Halo 1 & 2 for PC
This topic has moved here: Subject: ECC or Non-ECC RAM?
  • Subject: ECC or Non-ECC RAM?
Subject: ECC or Non-ECC RAM?
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Does ECC give any real advantages? I'm thinking or getting some Kingston DDR2 ram for my new comp. I know it means error checking and correcting but will it make any significant difference?

EDIT: I couldn't find any DDR2 ECC ram on the Kingston site, didn't look very hard. I'm tired, I'll check this thread after school and work tomorrow.

[Edited on 12/7/2005]

  • 12.07.2005 8:14 PM PDT
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ECC is mainly for business workstations and servers. There's no real performance advantage for home or gaming pc's.

  • 12.07.2005 8:26 PM PDT
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Eh, Kingston isn't the greatest RAM to be using, but that's beside the point.

Unless you need to use ECC in something like an Opteron system, there's not really a point. First, it's very expensive compared to standard RAM, and second, it isn't useful in a desktop.

  • 12.08.2005 11:45 AM PDT
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if im right (which i may not be) i believe the memory controller and motherboard have to be compatible with ecc ram for it to work... dont worry about ecc its not all that useful and waaaay more expensive.

personally i like corsair XMS pro over anything... but thats beside the point ;)

[Edited on 12/8/2005]

  • 12.08.2005 12:35 PM PDT
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Ok, what RAM would you guys reccomend, I'm going for dual channel ddr2, about 2 gigs (2 sticks of 1gb) mind you. I heard that OCZ and Corsair (as you mentioned) are good.

  • 12.08.2005 3:46 PM PDT
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OCZ is the best, but Corsair is close behind. I don't know about DDR2, so I can't say anything about any lines they have in it. I know that DDR400 OCZ VX is some of the best OC'ing RAM out there, but that's a different type of RAM.

You should go to guru3d.com and go to their Intel section on the forums - they'll help you out.

  • 12.08.2005 9:05 PM PDT

* Pr: ĭnʹtərnĕts: "I hear there's rumors on the uh (pause), Internets...

I actually have a pair of OCZ Premier PC3200 512mb RAM 2.5-4-4-8, and is probably the best RAM I've ever used.

And yes, it is rather Overclockable, but....does a heatspreader on RAM do anything?

  • 12.08.2005 10:35 PM PDT
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For most brands it's just for show. DDR doesn't usually run hot enough to warrant it.

However, BH-5 RAM, like OCZ VX and some other top-end performance RAM, requires upwards of 3.3v to overclock and retain low latencies at higher clockspeeds [stock for DDR is 2.6v]. That's why people like the DFI LANParty mobo - it has the option of supplying high voltages to BH-5 and other voltage hungry RAM modules. So, when all of that extra voltage is supplied to BH-5, it heats up - a lot. Most BH-5, when overclocked, needs a heatspreader, or else it will become unstable.

If you want an in-depth article on RAM cooling, timings, overclocking, ECC/buffered, etc., go here.

If you want to see which RAM is BH-5, TCCD [Samsung's premier IC's, they also overclock fairly well], you can go here, but you should know what BH-5 and the others are before going there. Otherwise you'll have no idea of what you're looking at/for.

[Edited on 12/9/2005]

  • 12.09.2005 6:35 AM PDT