$230: Dell Precision T1650 Xeon E3 V2 machine with 32GB DDR3 No HDD

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

dontwanna

Member
Dec 22, 2016
90
20
8
...which are much more expensive than ddr3 registered ECC memory that we are all familiar with.
I wouldn't say that regular desktop DDR3 sticks are "much more expensive". Unbuffered ECC sticks are indeed quite a bit more expensive than registered ECC sticks, but normal desktop unbuffered non-ECC modules aren't.

It's just simple supply and demand thing. There's a lot of registered memory on the market since most servers have lots of slots and need a lot of ram (for virtualization etc). Yet the vast majority of simple computers out there don't work with registered modules so when the servers get upgraded there's an abundance of registered modules on the used market and not that many buyers to drive the prices up.

It's a bit different with unbuffered non-ECC desktop modules - that market is pretty balanced since it's mostly people upgrading regular desktops and the number of buyers for those modules is not that huge (average desktop users don't need a lot of ram and usually upgrade their systems to get performance boost, which means getting new platform with ddr4 most of the time).

And unbuffered ECC market is different still - that's where the demand is still strong and the supply isn't. There are still reasons to run servers/workstations that only support unbuffered ecc modules. A lot of those are mATX/mITX low power systems for router appliances, NAS etc - whenever small footprint and low power consumption are important, those still make sense: the boards are cheap, the cpus are cheap (sandy/ivy and even haswell xeons are quite affordable), and the ram is still cheaper than ddr4 unbuffered ecc. But - the supply for those ddr3 ecc unbuff modules is not huge, so they're quite expensive indeed. And if that Dell workstation from the first post would come with 4*8 of those ecc unbuffered modules - then it would be a decent deal indeed. But it doesn't, so it isn't.

I have a Dell R220 which requires non ECC memory.
I think you're confused about memory types. Dell R220 supports ECC memory (what server doesn't?!), it just needs unbuffered ECC memory. Which is expensive indeed. But that Precision T1650 workstation from the first post has unbuffered non-ecc modules inside (that's the regular desktop memory, which isn't expensive these days).
 

wildpig1234

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2016
2,198
443
83
49
yeah, i have 4x 2gb and 2x 4gb udimm just to test out the i7-3930k i got recently, i don't know if they udimm i have are ecc or not.. how do i find out? google the part/label?
 

dontwanna

Member
Dec 22, 2016
90
20
8
i don't know if they udimm i have are ecc or not.. how do i find out? google the part/label?
You might google the part number, but it should be pretty obvious just by looking at the modules - they'll have an extra memory cheap on each side. So a typical desktop non-ecc ddr3 udimm will have 8 chips on each side, and ecc udimm will have 9.
 

wildpig1234

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2016
2,198
443
83
49
i guess most likely the udimm i have are non-ecc? they work with both i7 and xeon.... good thing most of us aren't looking for either non-ecc udimm or ecc-udimm.
 

dontwanna

Member
Dec 22, 2016
90
20
8
i guess most likely the udimm i have are non-ecc? they work with both i7 and xeon...
One of the reasons ECC unbuffered DDR3 modules are still expensive is that they work pretty much anywhere. They don't care whether you're using a Xeon or an i7. If it's a Xeon and the motherboard/chipset has support for ECC function - then error correction will work. If it's i7 or i5 and/or the motherboard doesn't support error correction - then they'll just work as regular non-ecc modules.
 

wildpig1234

Well-Known Member
Aug 22, 2016
2,198
443
83
49
so it looks like one of the 4gb udimm i got is non-ecc. the other 4gb udimm is ecc and the four 2gb udimm are ecc. And they actually work together! xeon and i7 had no problem using all 3 mixed together... one of the 4gb is 1Rx8 and the others are all 2RX8

kinda interesting i guess
 
Last edited:

KC8FLB

Member
Aug 12, 2018
71
55
18
I think you're confused about memory types. Dell R220 supports ECC memory (what server doesn't?!), it just needs unbuffered ECC memory.
Yes, thanks for refreshing my memory. (Ha).

I remember digging through my box of spare memory and realizing that my ddr3 registered ECC sticks wouldn't work despite working in all my other home gear then realizing I needed different memory which turned out to be quite a bit more expensive.