Memory: ECC or NOT at DVinfo.net

Greg Covey · February 12th, 2004, 10:45 PM

I'm planning on building a system for DV editing. The motherboard I'll be buying supports ECC memory (Intel d875pbz). Is ECC necessary? How will a memory error manifest itself in a final render? Will it even be noticeable?

Thanks in advance for any input.

Glenn Chan · February 12th, 2004, 11:02 PM

Nope, you don't need ECC memory.

ECC memory allows for ridiculous amounts of RAM. 24GB I think?
ECC memory has error checking, but that doesn't help you much. In the extremely rare case you get an error, you'll get a dropout or something like that if rendering a video file. Nothing major.

Gints Klimanis · February 13th, 2004, 12:27 AM

A memory error can be more serious than that. You can easily crash the entire machine if one bit goes wrong, especially in the instruction stream.

Gints Klimanis · February 13th, 2004, 12:30 AM

ECC in most forms is only an additional one or two bits of parity,
which is enough only to identify an error. Thus, it's only an error test. You need about 9 bits of parity for 16 bits of data to actually correct it. There are many schemes for this.

Glenn Chan · February 14th, 2004, 01:04 AM

Registered memory has error correction.

But really... the chance of a memory error is very, very low (assuming you have good memory in the first place, try memtest86 if you want to test) and it's not catastrophic when you get an error (dropout, and even rarer your computer will crash).

Gints Klimanis · February 16th, 2004, 03:00 PM

While the chance of a cosmic particle striking a memory cell are small, there are plenty of other enivonmental factors such as heat which dramatically increase the errors.

Harry Settle · February 16th, 2004, 07:19 PM

In reference to the chance of getting memory error. . . the 50/50/90 rule applies.

If there is a 50/50 percent chance that there will be an error, there is a 90 percent chance that it will happen to me.

February 12th, 2004, 10:45 PM	#1
Greg Covey Tourist Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Long Beach, CA Posts: 3	Memory: ECC or NOT I'm planning on building a system for DV editing. The motherboard I'll be buying supports ECC memory (Intel d875pbz). Is ECC necessary? How will a memory error manifest itself in a final render? Will it even be noticeable? Thanks in advance for any input.

February 16th, 2004, 07:19 PM	#7
Harry Settle Major Player Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Bemidji, MN Posts: 276	In reference to the chance of getting memory error. . . the 50/50/90 rule applies. If there is a 50/50 percent chance that there will be an error, there is a 90 percent chance that it will happen to me. __________________ "DOH"!!!

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February 12th, 2004, 11:02 PM	#2
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	Nope, you don't need ECC memory. ECC memory allows for ridiculous amounts of RAM. 24GB I think? ECC memory has error checking, but that doesn't help you much. In the extremely rare case you get an error, you'll get a dropout or something like that if rendering a video file. Nothing major.

February 13th, 2004, 12:27 AM	#3
Gints Klimanis Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: San Jose, CA Posts: 2,222	A memory error can be more serious than that. You can easily crash the entire machine if one bit goes wrong, especially in the instruction stream.

February 13th, 2004, 12:30 AM	#4
Gints Klimanis Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: San Jose, CA Posts: 2,222	ECC in most forms is only an additional one or two bits of parity, which is enough only to identify an error. Thus, it's only an error test. You need about 9 bits of parity for 16 bits of data to actually correct it. There are many schemes for this.

February 14th, 2004, 01:04 AM	#5
Glenn Chan Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Toronto, Canada Posts: 4,750	Registered memory has error correction. But really... the chance of a memory error is very, very low (assuming you have good memory in the first place, try memtest86 if you want to test) and it's not catastrophic when you get an error (dropout, and even rarer your computer will crash).

February 16th, 2004, 03:00 PM	#6
Gints Klimanis Inner Circle Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: San Jose, CA Posts: 2,222	While the chance of a cosmic particle striking a memory cell are small, there are plenty of other enivonmental factors such as heat which dramatically increase the errors.