RAM - ECC and nonECC

zod

Quick question -

Is it possible to use non ECC RAM in a PC designed for ECC ?

I (will) have this PC - http://www1.euro.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/pedge_sc420?c=ie&cs=iebsdt1&l=en&s=bsd&~page=2&~tab=specstab#tabtop

And I can get compatible RAM here

http://www.memory-configurator.com/DELL/PowerEdge/PowerEdge-SC420.html

€80 for 512MB and €150 for 1GB

But this is cheaper :

http://www.jes-computer.de/product_info.php?pID=17924 @ €88.50 for 1GB but nonECC

thanks

po0k

Are you using it as a server or a workstation?

Depends on the chipset used really, I'd say you could get away with running non-ECC, borrow a random stick of DDR2 off someone, fire it in and see if the machine runs (with or without any of the original DDR2 ECC ram in it).
An even quicker test would be to try and locate an option to enable/disable ECC usage in the BIOS at boot. If you can choose to use ECC or not, you can reasonable assume the machine will run non-ECC.

When mixing ECC and non-ECC, disable ECC in the BIOS, as all your ram will have to run in non-ECC mode.

zod

I'm using it as a workstation..

I wanted to order the RAM before I get the hardware - so no real chance of testing in the machine or to see if the BIOS has a non-ECC setting before hand.

thanks anyway