re: Microsoft says PCs may need DRAM upgrade (to ECC RAM)

Tim Long — Thu, 24 May 2007 01:18:01 GMT

I tend to agree. I'm a closet system builder and I've learned the hard way that cheap RAM is utterly false economy. When I buy DRAM now, I insist on seeing a brand name on it and a lifetime warranty. Generally I go for Kingston, but anything branded with a warranty will do.

I would definitely use ECC memory for a server. In fact, until recently my workstation had ECC memory, but I recently replaced it with standard memory, mainly because it is getting long in the tooth and PC133 memory is hard to find nowadays.

One of my hobbies is astronomy and I use a specialised CCD camera to take photos of very dim and distant objects. Every now and then an image turns up with what looks like a little "tear" in it. These are caused by cosmic ray hits and it's amazing how much effect they can have on a semiconductor - so it's not difficult to imagine the same thing happening to PC memory.