Such a blanket statement is simply not true, sorry, even if ZFS fans like to repeat such mantras. That's like saying that a server without redundant power suppl

Such a blanket statement is simply not true, sorry, even if ZFS fans like to repeat such mantras. That's like saying that a server without redundant power supplies isn't a server. Google famously ran all of Google search on a million or so cheap desktop-class home-built white boxes (for want of a better term) without dreaming of ECC. It really depends on the workload and what your goals are. There are plenty of places to introduce bitrot aside from RAM, and it's obvious that ECC can't catch all bitrot. If you're not checksumming/hashing, then you won't catch it either, and if you are, then the likelihood of the bitrot matching that hash is basically nil and you'll always detect the bitrot.