GIGABYTE GA-X38-DQ6

Does this MB support ECC DDR2 RAM?.

All the specs I can find state it supports DDR2 RAM, but not whether it's
ECC or non-ECC.

 

Interesting. A quick check of a few different X38 offerings, show
that most of them haven't got ECC as a feature. This one
explicitly mentions it. On the minus side, this board has only
one PS/2 connector. It has a water cooled Northbridge, but I
guess the heatpipe structure also supports air cooling, so
water is not required unless you want to use it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131221&Tpk=Maximus+Formula

I'm really surprised at this development, because I thought this
was one of the key features of the X38 chipset. The PCI Express
lanes feature doesn't mean squat to me, compared to the ability
of added ECC, to recommend the chipset for "reliable computing
users". Otherwise, this will force some users to go for workstation
class or server class motherboards.

Another interesting tidbit - this chipset comparison chart on the
Intel site, says that ECC is only available with the X38 DDR2
motherboards. So if the motherboard has DDR3, it can never
support ECC ? I haven't spotted any DDR3 with ECC, and I wonder
if they even included it in the JEDEC spec for DDR3 ? Lots of questions
here...

http://compare.intel.com/pcc/showchart.aspx?mmID=29003,143&familyID=10&culture=en-US

I would slow down, and shop carefully, if I were you.

Obviously there is a story behind this (like maybe needing a six layer
PCB for routing ECC?), and maybe some review site has the scoop.
Looks like I won't be as quick to recommend X38, if it is hard
to find a board that does ECC.

Paul

 

Well researched Paul.

For the MB in question, the Gigabyte GA-X38-DQ6, some sites say it supports
ECC, some say it does not. On one site I found a Gigabyte Powerpoint
presentation about this MB which clearly states it does support ECC with
DDR2. I wish Gigabyte would read this ng.

There is another Asus X38 MB that has DDR2 ECC support, the P5E WS PRO
http://www.asus.com.tw/products.aspx?l1=3&l2=11&l3=572&l4=0&model=1899&modelmenu=1,
though it may not be available in the US yet.