3600MHz DDR4 with ECC support for UDIMMs
3600MHz DDR4 with ECC support for UDIMMs
I lack funds to invest 2000 EUR solely in motherboard and CPU. There are currently no Zen3 EPYCs available. Server chips usually struggle with single-thread speed, which matters for loading times when navigating through a door—especially in gaming terms. I still own a GTX 970 from my old i7-2600K system (damaged motherboard, SATA issues, noisy and outdated), plus an SSD that works fine at first. This leaves a remaining budget of up to 1500 EUR for case, PSU, CPU, motherboard, and RAM.
I own numerous systems lacking an ECC that have operated without reboots for a long time. Current models can easily last years without restarting. While quicker updates are achievable, before Ryzen there were little incentive to improve them. I wish someone would introduce this technology, but it's still not available.
Sure, they operate longer without ECC, but the chance of bit rot in kernel structures grows, leading to silent or hidden problems and data loss. The six-month delay comes from kernel upgrades, not from reliability. Perhaps some third-party vendors are offering promising ECC UDIMMs? Keep in mind, I'm exploring alternatives instead of using multiple 5 G.Skill sticks with cheaper ECC UDIMMs. Swapping chips would waste memory—like turning nine Gaming DIMMs into eight ECC ones—but I only have four slots, so it would be a loss. Plus, it would add about 50 to 100 EUR extra since I don’t have the tools for reballing. Also, acquiring affordable ECC UDIMMs would be necessary to get proper ECC layouts on PCBs.
If you have the right tools, you might consider it, but from what I've seen, it's not simple or affordable, and budget cuts will be much better. The performance gain isn't substantial either. I don't think I'd be too concerned. It's usually less than a 5% increase for good 3200 to 3600 on Ryzen. So I'll just grab 3200 units here and see what works, then be content.
In that context: what should you focus on or watch for? Are they usually equipped with 64 GiB RAM? And if yes: how would adding all four slots with 32 GiB modules affect performance? I'm reaching out because people have stopped using factory-optimized RAM and are moving away from non-standard configurations. Are there ECC UDIMMs that support lower voltages available now? I assume they'd be grouped higher than regular units. Since I’m open to running them at higher power (as long as cooling stays reliable for years), I expect a modest voltage boost would help even less efficient chips perform better. As mentioned, I can cool these modules without much effort, so thermal problems from higher voltages aren’t the main issue—though overvoltage remains a concern.