rado <rado at rivers-bend.com> wrote: > lately...memory has been bugging me!!! kinda dwell on > it...even thinking ecc registered even w/the new chipkill > tech would be best... > ... > today I call Mach Speed Tech back and ask him bout which > memory he suggests for that board...I told him I wanted > ecc...He tells me nope! wow..He stated, only if the board > is a rated "server" motherboard should I use ecc... > I told him I say...I am using this board as a server ... It's not the mainboard. It's the processor. The memory controller is on the _CPU_, _not_ the mainboard or its chipsets. There are literally 368 traces on a Socket-939/940 mainboard to its DIMMs -- 2 sets of 184-pin DDR. AMD Socket-939 uses Unregistered AMD Socket-940 uses Registered AMD Athlon 64 are configured to use non-ECC AMD Opteron are configured to use non-ECC or ECC So if you want unregistered ECC, get a Socket-939 Opteron If you want registered ECC, get a Socket-940 Opteron If you want to use unregistered, non-ECC, get Socket-939 A64 The BIOS/POST/ACPI is going to be so configured, respectively, on Socket-939 and 940 mainboards, depending on what CPU is inserted. There may be "hacks" to support otherwise on some mainboards, but I seriously doubt it is well supported/reliable. AMD is very anal on this product alignment. > didn't care...I guess this is a low end board or whatever... No offense, but obviously. ;-> You don't use desktop mainboards for servers. It's the reason why I won't buy a Sun SunFire X2100 either. > only thing I know is that Mach Speed is the only > MB around that gives a lifetime warranty but so what... I typically _avoid_ TigerDirect for various reasons. Their overmarketing of crap is a big one. ;-> > so that was my point and I thought maybe some of y'all might > find that interesting as I did... > Don't use ecc memory...Wow!!! blew me away! Not if you know the first thing about how Athlon 64 and Opteron differ from AMD's strategy. ;-> Furthermore, many Intel desktop chipsets/CPUs do _not_ support ECC either. But with AMD, it's the CPU itself -- *NOT* the mainboard. > I wanted y'all to hear this Actually, you're just introducing false assumptions/information. For servers, use AMD Opteron. They have Socket-939 single socket (including dual-core) versions now that can use lower-costing, unregistered, ECC memory. -- Bryan J. Smith Professional, Technical Annoyance b.j.smith at ieee.org http://thebs413.blogspot.com ---------------------------------------------------- *** Speed doesn't kill, difference in speed does ***