From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jul 25 13:33:34 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2FECA106566C for ; Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:33:34 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from chad@shire.net) Received: from hobbiton.shire.net (mail.freestylefund.com [209.41.94.250]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0FBDB8FC13 for ; Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:33:33 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from chad@shire.net) Received: from c-76-23-4-92.hsd1.ut.comcast.net ([76.23.4.92] helo=[192.168.99.68]) by hobbiton.shire.net with esmtpsa (TLSv1:AES128-SHA:128) (Exim 4.51) id 1KMNQK-000C7r-SS for freebsd-questions@freebsd.org; Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:33:33 -0600 Message-Id: From: "Chad Leigh -- Shire.Net LLC" To: freebsd-questions Questions In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v926) Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:33:32 -0600 References: <4889BAE0.6030308@skoberne.net> <20080725130052.GA70571@owl.midgard.homeip.net> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.926) X-SA-Exim-Connect-IP: 76.23.4.92 X-SA-Exim-Mail-From: chad@shire.net X-SA-Exim-Scanned: No (on hobbiton.shire.net); SAEximRunCond expanded to false Subject: Re: FreeBSD and ECC memory? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:33:34 -0000 > If you can afford it, always buy the ECC. Saves your bacon more often than not in the long run. My Mac Pro personal desktop has it. It developed an issue in one of the sticks. The system detected that many errors were getting corrected, and disabled the whole stick. Sure I lost 2GB but the system did not go down. I can shut it down and replace the memory at my leisure. A Solaris 10 server I run has a memory stick creating many errors. System is still up and I can replace the stick when I can without a hard crash. ECC cannot necessarily protect you from every memory issue but it can protect you from many sorts of memory issues and can keep you from having hard crashes and allow you to fix problems on your schedule instead of in a panic. First time you have a hard crash due to memory issues you will wish you had ECC. (And a motherboard that supports ChipKill) Chad --- Chad Leigh -- Shire.Net LLC Your Web App and Email hosting provider chad at shire.net