128mb ECC or 196mb?

[Pocky]

Which is better?
1 stick of 128mb PC100 w/ECC or 3 sticks of 64mb PC100?
I have tried to combine them both and it won't work, so
it is either the one or the other. Why can't they all just get along?

[gwilks98]

First of all, do you know why it didn't work? Is your computer able to handle ECC in the first place? Are your RAM banks interleaved? (Were you populating one bank with two different types of RAM?)

I thought you could mix the two, but you wouldn't get the benefits of ECC while doing so.


In any case, I would go with the 3 sticks of Non-ECC RAM. ECC RAM is more useful in higher end machines where data corruption is fatal. For the typical PC, ECC is rarely needed.

[Pocky]

Yes, my motherboard supports ECC.
I just don't understand why I can't combine the
one stick of 128, and two sticks of 64's for a total
of 256mb of ram. I have three ram slots in my mobo:
0,1,2. I put the 128 on 0, and the others on 1 and 2.
I have disabled the ECC function in the BIOS, reboot and it
shows 128mb. If I enable the ECC function it will
still be 128mb. If I take out the two 64's and
leave the 128, it will be 128. If I take out the 128,
the 2 64's will also leave me with 128.

[gwilks98]

hmm...

try rearranging the order of the three sticks. if you get a lower RAM count, you may have a dead bank. If you get the proper RAM count (256) you probably have a bank specific computer. (different banks require different sized ram)

man, you stumped me. I'm not sure. Maybe you just can't mix ECC RAM. but I'd rule out the other possibilities first.