Memory

[G Smith]

Hi,

I have a bit of a question regarding DDR/SDRAM memory

I've read for the new Granite Bay motherboards that you must use unbuffered memory only.

I've been shopping for components for my new system and I see ECC and non ECC memory a lot.. what's the difference. And where (if at all) does unbuffered memory fall into this?

Here is a spec that I got from an intel site..about the Granite Bay memory that must be used.

unbuffered only
x72 or x64 DIMMs
DDR - SDRAM

Can someone translate this ?

[Mr. C]

The specs on the RAM should specify if it is unbuffered or not -- in most cases buffered sticks are also ECC.

Buffering isolates the electrical load from the chipset to help it cope with the load in large memory situations.

ECC = Error Checking & Correcting

non ECC doesn't have the capability of checking each byte of data by comparing to the extra 9th bit as ECC would.

ECC memory is primarily used in server and lab situations where perfect transmission of data is critical to the task.
It is quite typical of a desktop system to require unbuffered and non ECC memory, so finding them should be a breeze.
Just look at the specs on the memory when you are shopping and be certain it states "non ECC" - and "unbuffered" and you should be just fine.

[G Smith]

Thank's for the information...