questions about testing ram and mobo stability

[kaitlin4599]

ok so i recently acquired a GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R socket 1366 motherboard. i plan to toss in a xeon w3690 alongside some DDR3 ECC ram that i have lying around so i can save money. now my research tells me that since the memory controller is built into the cpu and not into the board, the the ecc ram should run just with ECC disabled what im looking for is a program or tool that i can use to test my ram to see if its stable since i cant find any concrete evidence that ECC ram is supported all the forums i visit say 50/50 with ecc ram meaning it may or may not support the ram what program do you recommend i use to test out the ram i do plan to overclock the cpu but not till i know for sure the ram is working in the board os will be windows 7

 

[Woomack]

On desktop motherboards you can use only unbuffered ECC modules. Depends on BIOS, ECC will work or not. If it works then it's not a problem to keep it enabled.
When ECC is enabled then usually every memory error will be shown on the first screen after booting (it also depends on BIOS).

Since memory stability is related to some other components then it's good to use something that will load memory controller, cache and memory in the same time. There are multiple programs for that. AIDA64 with memory+cache tests enabled (only these 2) is enough to load memory up to 95-97% (so you can do simple things during the test). In my experience it tests memory/IMC well.
For only memory, you can use well-known memtest86/memtest86+. The latest version should also show if ECC is enabled or not.

 

[kaitlin4599]

On desktop motherboards you can use only unbuffered ECC modules. Depends on BIOS, ECC will work or not. If it works then it's not a problem to keep it enabled.
When ECC is enabled then usually every memory error will be shown on the first screen after booting (it also depends on BIOS).

Since memory stability is related to some other components then it's good to use something that will load memory controller, cache and memory in the same time. There are multiple programs for that. AIDA64 with memory+cache tests enabled (only these 2) is enough to load memory up to 95-97% (so you can do simple things during the test). In my experience it tests memory/IMC well.
For only memory, you can use well-known memtest86/memtest86+. The latest version should also show if ECC is enabled or not.

are there any other programs aside from the ones you mentioned?

 

[Woomack]

Generally everything that can address 90%+ memory. Popular is also HCI memtest (in free version more instances so it uses nearly whole RAM). Prime95 can be too.

 

[Johan45]

There's also the Google Stress App Test (GSAT) and techpowerup has their own memory testing app as well https://www.techpowerup.com/download/techpowerup-memtest64/

 

[trents]

Even if you have a bios that allows you to disable ECC you might need to start with non ECC memory to be able to get into the bios to do that.

 

[Woomack]

I've never had that problem with unbuffered ECC. I also don't remember any desktop motherboard on which I could disable ECC in BIOS. It simply works or not and it's not always easy to figure out if it really works.
I was overclocking a couple of kits on Z series chipsets like the one here
https://www.overclockers.com/forums...sung-2x4GB-DDR3-1600-C11-ECC-M391B5273DH0-YK0
but I don't remember if I was checking if ECC works ... it was more like a try to use leftovers from small servers

 

[kaitlin4599]

I've never had that problem with unbuffered ECC. I also don't remember any desktop motherboard on which I could disable ECC in BIOS. It simply works or not and it's not always easy to figure out if it really works.
I was overclocking a couple of kits on Z series chipsets like the one here
https://www.overclockers.com/forums...sung-2x4GB-DDR3-1600-C11-ECC-M391B5273DH0-YK0
but I don't remember if I was checking if ECC works ... it was more like a try to use leftovers from small servers

sadly the only ddr3 ram i have is ecc unbuffered

 

[Woomack]

So it's good. Have you checked if it's working stable? It should work like any non-ECC RAM.