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How important is ECC RAM for regular desktop use?
- Thread starter Loa
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You will have no difference, ECC RAM comes into it's own when running a lot of stuff in memory, as you said in servers/workstation applications.
For everyday use the as with most other desktop/laptop, non ECC RAM will be fine, and you save the $$.
Presumably you're asking as you wish to put more RAM into the machine, if so then are you using apps that are memory intensive (ECC maybe better in this case)?
For everyday use the as with most other desktop/laptop, non ECC RAM will be fine, and you save the $$.
Presumably you're asking as you wish to put more RAM into the machine, if so then are you using apps that are memory intensive (ECC maybe better in this case)?
Couple of questions:
- What model of MP are you running?
- What is your target memory capacity after adding the upgrade?
ECC can become necessary with very high capacities, which is why the question on this (expect this won't be an issue, but best to be sure).
If the capacity isn't an issue, and you can use non-ECC memory, then it won't be a problem, given the stated usage.
Stuff like photoshop doesn't need it. At most you might get a crash prevented once or twice a year (on good memory), you are correcting any errors in data by eye anyway. However it doesn't only correct the occasional error, it reports them. That is one of the bigger reasons for it being a part of the workstation and server platform specifications.
Is there a log file I could access for these reports? If I find 2 reports for 2 years of use, it's one thing, but if I find hundreds...
Loa
I mess around with a RAM upgrade in my MacPro early 2009 for a couple of weeks. All information I could get was, that I have to go for ECC RAM. Found some tripple kits from Kingston - 12GB together.
You guys say, ECC RAM isn't necessary at all?
You guys say, ECC RAM isn't necessary at all?
ECC Ram is ridiculous. Do not get it unless you're building a server for medical equipment or aircraft avionics or something and need to prove that you have the resistance to the absolutely insanely small chance that a bit of RAM will be set wrong.
And regarding "memory intensive," .. please .. things are swapped in and out of memory constantly. Memory is used to aggressively cache. A modern OS such as OS X (or anything on the market today) tends to constantly have your entire RAM contents full. An error that would be caught by ECC is just as likely to happen while the contents of RAM are the same as compared to when those contents change. So it actually has absolutely nothing to do with how "memory intensive" your tasks are.
I wish people would quit giving out misinformation on this sort of thing. It's bad enough when RAM vendors do it, at least they have something to gain...
And regarding "memory intensive," .. please .. things are swapped in and out of memory constantly. Memory is used to aggressively cache. A modern OS such as OS X (or anything on the market today) tends to constantly have your entire RAM contents full. An error that would be caught by ECC is just as likely to happen while the contents of RAM are the same as compared to when those contents change. So it actually has absolutely nothing to do with how "memory intensive" your tasks are.
I wish people would quit giving out misinformation on this sort of thing. It's bad enough when RAM vendors do it, at least they have something to gain...
OK. So I do not need unbuffered ECC nor registered ECC.
Thought I should take one of these from Kingston for example.
Now you say I could try one of those, also?!
Are you sure? I always found 'unbuffered and registered' when I searched for the RAM upgrade in a Mac Pro with Bloomfield.
Thought I should take one of these from Kingston for example.
Now you say I could try one of those, also?!
Are you sure? I always found 'unbuffered and registered' when I searched for the RAM upgrade in a Mac Pro with Bloomfield.
From my experience supporting network appliances with ECC memory, correctable ECC errors are generally precursors to uncorrectable ECC errors.
The main benefit I see is that it *may* give you warning about memory errors before you start experiencing problems. The caveats are that you have to be aware that you're getting correctable ECC errors or not, and it's possible that you never get any correctable ones before uncorrectable ones start occurring.
For just genenral computer use, you will maybe see an increase in performance when using non-ECC memory because of the lack of extra overhead that ECC RAM has to do when taking parity into account. I remember hearing a performance difference of about 5% but I have nothing to back up that figure.