Non ECC SDRAM vs. ECC SDRAM

Crucial Knowledge Base
StorageReview: ECC
FAQ Memory
Registered ECC SDRAM

... just a few of the FAQs etc online. Or try Wikipedia and Google 😉

Hi Matt;

ECC or Error Correcting Code is capable of correcting single bit errors because in addition to the data it has a parity bits. Where this is generally used is on mission critical servers where any downtime will cause the lose of large amounts of money or life.

For the home user, ECC RAM is generally overkill. The amount of lose from an application or operating system abort is usually not worth the additional cost for ECC RAM.

Allan

If I might add, ECC is somewhat slower than non-ECC RAM, too, due to the error checking...

Gary