On 2010-Feb-19 09:07, Kevin McGregor wrote:
While we're on the topic, what sort of desktop-PC motherboards are available that support ECC memory? I've never really paid attention, so for all I know, ECC support is common.
Not very many. The only non-server-grade chipset I'm aware of that supports ECC is Intel's X58, as embodied in their WX58BP motherboard. Which sells for (typically) just under $300. That's at the cheap end of things, anyway. (vis. Dell Precision T3500, for anywhere from $1400 to $13,000 depending on configuration!)
Note that this also requires a Xeon CPU, which thankfully isn't much more than its non-Xeon siblings. The one that's most sensibly priced is the Intel W3520, at somewhere around $350.
There's an X38 chipset as well, which may support ECC, but it appears to be pretty rare on the ground in any case. The *only* example I've found of a shipping system is the Dell Precision T3400!
The X38 & X58 are single-socket solutions; the Intel 5500-series chipsets support dual-CPU configurations. The 5500 series is billed as both a "workstation" and a "server" chipset - take your pick. Dell currently markets two workstations based on the 5520.
From what I can tell, ECC is the primary differentiator between "desktop" and "workstation" class systems right now. Xeon support seems to be the 2nd-order discriminant.
Although that's not really a hard-and-fast rule. Dell, for example, bases their T1500 "workstation" on the P55/H57 chipset, which does not support ECC. Of course, that's the only workstation they do sell without ECC - and not even the cheapest one! - so I'll forgive them that :-).
I'm not aware of any nVidia chipsets that support ECC.
Some AMD Opteron-supporting chipsets should support ECC, but I'm not familiar with that part of the market at all.
-Adam