Is ECC RAM Needed?

I'm just wondering if those of you using non-ECC RAM have any stability
problems. The SW hardware requirements does not mention using ECC RAM,
but it was recommend in an article from 2005 SW World conference from a
SW rep. I am considering using a motherboard with either a Intel 965
chipset which does not support ECC RAM or a 975X chipset that will
support it. The 975X is on back-order, so I would prefer not to wait
for this system if I don't need to.

 

You only "really" need to use ECC ram if the motherboard requires it, as is
the case with most high end server/workstation boards. It is more expensive,
and slower, than unregistered ram.

We use both, and haven't had any memory related problems related to standard
RAM. The ECC setups are alot touchier to set up. You can't always mix the
DIMM's.


Mark

 

You will have stability problems with SW whether you use ECC RAM or
not. Stability seems more a function of technique and what part of SW
you are using. Most of my stability problems are not directly
repeatable but nonetheless occurr when I am doing certain things like
editing design tables with a drawing open or not. Using good modeling
and assembly practices seems to help a lot, no doubt because more
testing occurs on SW with good models than bad ones. This is probably
because the beta testers tend to be seasoned users who will make good
models to start with.