2.22 Do I really need parity/ECC?
Description
This item is from the PC Hardware FAQ, by Willie Lim and Ralph Valentino with numerous contributions by others. (v1.25).
2.22 Do I really need parity/ECC?
[From: gnewman@world.std.com (Gary Newman)]
Perhaps the lack of widespread knowledge about memory errors is the cause of the near eradication of parity memory. In that case, I hope the above has helped spread the word about an inexpensive time, money, and anxiety saver.
Computers based on the Intel Triton (Triton-I) chipset CANNOT DETECT MEMORY ERRORS. In other words, Intel chose to not support parity memory with this chipset. Beware that buying a system based on Triton will leave you no future way to add parity error detection to your system.
For any computer system where it's worth spending $50 to avoid the annoying, and possibly quite damaging, effects of memory errors PARITY MEMORY IS A MUST.
On some computer systems the owner is willing to take some pain in order to save the $50 that parity memory adds in costs. If your computer will be used solely to play games or you don't mind occasionally having corrupt files or flaky programs then you may want to consider a system which has no memory error detection.
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