i3 skylake supports ECC but I5 and i7 dont?

[Humble_newbie]

Hello Masters of the CPU 's,

                    Todays question is:

If you go on intels website and compare invdivudial specs on i3, i5 and i7 processor specs, I noticed that i3 skylake supports ECC RAMs while i5 and i7 dont.

 

 

Any reason why intel would do this or is this a marketing scheme where intel is targeting i3 as a regular desktop or a home server?

 

Is this a marketing stunt or Am I missing something in the i3 architecture that I am supposed to know? 

 

Or Are Skylake i3 and Xeon E3v4 closely related?

[vanished]

I would think it's a mistake.  Certainly no server owner is going to be deciding between a $2000 Xeon and an i3  

[Humble_newbie]

look at intel website, the specs suggest this. So I am guessi9ng that i3 can also be sued as a home server and xeon can be used as a home server and pro server both.  Some thing to thing about because I dont know what intel cooked in i3 skylake that supports ECC ram beacuse thats just nuts.

[manikyath]

i think they did that for the self-built NAS folks.

 

as for the reason why its on an i3 and not up, i guess its just because they had some spare room on the i3's silicon, and decided to give the buyers a treat. that, and afaik there not being any dual-core xeons.

 

i should add that this has been a thing for quite a while.

[Streetguru]

7 minutes ago, Humble_newbie said:

 

That's how they do it, the xeons mostly just let you ues a ton of memory, otherwise you need a pentium or i3 to do ECC on the cheap, no clue how that even works with skylake and the different chipsets now.

[vanished]

3 minutes ago, manikyath said:

i think they did that for the self-built NAS folks.

 

as for the reason why its on an i3 and not up, i guess its just because they had some spare room on the i3's silicon, and decided to give the buyers a treat. that, and afaik there not being any dual-core xeons.

 

i should add that this has been a thing for quite a while.

So you're telling me this is a real thing - the i3's have ECC support but not the i5s and i7s?

[Humble_newbie]

I think from all the buzz on intel websites, I am think i3 is for starter SERVER and NAS, E3 is entry level server, i5 for main stream SERVER apps and E7 for PRO no compromise Data centers. But thats just a guess because E5 has a 22 core CPU while E7 doesnt, and Intel Xeon Phi has a 61 core behemoth. 

[manikyath]

2 minutes ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

So you're telling me this is a real thing - the i3's have ECC support but not the i5s and i7s?

because in the i5/i7 range theres matching xeons that do have ecc support. i'm guessing the main reason for the i3's having ecc is xeons starting at 4 cores, so anyone who wants ecc on a dual core would otherwise be out of luck.

[vanished]

1 minute ago, manikyath said:

because in the i5/i7 range theres matching xeons that do have ecc support. i'm guessing the main reason for the i3's having ecc is xeons starting at 4 cores, so anyone who wants ecc on a dual core would otherwise be out of luck.

interesting... That would mean Intel is really trying to position i3 as an all-around entry level processor that then splits off into the i5/i7 line for consumers and the xeon line for servers.  I always sort of lumped i3/i5/i7 all together but perhaps that was not the right idea.

[Guest]

They've doneso for ages - it's for NAS use and low budget OEM builds requiring ECC. As mentioned, i5's and i7's have matching Xeons in the marketplace.

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Ryan_Vickers said:

interesting... That would mean Intel is really trying to position i3 as an all-around entry level processor that then splits off into the i5/i7 line for consumers and the xeon line for servers.  I always sort of lumped i3/i5/i7 all together but perhaps that was not the right idea.

some of the pentiums have ECC as well, its not that they're trying to market it as an all-rounder, its that they dont want to force people who need ECC to buy a quad core, and have the spare silicon space to do so either way.

[Humble_newbie]

Oh gotcha and that makes sense cuz skylake i3 are all dual core.
 

But who would want an Dual core as an server application unless they are looking for minimum processing power using minimum energy.

I think I am ANSWERING my own question here because cost vs power vs efficiency also plays a big role.., LOL

[manikyath]

1 minute ago, Humble_newbie said:

Oh gotcha and that makes sense cuz skylake i3 are all dual core.
 

But who would want an Dual core as an server application unless they are looking for minimum processing power using minimum energy.

I think I am ANSWERING my own question here because cost vs power vs efficiency also plays a big role.., LOL

well.. freenas is a really good example actually. you dont need mindblowing amounts of processing power, but ECC memory is a very key element in making sure your data remains intact. that and the i3's being lower wattage being a pretty significant electricity cost difference in some areas, especially when running 24/7

[vanished]

I'm just surprised they don't make a virtually identical chip and just throw the "xeon" name on it so they can keep the i3/i5/i7's all consistent.  You might be saying "that's more inventory for no reason" but I think we all know Intel clearly isn't afraid of having tons of different SKUs

[porina]

I have a HP Microserver gen8. This came with a Pentium G1610T, which supports ECC. It also came with 1x4GB ECC stick, and I added a 2nd to bring it up to 8GB and dual channel mode for what it is worth. The application of these microservers tends to be storage so doesn't need a load of CPU, although I see unraid gives mine a workout due to parity calculations. Those using it also for transcoding will put higher spec Xeons in.

[Humble_newbie]

My problem is this whole marketing bullshit. Its like they came up with i3 as a 14 nm skylake entry level Desktop + Server chip while I5 is the big brother of I3 with more GHz but desktop support; while Xeon E3 is a big brother of i3 when it comes to server/NAS/Anything you want grade hardware on single CPU.

[Zodiark1593]

32 minutes ago, Humble_newbie said:

Oh gotcha and that makes sense cuz skylake i3 are all dual core.
 

But who would want an Dual core as an server application unless they are looking for minimum processing power using minimum energy.

I think I am ANSWERING my own question here because cost vs power vs efficiency also plays a big role.., LOL

Freenas.

 

You don't need fast hardware for a storage server, but for the file system used, you almost certainly want ECC. Certain Pentiums and the i3 fit the bill perfectly, lowering the cost of entry for such a server.