ECC rdram memory

[Hyper_Snyper]

I have a quick question about this type of ram.

I bought a Dell a few years back and it shipped with 256 megs of ECC RDRAM. If I want to add more ram, do i need to buy RD memory with ecc enabled or can i buy regular rdram??

That and what exaclty is ECC? Does it make the memory more efficient/faster or what??

[Kruno]

Error checking & correcting.
ECC ram is a bit slower. :)

[Hyper_Snyper]

So what happens if i put non-ECC ram into the mix with ECC-enabled ram? Will it work or will it just disable the ECC function?

[thcdru2k]

you wouldn't want to mismatch, bad for stability. but if you turn off ecc in the bios. it'll work fine.

[Stealthy]

I really wanted to get ECC RAM for my new PC, but did some research and found out that ECC is mostly good for servers that run 24/7 and critically need to be stable with no-file loss/error. For home PC's that are'nt used 24/7 or used for games, office documents(word, excel...etc), downloading pr0n ;) dont need ECC cause errors rarely happen especially now days and ECC costs more anyway :p

[Hyper_Snyper]

Ok, i guess i gotta get rid of the ecc stuff...

So how do i go about shutting off the ecc in the bios. I pressed F2 at startup and i got to the bios screen but it just shows me what type of ram i have, not options on disabling the ecc.

I have a Dell Dimension 8100 with P4 running at 1.4 GHz. I think the mobo is Dell made.

[thcdru2k]

I have a Dell Dimension 8100 with P4 running at 1.4 GHz. I think the mobo is Dell made.

yeah thats the problem, unless there are some custom made bios for dell out there, forget about it.