hey all, i have 512mb of pc3200 Kingston RAM (512MB 400MHz DDR ECC 3-3-3 DIMM) off ebay and im looking to buy another will this one: Kingston (512MB 400MHz DDR Non-ECC 3-3-3 DIMM) be ok mixed with the one i have? as im not sure about the whole ECC and Non-ECC thing
I don't think ECC and non-ECC are compatible. ECC is error checking code and impairs performance very slightly.
You don't need ECC at all unless you work with severs and all that big company stuff. Just get the traditional old non-ECC stuff. Since you already have ECC I guess you just need another dimm of pretty much the same stuff though I would have initially suggested just buying a stardard gig off Newegg but no big deal.
Oh, sorry mate, shouldn't have seen that. But replace newegg with kelkoo I can almost bet you'll have stability problem if you mix the ram. I'm not 100% sure but it's not worth taking that chance. I'm sure you can find some more ECC around.
ECC is for fault tolerance systems and not needed for most people, unless you live in an area which is strongly exposed to cosmic rays. If I were you for further upgrading ease I'd get 1GB of non-ECC PC3200 instead.
ive been looking around on the net and apparently only certain boards support ECC ram, and i doubt alot mine does, at the moment i am mixing 512mb of pc3200 and 2x 256mbs of pc2100, but the 256mb chips are not ECC and im getting no problems, so i dont think getting 512 of pc3200 of non ecc will affect the system
The only way to really check compatibility is to look at the manufacturers website or email them! I'd probably do that to make sure.
i'm not too sure having never used ECC ram or mixed different types but you shouldn't try it without knowing whether the ram is compatible (like pelvis_3 said, contact the manufacturer), but you never know, it may turn out alright, sometimes this happens and sometimes things go horrible wrong....strange isnt it?
yea it is, but im mixing ecc and non ecc now (1x of 512mb of pc3200 ecc and 2x 256mb of pc2100 non-ecc) so im quite confident it will be ok as ive read if the board dosent support ecc it just works as non-ecc and ive read my mainboard manual and it dosent support ecc, also if anyone knows, wots the 'u' on the end of some of those ram chips mean? ie: pc3200U and Pc3200 and can they be mixed?
The PC2100 is actually holding you back a bit as when mixed with slower speeds all the ram will revert to the lowest speed usually. Can't say I know right off what the U stands for I may check up on that.
yea i know about the speed slower, thats why i am going to buy another 512mb of pc3200 to replace the pc2100 but i dont know if i can mix the 'u' and the normal stuff together
I dig something up before too long, hope I don't make you wait for a while, google is of little use at the moment
If you're motherboard isn't a server or workstation-class one, then you don't have support for ECC. Can you use it? Sure, but you're paying for a feature you can't use, which is a bit daft to me. ECC RAM includes a chip to check for errors in RAM. This does make for a slight performance hit, but in situations that require perfection, the performance hit is worth it.
i got the 512mb ecc chip for only £20 and as my 1st post says, i had no idea what ecc ment, but for that bargain i got it, dont suppose you know what the 'u' stands for on some chips?
