Re:ECC matters
by adrian_b on Sunday January 03, 2021 @02:47PM
(#25624547)
On a single computer with a large memory, e.g. 32 GB or more, the time between errors can be of a few months, if you are lucky to have good modules. Moreover, some of the errors will have no effect, if they happened to affect free memory.
Nevertheless, anyone who uses the computer for anything else besides games or movie watching, will greatly benefit from having ECC memory, because that is the only way to learn when the memory modules become defective.
Modern memories have a shorter lifetime than old memories and very frequently they begin to have bit errors from time to time long before breaking down completely.
Without ECC, you will become aware that a memory module is defective only when the computer crashes or no longer boots and severe data corruption in your files could have happened some months before that.
For myself, this was the most obvious reason why ECC was useful, because I was able in several cases to replace memory modules that began to have frequent correctable errors, after many years with little or no errors, without losing any precious data and without downtime.
Re:ECC matters
by ikiris on Sunday January 03, 2021 @03:30PM
(#25624940)
The good modules bit is important. I'm told by some colleagues that most of the bit flips are from alpha particles from the ram casings surprisingly enough.
Re:ECC matters
by dannyw on Monday January 04, 2021 @03:13AM
(#25628808)
Plus, ECC RAM is so accessible these days thanks to Ryzen. All the asrock mobos, from the lowest end to the highest end, advertise official support for it.
Nevertheless, anyone who uses the computer for anything else besides games or movie watching, will greatly benefit from having ECC memory, because that is the only way to learn when the memory modules become defective.
Modern memories have a shorter lifetime than old memories and very frequently they begin to have bit errors from time to time long before breaking down completely.
Without ECC, you will become aware that a memory module is defective only when the computer crashes or no longer boots and severe data corruption in your files could have happened some months before that.
For myself, this was the most obvious reason why ECC was useful, because I was able in several cases to replace memory modules that began to have frequent correctable errors, after many years with little or no errors, without losing any precious data and without downtime.