I could get at a reasonable price. I wanted to get 4 16GiB sticks and fill the rest of the slots later, but I guess I could go for 8 8GiB stick, I see those for 100-120 USD. 64GiB is is still a lot of memory, and considering the total cost of the system it's a pretty solid workstation for a pretty damn good price. Still haven't 100% committed to a case though. 

Personally I'd just go for the eATX board and case, you get more room for memory and you have a lot more choices of motherboard. There's a few great deals on eBay every week or two, you could get one secondhand for as low as $200, which is impressive. Plus the additional features that come with a larger board. I assume you're going with C602J, but what brand/models were you considering? I didn't even know there were dual 2011 normal ATX options, to be honest. Most of the cheapest ones on the 'bay are SuperMicro, but I did see some well priced Gigabyte boards there a little while ago.

[Syntaxvgm]

19 minutes ago, v-raze said:

Personally I'd just go for the eATX board and case, you get more room for memory and you have a lot more choices of motherboard. There's a few great deals on eBay every week or two, you could get one secondhand for as low as $200, which is impressive. Plus the additional features that come with a larger board. I assume you're going with C602J, but what brand/models were you considering? I didn't even know there were dual 2011 normal ATX options, to be honest. Most of the cheapest ones on the 'bay are SuperMicro, but I did see some well priced Gigabyte boards there a little while ago.

Yah I'm going for dual socket 2011, two xeon e5-2670 cpus. 

This was the board I was going for, new

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BRF7DAC

Atx isn't a requirement anymore as I changed my mind, I was originally gonna go for a certain case, but given that board is readily available. If you can find anything on ebay or something that's like eatx or ssi eeb that would be wonderful. I would go something crazy or non-standard IF the board is compelling enough, I do have access to equipment to make my own case. I would love as many PCIe slots as possible really. It's a good idea, I'll do some shopping tonight but I welcome help. I'm gonna put a build log on here  

[v-raze]

16 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

If you can find anything on ebay or something that's like eatx or ssi eeb that would be wonderful. I would go something crazy or non-standard IF the board is compelling enough, I do have access to equipment to make my own case. I would love as many PCIe slots as possible really. It's a good idea, I'll do some shopping tonight but I welcome help. I'm gonna put a build log on here  

Well, I've been eyeing this board for a couple weeks now. The price is really good, was only $200 and now it's all the way down to $134. It's an untested store return but those are usually pretty safe bets, and from the picture it seems to be in great shape. I was just going to buy it, test it, and probably flip it for profit, just because of the great price, but I didn't have the extra cash to because of the single E5-2670 build I'm working on right now (and the Tesla I bought). So I would jump on that, personally.

 

If you're not interested in any chance of risk, this Intel board is a good deal. Only has one full 16x PCI-E slot but has an interesting setup with two open-ended 8x slots capable of holding a full 16x card for SLI/crossfire with the secondary card(s) running in 8x.

 

Other than those two, I couldn't find any really good deals on eBay at the moment- most of the C602J units on there right now are the ever present new Supermicro boards in the $350 range, and C602J is the only chipset supporting dual 2011 Xeons, or at least the E5-2670. I might be able to hit on something else if I dig a bit deeper, but I need to make myself sleep now, I have school in the morning.

[Syntaxvgm]

12 minutes ago, v-raze said:

Well, I've been eyeing this board for a couple weeks now. The price is really good, was only $200 and now it's all the way down to $134. It's an untested store return but those are usually pretty safe bets, and from the picture it seems to be in great shape. I was just going to buy it, test it, and probably flip it for profit, just because of the great price, but I didn't have the extra cash to because of the single E5-2670 build I'm working on right now (and the Tesla I bought). So I would jump on that, personally.

 

If you're not interested in any chance of risk, this Intel board is a good deal. Only has one full 16x PCI-E slot but has an interesting setup with two open-ended 8x slots capable of holding a full 16x card for SLI/crossfire with the secondary card(s) running in 8x.

 

Other than those two, I couldn't find any really good deals on eBay at the moment- most of the C602J units on there right now are the ever present new Supermicro boards in the $350 range, and C602J is the only chipset supporting dual 2011 Xeons, or at least the E5-2670. I might be able to hit on something else if I dig a bit deeper, but I need to make myself sleep now, I have school in the morning.

I'm willing to pay 350. I've added a few boards to my watch list so far. 

[v-raze]

7 minutes ago, Syntaxvgm said:

I'm willing to pay 350. I've added a few boards to my watch list so far. 

If you're willing to drop that cash it's your choice, I'm a cheap student on a tight budget so I always go for the deal. I might wait a bit till there were more options, or go for that well priced intel board. If you're comfortable reselling it in case it doesn't work out, I would definitely pick up that cheap supermicro though. That is a steal at that price.

 

You've probably already seen them, but I'd recommend looking at the Tech YES City videos on the dual Xeon workstation, specifically these three: 1 (build) 2 (bench & overview) 3 (OC'ing/tuning). Good information from someone who's already done it before.

[SLAYR]

19 minutes ago, v-raze said:

 

If you're not interested in any chance of risk, this Intel board is a good deal. Only has one full 16x PCI-E slot but has an interesting setup with two open-ended 8x slots capable of holding a full 16x card for SLI/crossfire with the secondary card(s) running in 8x.

I kinda doubt the server boards will have support for sli/crossfire you will want to make sure that they have that certification, usually that is only features that end up on desktop, and some workstation motherboards, since it is pretty useless for a server.