ECC Memory - Downsides?

[Guest]

Just wondering, are there any downsides to using ECC memory? Like, besides price if it would be more expensive. 

[Jacktastic-Mofo]

64GB's of DDR3 ECC RAM cost me only $80 USD, HUGE UPSIDE. The only real downside to ECC is that it's often more expensive for the same speeds as regular DDR3/4 but RAM speed doesn't really matter.

[Electronics Wizardy]

Its normally a bit slower, limited support, normally higher cost.

[SnowyMus]

Outside of the fact that they're ugly green PCBs, and you can't overclock them as well, not really. As long as you have a processor that supports it, you're good to go.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Jacktastic-Mofo said:

64GB's of DDR3 ECC RAM cost me only $80 USD, HUGE UPSIDE. The only real downside to ECC is that it's often more expensive for the same speeds as regular DDR3/4 but RAM speed doesn't really matter.

I've already stated that the one downside that I know of would be price, why would you need to mention it again? 

[Enderman]

Well it looks worse, runs slower, requires both a motherboard and CPU that support it, and gives 0 improvement over regular ram unless it's for a datacenter or some special server that needs 100% uptime or whatever.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Enderman said:

Well it looks worse, runs slower, requires both a motherboard and CPU that support it, and gives 0 improvement over regular ram unless it's for a datacenter or some special server that needs 100% uptime or whatever.

Hmmmmm.... it seems to be pointing in more of the direction of it being more of a server side of hardware...... but I feel like it could be used in testing... but would that be workstation or dedicated testing server?...

 

I feel like that might be debatable. Not sure. Interesting question though. 

[Enderman]

3 minutes ago, IAmLamp said:

Hmmmmm.... it seems to be pointing in more of the direction of it being more of a server side of hardware...... but I feel like it could be used in testing... but would that be workstation or dedicated server testing?...

 

I feel like that might be debatable. Not sure. Interesting question though. 

What are you doing with the server?

The only reason to use ECC is if you need absolute perfect data with 0 mistakes (eg medical applications) or years/decades of 100% server uptime.

I don't know what kind of "testing" you might need ECC ram for...maybe how many years you can keep your PC on without restarting? haha

 

[ARikozuM]

1 minute ago, Enderman said:

What are you doing with the server?

The only reason to use ECC is if you need absolute perfect data with 0 mistakes (eg medical applications) or years/decades of 100% server uptime.

I don't know what kind of "testing" you might need ECC ram for...maybe how many years you can keep your PC on without restarting? haha

 

RAID setups where bits must be written constantly. Any bit that is incorrect will be fixed by ECC and non-ECC. The difference is the tolerances that they allow with ECC being vastly superior. Engineering diagrams and testing benefit from ECC. Whenever calculations require pinpoint accuracy ECC and floating point precision are key. Gaming could benefit from ECC if we're talking Minesweeper.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, ARikozuM said:

RAID setups where bits must be written constantly. Any bit that is incorrect will be fixed by ECC and non-ECC. The difference is the tolerances that they allow with ECC being vastly superior. Engineering diagrams and testing benefit from ECC. Whenever calculations require pinpoint accuracy ECC and floating point precision are key. Gaming could benefit from ECC if we're talking Minesweeper.

minesweeper lmaooooo

[ARikozuM]

Just now, IAmLamp said:

minesweeper lmaooooo

There's no downside to ECC if you need it for a NAS or RAID setup. The downside is that you need a compatible motherboard and CPU (Penitum/Xeon and I just found out through a user that i3's support as well) to fully use the RAM. If you're only gaming, go with nice RAM at 1866/10 or 3200/15 as bandwidth and latency will do more for you.