ECC or Non-ECC

[Dr Zoidberg]

I have an asus PHC-DL board and need some new memory to get the most out of the CPU's in it.
The board will run with ECC or Non-ECC and the stuff i have been looking at you are only talking a few pounds differance with the ECC being cheaper.
What i am wondering is how much of a performance issue will the ECC cause over Non-ECC?
I am looking at sticks by the same company, same size, same PC3200 (or PC3500)
The Non-ECC has timeings listed as 2-2-2-6 and voltage2.8
the ECC just says CL=3 voltage 2.6

[edit]
Haveing another look i have also found a Non-ECC kit of 2 X 1GB, the timeings listed for this are just CL=3 so similar to the above ECC but price wise it is 2GB for a few £ more than two sticks of either of the above giving 1GB.
[edit]

 

[BillytheImpaler]

I assume you're talking about the Asus PCH-DL mobo for dual xeons with 533 MHz FSB. If that's the case it does not take ECC RAM. It takes the good old-fashioned DDR stuff that every AMD rig has used for the past few years.

ECC is for server-type systems where many gigs of RAM are in use. They have higher latencies but work much better when there is a great deal of memory to address.

If I may ask are you building a 1.6lv system? I built one on a PC-DL last fall. Currently I'm running at 200% stock speeds on the CPUs.

 

[Dr Zoidberg]

Yes sorry it is the asus PCH-DL, and yes this board can use ECC as well as normal DDR (one of the differances between the PCH-DL and PC-DL)

Yes it is a pair of 1.6LV's
With no mods on the board i can post and load windows at 3.2GHz but keep getting random problems due to the memory being pushed to hard as it is the one component i have not got around to buying yet i am useing older stuff from a stripped system.

 

[BillytheImpaler]

Yeah, you'll get better performance from non-ECC as long as you keep it in the sub 4 GiB range (probably 2 GiB is ideal). To get it to be very stable at 200 MHz *4 FSB youneed to increase the RAM voltage. On the PC-DL you must do this by modifying the board. On the NCCH-DL there is a BIOS setting to change this. IS there such a setting for the PCH-DL? Have you performed the easy wire mod to increase the CPU core voltage?

 

[Dr Zoidberg]

there is voltage adjustmaent in the bios for the ram as with the NCCH.
i am currently running at stock with out the u-wire mod but once i get the ram it will get done, and from testing should have no problem running at 3.2GHz.

I am very tempted by the 2*1GB kit non-ECC just over £100, maybe not the fastest perfoming memory around but im sure it will do what i want.

 

[BillytheImpaler]

I am very tempted by the 2*1GB kit non-ECC just over £100, maybe not the fastest perfoming memory around but im sure it will do what i want.

Do it! You know you want to. Once you get the new memory in there, up the vCore and the the vDimm, and raise the FSB you'll find that 3.21 is a breeze.

 

[Dr Zoidberg]

Exactly and a pair of 3.2GHz CPU's for £70 you cant go wrong, i can already tell the benifit of two CPU's with them at stock over the XP2500 i had before, for the sort iof things i normally use the PC for it is a real plus.

 

[Dr Zoidberg]

Have been doing some more digging, as i am looking at overclocking the FSB to 200MHz it would make more sense (not thinking about £) to go for some PC3500 over PC3200 as i would have more headroom and better chance of getting tighter timings.
or is a decent set of PC3200 going to give me enough room as the overclocked 200MHz FSB will only be running the memory at stock so could go some way higher with enough volts.

This system is going to last for some time, even when it gets knocked down from being my main system it will still have an important use so i want to make the right decisions know to get the best from it for some time to come. and considering the small price most of the other parts have cost a little extra on memory isnt going to hurt to much.

 

[Amp34]

If you get a good set of PC3200 you should be fine. Most of the good pc3200 will run at 230 - 240 with only slightly worse if at all timings. I doubt youll be able to get a pair of 1.6l's to go any higher than about 220 so there should be plenty of headroom.

Unfortunatly I havent been able to get my board to boot at 200 so can only get to 2.6Ghz with my 1.6's at the moment. It seems to be a bit hit and miss if the PCH-DL's can boot at 200 for some reason, some do and some don't so your quite lucky to get a board that does. Im going to persevere with mine and see If i can't find a way to get it to in the near future. That means at the mometn im quite jelous of both you and billy!

 

[Dr Zoidberg]

What mods have you tryed for getting 200FSB ? mine will boot at 200 with out any mods but once i get the memory i am going to u-wire the CPU's just for stability.
I think it was the same with the PC-DL in you had to be a bit lucky to get one that would take the FSB high enough, or is it the CPU's that wont take it?