Processors

[latot]

Hi all, I was looking some time ago to build a pc, I run simulations and some heavy things, so I needed a pc with at least 100gb of ram, and due to time calculations with ECC.

I was checking the 7950 processor, is really exiciting!

https://www.amd.com/en/product/12151

One thing, I was really interested time ago is the ECC support, and finally!

ECC Support

Yes (Requires mobo support)

The other one, finally ram to 128GB!

2x1R

DDR5-5200

2x2R

DDR5-5200

4x1R

DDR5-3600

4x2R

DDR5-3600

Now with this clear, I'm... confused? There is several reasons, lets start with:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TwfM3s2Wdw&t=285s

Seems the ram for ECC is different from normal ram in DDR5, so maybe we will need a particular motherboard to can get the ECC works.

Here the next question, what motherboards are available here (for ECC)? I only can find normal motherboards, or maybe both ram sticks can be pluged in the same slot... I still can't found a AM5 motherboard with ECC support (specifications of 7950 says mobo must support it).

The next thing, and why I'm confused is where to get ram, well rams of 16GB is easy, but..., lets take a look again, if we want to get the 5600Mhz of the ram, out only option is get 2x64GB DDR5 UDIMM 5600MHz, in case we want to use 4 ram sticks we only will get half of the speed, that is not a problem, is just, who and where this super 64gb of ram is sold? and if is ECC (the one I want), where can I buy it?

Even with the great specifications of the CPU, I'm struggling to find where to get the motherboard and ram. Where can I get them? what are the options?

Thx!

[misterj]

latot, See here for specifications of the 7950X which does support ECC. I found an ASUS MB with this note at the bottom: "* Non-ECC, Un-buffered DDR5 Memory supports On-Die ECC function".  I have not done any research on DDR5 but it seems to have on-die ECC support, but I found some G.Skill DDR5 memory that says non-ECC. I am confused. You will need to do some research. Crucial does seem to support DDR5 with ECC, and the site has a search function for mother boards. Enjoy, John.

[latot]

Actually, we can found 32GB ECC (not too much of them), but we only be able to use 3600Mhz, the hard part, where find 64GB. Still the question if the slot to put the ram is same for ECC and non-ECC ones.

I'm confused too, there is info I can't just found, so I come here to see if more ppl can help with that.

I didn't know crucial has so good search engines, still can't found the motherboard section. Will look more! Thx!

[misterj]

latot, I think you need to contact memory and MB vendors and suggest Crucial and ASUS. I got really good advice from G.Skill before I ordered memory for my last system.  Unfortunately they do not seem to offer ECC DDR5. Please let us know what you learn. Threadripper may be more likely to support ECC, but the Zen 4 version may not be available anytime soon.  Older ones are fast but expensive. Enjoy, John.

EDIT: You will need to have a MB with at least 4 memory slots, so you can use 4 sticks of memory.

EDIT: See here for information on Zen 4 Threadripper says 2023 for availability. Zen 3 Threadrippers are available but expensive.

[latot]

mmm, Threadripper is expensive, the Zen 4 can be expensive too xD

Well, the price per core is not that big, but move or try 32 or 64 is a big amount of cash. Or maybe , you know something that cab tell use Zen 4 will be cheaper at some extent? that would be great!

[elstaci]

Yes the DIMM slots will be the same for both ECC and Non-ECC RAM. All the DIMM Slots will work with all ECC or with all Non-ECC RAM installed.

It all depends on your Motherboard specs.

It will be extremely difficult to find any Consumer Motherboard that will accept 64GB RAM Modules. Even with 32GB RAM Modules it isn't very common.

The QVL List will show you which RAM Density it supports at which speeds.

[latot]

good point, I think I'll need wait a little before, for MB with ECC compatibility. if there is no ram of 64..., I suppose I'll need to move to 3200Mhz. The price of the ram is pretty expensive, with ECC and 32GB, I can't found Expo of this type. The good part is the price of the 7000 series has a lot of descounts, that helps to compensate the difference.

[elstaci]

The majority of Consumer Motherboards, in my opinion, generally have very little ECC Ram listed in their QVL Lists. They do list it but not many choices to make for ECC RAM part numbers.

Whichever Motherboard you choose go to the Motherboard's QVL List for your processor and check which ECC RAM part numbers have been checked for compatibility by the manufacturer.

All Ryzen unofficially support ECC RAM except the Ryzen APUs that doesn't. Only the Ryzen Pro APU's support ECC Ram.

The only Consumer Motherboards that are similar to Server Motherboards are the ThreadRipper Motherboards:

Most use ECC RAM Memory up to 250GBs but quite expensive compared to other Consumer Motherboards.

EDIT: Found this article about Gigabyte Server Motherboard that uses the 7000 series processors and ECC RAM: https://www.servethehome.com/gigabyte-mc13-le1-and-mc13-le0-for-amd-ryzen-7000-in-servers/

Here is Gigabytes Support for one of the above linked Server Motherboards: https://www.gigabyte.com/Enterprise/Server-Motherboard/MC13-LE1-rev-10#Specifications

[latot]

Ufff, until now seems the only two motherboards, I still don't know if we can use ECC and non-ECC rams in the same motherboard, I read (without confirmation) we can't use buffered ram in non-buffered system support.

Yeah, ECC is not very close to the majority...  ECC ram is more expensive, but in this case the max is 128GB, so will not be so expensive like 256GB or the 2TB for a server.

The mobo price will be determinant in this, in my considerations, there no too much point go from threadripper to ryzen 7000 if is too high, one advantage of the 7000 series is the price, a lot more low than the threadripper ones.

[elstaci]

According to Crucial:

Can I combine ECC and non-ECC RAM?

Adding non-ECC memory to an ECC system will disable the error-checking and correcting ability of your memory modules. While your system may still operate, the enhanced features of the ECC modules will no longer be functioning as ECC in your computer.

ECC vs. non-ECC -- What do I have and can I mix? - Crucial.com

So according to the above statement if you install both ECC and Non-ECC RaM together you will lose the ECC Security functions and the ECC will just act like a regular Non-ECC RAM.

NOTE: Like I mentioned just check the Motherboard you are interested in purchasing its QVL List for the 7000 series processors and see which ECC RAM it lists and purchase that.

The QVL List will generally mention how much ECC RAM you can add to the motherboard depending on the part number.

[latot]

mmm, okis!, thx for telling me that.

Now seems hard, even found DDR5 32GB ECC.

In crucial I can't found how to search that type of ram, in the filters there is no ECC, and in the server ram section there is no list of possible rams, but is possible use google to search.

https://www.crucial.com/memory/server-ddr5/mtc20c2085s1ec48ba1rhttps://www.crucial.com/catalog/memor...

and then where to but it...

https://www.ebay.com/itm/195506978833

buy in a oficial web page..., seems confusing, can't reach ery easy a price to get a cotization.

[elstaci]

Went to your Crucial Link that you posted in your last reply and under "Search" inputted "ECC RAM" and Crucial came up with this ECC RAM webpage: https://www.crucial.com/search?q=ECC+Ram

If you click on "Reload" more ECC RAM Modules will be shown. Many are 32GB Modules:

The System upgrades shown at Crucial are all Gigabyte ECC Motherboards. I believe most use Intel Processors. You will need to google each Gigabyte mobo to see if any are AMD motherboards for ECC RAM.