[mythtv-users] AM2+ motherboard with support for ECC RAM for media player / server

[Bob]

Bill Williamson wrote:
> My mythtv server has 4gb of ram and was up (until I upgraded it to 
> ubuntu 8.04) for 9 months.... I seriously think you're limiting your 
> motherboard choice based on something silly.

And my current Geode NX 1500 web server has 2GB of standard DDR ram and 
only gets rebooted whenever debian etch gets a new kernel but lets not 
confuse good luck with good practice.

My file server is a dual p!!! with 500 MB of ECC Registered RAM, it's 
been up since I moved house 5 months ago and prior to that was up about 
a year and a half, but it's a proper server board so it should be reliable.

This is despite the slightly odd [0] promise ATA 100 board with 2 120GB 
drives in RAID0 for a temp drive [1] and an 80 GB ATA system drive and 3 
SATA drive in RAID5 for data storage

Part of the point is I'm eying these 2 boxes to replace my web and file 
server after they've done a couple of years as media players with a bit 
of light gaming, so I'd like to build in a bit more reliability than I 
might need now.

Those 2 boards are perfect other that the lack of FireWire.

[0] it got hacked into a RAID card for winblows and then reverted to 
original config for md RAID so it has some "extra" wiring on it
[1] old Seagate drives one of which is beginning to click and through up 
SMART errors, I'm very pleased it's only a scratch drive for video 
editing and such

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: *Bob* <spam at homeurl.co.uk <mailto:spam at homeurl.co.uk>>
> Date: Wed, May 7, 2008 at 5:04 PM
> Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] AM2+ motherboard with support for ECC RAM 
> for media player / server
> To: Discussion about mythtv <mythtv-users at mythtv.org 
> <mailto:mythtv-users at mythtv.org>>
>
>
> Bill Williamson wrote:
> > On Wed, May 7, 2008 at 4:23 PM, Bob <spam at homeurl.co.uk 
> <mailto:spam at homeurl.co.uk>
> > <mailto:spam at homeurl.co.uk <mailto:spam at homeurl.co.uk>>> wrote:
> >
> >     Bob wrote:
> >     > Unbuffered / Registered obviously.
> >     >
> >
> >     Bad form Bla Bla Bla but just to update the list, the abit 
> A-S78H also
> >     supports Un-buffered ECC RAM, it doesn't have FireWire though
> >     
> http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/motherboard/motherboard_detail.php?pMODEL_NAME=A-S78H&fMTYPE=Socket%20AM2 
> <http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/motherboard/motherboard_detail.php?pMODEL_NAME=A-S78H&fMTYPE=Socket%20AM2>
> >     
> <http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/motherboard/motherboard_detail.php?pMODEL_NAME=A-S78H&fMTYPE=Socket%20AM2 
> <http://www.abit.com.tw/page/en/motherboard/motherboard_detail.php?pMODEL_NAME=A-S78H&fMTYPE=Socket%20AM2>>
> >
> >
> >
> > Why do you think that ECC vs non ECC ram will have any bearing on
> > stability of a media computer ?  If you're going ECC, why would you
> > not also go SCSI?
> >
> > I don't disagree with wanting stability, but the reality is that ECC
> > likely will not give you any.
>
> ECC RAM corrects bit errors in memory which could cause a crash or other
> problems, these errors while rare are estimated to occur once a month
> per GB of RAM, I'm planing have 2 or 4 GBs and I'll leave the system up
> all the time, which is why reliability and low power consumption are a 
> must.
>
> I don't want to build a "proper" server with ECC Registered RAM and SCSI
> because it'll cost a fair bit more for a fairly marginal improvement in
> stability and longevity.