From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Mar 27 12:51:23 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 A69AF16A4CE for ; Sat, 27 Mar 2004 12:51:23 -0800 (PST) Received: from liberty.hosp.misyshealthcare.com (liberty.hosp.misyshealthcare.com [149.138.10.6]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8147643D46 for ; Sat, 27 Mar 2004 12:51:23 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from terry@liberty.hosp.misyshealthcare.com) Received: from liberty.hosp.misyshealthcare.com (localhost.hosp.misyshealthcare.com [127.0.0.1])i2RKoqVO015516 for ; Sat, 27 Mar 2004 13:50:52 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from terry@liberty.hosp.misyshealthcare.com) Received: (from terry@localhost)i2RKopji015515 for freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org; Sat, 27 Mar 2004 13:50:51 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from terry) Date: Sat, 27 Mar 2004 13:50:51 -0700 (MST) From: "Terry R. Friedrichsen" Message-Id: <200403272050.i2RKopji015515@liberty.hosp.misyshealthcare.com> To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: re: Motherboard w/ ECC? X-BeenThere: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: terry@uplift.sunquest.com 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 20:51:23 -0000 > How important is ECC ram for a FreeBSD server? My attitude is that ECC is only as important as your data, regardless of what kind of machine you're running on. > We've gone with Asus > motherboards in the past, but most new ones don't support ECC... The only Asus Athlon motherboard I'm aware of that actually *uses* ECC is the A7M266-D dual-processor board with the AMD 760MPX chipset. I'd be happy to hear of others. There are other motherboards (particularly VIA chipset boards) that "support" ECC by ignoring the ECC bits. So support translates into "our board will run anyway, even if you put ECC memory in it". > If ECC is important, any recommendations for a motherboard that supports > AMD Athlon + ECC? I'm using the above-mentioned ASUS board quite successfully. All of the Athlon 64 CPUs, of course, support ECC because the memory con- troller is built into the processor chip. So that's a good way to go, if you don't mind spending more for the processor. My current favorite is the Asus K8V-Deluxe. However, you still have to watch out for motherboards that don't carry the ECC information to the processor. For example, the Shuttle SN85G4 manages not to support ECC despite having an A64 CPU ... Terry R. Friedrichsen terry@uplift.sunquest.com