Mixing ECC ram and normal sdram

[nick t]

is it ok to mix sdram and sdram with ecc on the same board , of will things go badly wrong
thanks Nick

[Bovon]

You can try, but a lot of boards will not run ECC (parity) Ram. If it runs ok, great...if it dosn't, take it back out. It won't hurt the machine to try it...it will either work, or it won't. ECC is slower than SDRAM..takes one or two clock cycles to error check the data, which slows down the machine. ECC and registered ram are only used in servers usually.

[Fingers]

Actually, Crucial.com indicates most boards will run either ECC or non-parity, but not both at the same time.

Can I use memory with ECC on a board that does not support ECC? (http://support.crucial.com/scripts/crucial.exe/solution?11=000724-0003&130=000964451829&14=&2715=&15=&2716=&57=search&58=&2900=&25=6&3=ecc)

<A HREF="http://support.crucial.com/scripts/crucial.exe/solution?11=001128-0007&130=000975431213&14=&2715=&15=&2716=&57=search&58=&2900=&25=6&3=ecc" TARGET=_blank>Can you mix and match ECC and non-ECC modules?
</A>

I believe I read a message where a member was successfully using both ECC and non-ECC at the same time as long as Error Checking was disabled in the BIOS, so it might be worth a try if you already have the parts.

[NDD]

What board (chipset) do you have ? Most of times, unless all memory stick are ECC, ECC will not function properly with mixed types (or at all), so it will perform as simple plain SDRAM ...

Best Regards ...

[Long Haired Hippie Phreek]

If you have ECC, just sell it, it is worth more than normal stuff, and you can buy a new stick of guaranteed compatability for less than what you can get for it used!

[nick t]

Sorry i forgot to tick the e-mail reply box.
well for an update ..i ended up getting a stick of 256 ECC from an auction, advertised as`New 256Mb ECC Ram for £60,($96). However not only was the ram second hand, the pc would only see it as a simm 128Mb, so i sent it back ..Rip off! I think i will take your advise and get a new stick of non ECC from kingston or micron.
Thanks to all who replied

Nick