# ECC Motherboard on X99



## radrok (May 8, 2015)

Alright guys, I've got a question for you.

My current workhorse is running out of RAM when loading big scenes and working simultaneously on two different programs.

I've got the green light from my boss to get a new workstation and this time around I've decided to switch to ECC ram which has better density than non-ECC unregistered dimms, atleast for now.

I've just ordered this CPU which is basically the Xeon variant of the 5960X

http://ark.intel.com/it/products/82766/Intel-Xeon-Processor-E5-1660-v3-20M-Cache-3_00-GHz

and 128GB of Micron (Crucial) RDIMM, 16GB sticks.

My issue is now the motherboard, I wanted to use an X99 Sabertooth but I can't find any mention of ECC ram support.

Any suggestion is welcome, thank you guys.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (May 8, 2015)

AsRock has a wide selection.
Asus has at least one

Basically pick a motherboard manufacture and browse their X99 options for one that supports registered DIMMs.  It'll probably be advertised as a workstation motherboard.


----------



## radrok (May 8, 2015)

FordGT90Concept said:


> AsRock has a wide selection.
> Asus has at least one
> 
> Basically pick a motherboard manufacture and browse their X99 options for one that supports registered DIMMs.  It'll probably be advertised as a workstation motherboard.



Alright thank you.

I'm kinda wondering what makes or breaks the ECC support on a motherboard (without considering the CPU, I know it has to be a Xeon), maybe it's something physical on the PCB or just BIOS?

It's strange that all Asrock lineup supports that but ASUS doesn't.


----------



## FordGT90Concept (May 9, 2015)

Don't quote me on this but I think there's more interconnects between the CPU and the DIMMs.  Consumer boards usually don't put them in to cut costs and when there are 8 DIMMs, that's a lot of costs most will cut.


----------



## radrok (May 10, 2015)

Little update, I've gathered around some little info and as far as I know now the ECC support comes from the chipset.

X99 is capable of supporting ECC ram so I will try the 1660v3 and Sabertooth X99 combo.

Thank you for your help Ford


----------



## Aquinus (May 11, 2015)

As long as the CPU is a Xeon, it's a compatible motherboard, and it's *unregistered* ECC memory, it should work fine. The PCH has nothing to do with memory support. A great example is if I tossed out my 3820 and put a Xeon in it instead, I could put ECC memory in it as well. Memory support depends on memory controller and BIOS, but not the PCH.

ECC unbuffered/unregistered alone doesn't use different pinning but *registered/buffered* memory does. Xeon memory controllers know how to handle the extra DRAM chip on the DIMM to do ECC, nothing more, nothing less. ECC memory really is just an extra DRAM chip to store a parity bit to verify and validate the memory's integrity. Buffered memory adds an entire IC to the DIMM that buffers the memory signal to put less strain on the memory controller (hence why it enables up to 4 DIMMs per channel.)

Edit: A great example is if a DRAM IC has 8 DRAM ICs on it, an ECC memory module of similar configuration would have 8+1 DRAM ICs on it, the 1 is for parity (8 bits to 1 parity bit.)


----------

