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Matt Holmes
Matt Holmes
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I am completely confused as to why you would do this, but the short answer is: No, you aren't going to get (most) consumer Intel chipset boards to boot with ECC RAM. If you want ECC RAM, get a server chipset board.

Can you hack it? Maybe. Is there some obscure board out there with munged up reference codes that will boot it? Probably. Is it the norm? No.

To expand on what Fopedush said: I've seen most (as in 85%+) consumer boards fail to boot with ECC RAM. It's simply not something most consumer boards care to do, or are engineered to do. Generally if one has gone through all the expense to get a Xeon processor and ECC RAM, they'll just get a server board to put it on.

e: One other thing to note: You said it will give you post codes when the RAM is seated incorrectly, and this makes perfect sense. The boot up process first checks that any RAM is installed, then checks if it's installed correctly, then finally checks if it's compatible. It's going to hit the "installed incorrectly" check before it hits the "this is ECC RAM and I can't boot it check"it" check. ECC RAM is still just 240-pin SDRAM at it's core.

I am completely confused as to why you would do this, but the short answer is: No, you aren't going to get (most) consumer Intel chipset boards to boot with ECC RAM. If you want ECC RAM, get a server chipset board.

Can you hack it? Maybe. Is there some obscure board out there with munged up reference codes that will boot it? Probably. Is it the norm? No.

To expand on what Fopedush said: I've seen most (as in 85%+) consumer boards fail to boot with ECC RAM. It's simply not something most consumer boards care to do, or are engineered to do. Generally if one has gone through all the expense to get a Xeon processor and ECC RAM, they'll just get a server board to put it on.

e: One other thing to note: You said it will give you post codes when the RAM is seated incorrectly, and this makes perfect sense. The boot up process first checks that any RAM is installed, then checks if it's installed correctly, then finally checks if it's compatible. It's going to hit the "installed incorrectly" check before it hits the "this is ECC RAM and I can't boot it check". ECC RAM is still just 240-pin SDRAM at it's core.

I am completely confused as to why you would do this, but the short answer is: No, you aren't going to get (most) consumer Intel chipset boards to boot with ECC RAM. If you want ECC RAM, get a server chipset board.

Can you hack it? Maybe. Is there some obscure board out there with munged up reference codes that will boot it? Probably. Is it the norm? No.

To expand on what Fopedush said: I've seen most (as in 85%+) consumer boards fail to boot with ECC RAM. It's simply not something most consumer boards care to do, or are engineered to do. Generally if one has gone through all the expense to get a Xeon processor and ECC RAM, they'll just get a server board to put it on.

e: One other thing to note: You said it will give you post codes when the RAM is seated incorrectly, and this makes perfect sense. The boot up process first checks that any RAM is installed, then checks if it's installed correctly, then finally checks if it's compatible. It's going to hit the "installed incorrectly" check before it hits the "this is ECC RAM and I can't boot it" check. ECC RAM is still just 240-pin SDRAM at it's core.

Source Link
Matt Holmes
Matt Holmes
  • 386
  • 3
  • 7

I am completely confused as to why you would do this, but the short answer is: No, you aren't going to get (most) consumer Intel chipset boards to boot with ECC RAM. If you want ECC RAM, get a server chipset board.

Can you hack it? Maybe. Is there some obscure board out there with munged up reference codes that will boot it? Probably. Is it the norm? No.

To expand on what Fopedush said: I've seen most (as in 85%+) consumer boards fail to boot with ECC RAM. It's simply not something most consumer boards care to do, or are engineered to do. Generally if one has gone through all the expense to get a Xeon processor and ECC RAM, they'll just get a server board to put it on.

e: One other thing to note: You said it will give you post codes when the RAM is seated incorrectly, and this makes perfect sense. The boot up process first checks that any RAM is installed, then checks if it's installed correctly, then finally checks if it's compatible. It's going to hit the "installed incorrectly" check before it hits the "this is ECC RAM and I can't boot it check". ECC RAM is still just 240-pin SDRAM at it's core.