3 ms·

I know ECC is more complex, my hypothesis was that in volume the difference would be small enough to not care and that we're only stuck with non-ECC RAM because

I know ECC is more complex, my hypothesis was that in volume the difference would be small enough to not care and that we're only stuck with non-ECC RAM because of path dependence. >Whether it's needed or not...that's use case dependent. Even for gaming, having your game crash/misbehave because of bit flips is at the very least annoying. But maybe this is uncommon enough that it doesn't make enough difference?

blattimwind 8y ago
Gaming systems are often overclocked and aren't really stable often enough in the first place.
kllrnohj 8y ago
> Even for gaming, having your game crash/misbehave because of bit flips is at the very least annoying. But maybe this is uncommon enough that it doesn't make enough difference? My gaming system with non-ecc memory will run memtest all day long never spotting a single error. I know these errors can & do happen, but I'm fairly certain the number of crashes I've experienced that would have been prevented using ECC memory is single digits at most. But ECC being in general slower than non-ECC? Well that's very noticeable.
- agapon 8y ago
  ECC is useless until it is not. Just like insurance, backups, etc.
  - kllrnohj 8y ago
    The failure risk of ECC is significantly lower than a lack of insurance of backups, though. Drive fails and no backups? Potentially terabytes of data vanishes. House burns down and no insurance? Hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair. No ECC and a bit flips? Nothing happens, program crashes, or maybe a single file gets corrupted in an unrecoverable way.
    - agapon 8y ago
      And maybe that file happens to be an important encryption key. Or maybe a whole filesystem gets corrupted if some important metadata is. Or maybe your system develops a hardware problem over time, like an oxidized CPU pin or a contact in a memory slot and then you are getting flaky bits on a regular basis. ECC is useless until you experience a problem of those kinds. And many people will never do. But some will. I have.

blattimwind 8y ago

Gaming systems are often overclocked and aren't really stable often enough in the first place.

kllrnohj 8y ago

> Even for gaming, having your game crash/misbehave because of bit flips is at the very least annoying. But maybe this is uncommon enough that it doesn't make enough difference? My gaming system with non-ecc memory will run memtest all day long never spotting a single error. I know these errors can & do happen, but I'm fairly certain the number of crashes I've experienced that would have been prevented using ECC memory is single digits at most. But ECC being in general slower than non-ECC? Well that's very noticeable.

agapon 8y ago
ECC is useless until it is not. Just like insurance, backups, etc.
- kllrnohj 8y ago
  The failure risk of ECC is significantly lower than a lack of insurance of backups, though. Drive fails and no backups? Potentially terabytes of data vanishes. House burns down and no insurance? Hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair. No ECC and a bit flips? Nothing happens, program crashes, or maybe a single file gets corrupted in an unrecoverable way.
  - agapon 8y ago
    And maybe that file happens to be an important encryption key. Or maybe a whole filesystem gets corrupted if some important metadata is. Or maybe your system develops a hardware problem over time, like an oxidized CPU pin or a contact in a memory slot and then you are getting flaky bits on a regular basis. ECC is useless until you experience a problem of those kinds. And many people will never do. But some will. I have.