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The same way backups are most rigorously performed by people who've lost data, ECC is a non-negotiable requirement for people who've suffered slow data corruption via silent memory failures.

It surprises me that people are happy with 64GB+ builds of non-ECC, especially for NAS (ie. very long term storage, where corruptions probably wouldn't be noticed for years).

Periodically I look at replacing my small fleet of HP micro Gen8's, which use Xeons, have 4 x 3.5" bays (with proper h/w RAID1), but max out at a frustratingly low 16GB. They're quite robust, but because of their age - and HP - a horse veterinarian approach to component failures is usually indicated.

A Ryzen + ECC whitebox build is massively appealing, but almost everyone's build-out includes caveats like 'check the datasheet of the mobo and CPU' (because series aren't consistent), and about half the time a terrifying disclaimer to the effect of 'ECC is present / enabled in the kernel, but I can't tell if it's actually functioning properly'.




Older AGESA (part of the mobo firmware that handles system initialization) versions had a bug that prevented the chipset from recognizing and utilizing ECC ram properly even though the chipsets should support it. Check any motherboard in question for a firmware update which includes at least AGESA 1.0.0.5 patch C.

https://www.reddit.com/r/truenas/comments/10lqofy/


This. Additionally, there is the price point of modern AMD "workstationish" systems vs. used Intel "real server" systems. Efficiency together with more performance is great, but if I had to pay double the price for a system that offers lots of performance I won't need anyway I'm not willing to pay the price.

Used Intel Systems are just way cheaper, because nobody seems to want them anymore... Everyone wants a >= 8 core ryzen :-) I personally don't need this for a little Proxmox / NAS kind of system.

However, I'm hoping for frame.work to announce official ECC support[1] on their Notebook boards (pretty likely this will never happen). I would love to just use the coolermaster case with small efficient modern notebook hardware for 600 bucks just because I don't need additional harddisks and I would just buy one to support the company.

[1]: https://community.frame.work/t/ecc-error-correcting-code-def...




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