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> I absolutely detest the crazy industry politics and bad vendors that have made ECC memory so "special Haven’t bought RAM for awhile, what’s he talking about?

> I absolutely detest the crazy industry politics and bad vendors that have made ECC memory so "special Haven’t bought RAM for awhile, what’s he talking about? ECC RAM should be at least 1/8 more expensive (plus something for the handler)

xxs 4y ago
In reality ECC is like twice the price, the CPU support is close non-existent too (Intel just has been disabling in the memory controller for ages... unless it's an i3 laptop - then it's available again) Just try and buy a reasonable non-server class machine that has ECC.
- sliken 4y ago
  Not sure where you are. But I just compared Crucial DDR5 32GB DDR5-4800 (PC5-38400) and the non-ECC (on CDW.com) is $186.99 for part (CT32G48C40U5) and $229.99 for part (MTC20C2085S1EC48BA1R) a 22% premium. All Alder Lake chips (the ones shipping in volume today) support ECC, check ark.intel.com to be sure. For example the popular i7 model (https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/134591/intel-core-i712700-processor-25m-cache-up-to-4-90-ghz.html https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/134591/...) As do all Ryzen desktop chips (5000 and 7000) do as well. Granted popular consumer products don't have ECC, but it's pretty straight forward to built it yourself. Just make sure the motherboard you buy (Intel or AMD) supports ECC.
- IYasha 4y ago
  AFAIR, every AMD64 CPU has ECC support. But not every motherboard had necessary layout and BIOS support. That's why I'm 20 years with AMD and choosing components carefully. Every system with > 4GB RAM should have ECC. Proven decades ago.
  - xxs 4y ago
    They (ryzen) sort of do - unofficially. Which also means that the motherboards won't list the memory compatibility, either... or tune the bios.
    - sliken 4y ago
      Varies by board, ASRock (at least some boards) supports it, documents it, it's in the BIOS. It's not unofficial, AMD lists it in their specifications.
  - my123 4y ago
    Not all. Was purposefully locked out of the Ryzen APUs, and parts without the iGPU enabled based on an APU die. And that, until Ryzen 7000.
    - IYasha 4y ago
      Yeah, I was talking about CPUs precisely. On my APU, unfortunately, there's no ECC support even if I shove a module in. PS: and being a pre-ryzen AMD user, I don't know much about new CPUs too :))
- jeffbee 4y ago
  It's the other way around now. The 12th gen "Core" desktop parts all support ECC in the i5/i7/i9 SKUs.
  - temac 4y ago
    Does it still need to be allowed by specific chipsets, though ?
    - jeffbee 4y ago
      Yes, you need the W/R680 chipset on this generation.
teaearlgraycold 4y ago
It's also slower. So if you also want performance parity you need faster chips. The scam is with Intel making it hard for consumers to opt into ECC without getting the blessed chipset/CPU combos.
layer8 4y ago
The problem is not just the price, but also that you need a “server” CPU and/or mainboard/chipset, which comes with additional trade-offs. Intel has been artificially restricting ECC support to its server product lines.

xxs 4y ago

In reality ECC is like twice the price, the CPU support is close non-existent too (Intel just has been disabling in the memory controller for ages... unless it's an i3 laptop - then it's available again) Just try and buy a reasonable non-server class machine that has ECC.

sliken 4y ago
Not sure where you are. But I just compared Crucial DDR5 32GB DDR5-4800 (PC5-38400) and the non-ECC (on CDW.com) is $186.99 for part (CT32G48C40U5) and $229.99 for part (MTC20C2085S1EC48BA1R) a 22% premium. All Alder Lake chips (the ones shipping in volume today) support ECC, check ark.intel.com to be sure. For example the popular i7 model (https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/134591/intel-core-i712700-processor-25m-cache-up-to-4-90-ghz.html https://ark.intel.com/content/www/us/en/ark/products/134591/...) As do all Ryzen desktop chips (5000 and 7000) do as well. Granted popular consumer products don't have ECC, but it's pretty straight forward to built it yourself. Just make sure the motherboard you buy (Intel or AMD) supports ECC.
IYasha 4y ago
AFAIR, every AMD64 CPU has ECC support. But not every motherboard had necessary layout and BIOS support. That's why I'm 20 years with AMD and choosing components carefully. Every system with > 4GB RAM should have ECC. Proven decades ago.
- xxs 4y ago
  They (ryzen) sort of do - unofficially. Which also means that the motherboards won't list the memory compatibility, either... or tune the bios.
  - sliken 4y ago
    Varies by board, ASRock (at least some boards) supports it, documents it, it's in the BIOS. It's not unofficial, AMD lists it in their specifications.
- my123 4y ago
  Not all. Was purposefully locked out of the Ryzen APUs, and parts without the iGPU enabled based on an APU die. And that, until Ryzen 7000.
  - IYasha 4y ago
    Yeah, I was talking about CPUs precisely. On my APU, unfortunately, there's no ECC support even if I shove a module in. PS: and being a pre-ryzen AMD user, I don't know much about new CPUs too :))
jeffbee 4y ago
It's the other way around now. The 12th gen "Core" desktop parts all support ECC in the i5/i7/i9 SKUs.
- temac 4y ago
  Does it still need to be allowed by specific chipsets, though ?
  - jeffbee 4y ago
    Yes, you need the W/R680 chipset on this generation.

teaearlgraycold 4y ago

It's also slower. So if you also want performance parity you need faster chips. The scam is with Intel making it hard for consumers to opt into ECC without getting the blessed chipset/CPU combos.

layer8 4y ago

The problem is not just the price, but also that you need a “server” CPU and/or mainboard/chipset, which comes with additional trade-offs. Intel has been artificially restricting ECC support to its server product lines.