From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Mar 26 20:23:05 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 20F4116A4CE for ; Fri, 26 Mar 2004 20:23:05 -0800 (PST) Received: from smtp.covadmail.net (mx07.covadmail.net [63.65.120.67]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id A16B943D1D for ; Fri, 26 Mar 2004 20:23:04 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from strick@covad.net) Received: (covad.net 27807 invoked from network); 27 Mar 2004 04:22:59 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO mist.nodomain) (strick@covad.net@67.101.98.108) by sun-qmail12 with SMTP; 27 Mar 2004 04:22:59 -0000 Received: from mist.nodomain (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mist.nodomain (8.12.9p2/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i2R4N14t000475; Fri, 26 Mar 2004 20:23:02 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dan@mist.nodomain) Received: (from dan@localhost) by mist.nodomain (8.12.9p2/8.12.9/Submit) id i2R4N1Cb000474; Fri, 26 Mar 2004 20:23:01 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dan) Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2004 20:23:01 -0800 (PST) From: Dan Strick Message-Id: <200403270423.i2R4N1Cb000474@mist.nodomain> To: rob@web.ca cc: dan@mist.nodomain cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Motherboard w/ ECC? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion of FreeBSD hardware List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 04:23:05 -0000 On Fri, 26 Mar 2004 13:34:06 -0500, Rob Ellis wrote: >> > How important is ECC ram for a FreeBSD server? We've gone with Asus > motherboards in the past, but most new ones don't support ECC... > > If ECC is important, any recommendations for a motherboard that supports > AMD Athlon + ECC? >> If a system handles data that you really don't want corrupted, then some sort of memory error detection is very important. You really need to know if something in your system is damaging your data so that you can fix it. Unless you have extreme uptime requirements, the difference between parity and ECC is less important, but simple parity support is less common these days so your only option is ECC. I highly recommend it. When the integrity of *my* data is at stake, I pretty much insist on it. I am only familiar with recent single processor P4 motherboards using either the Intel 865 or 875 support chipsets. The 875 supports ECC. The 865 does not. I use a motherboard with the 875 chipset and 1 GB of ECC memory. It seems to work just fine, but experience with just one system for only several months may not count for much. I don't know much about other brands of chipsets or about multiprocessor chipsets or about Athlon processors. Dan Strick strick@covad.net