I am looking for high quality RAM, either 2x8GB or 4x4GB and since I have a 3770k so I was looking for some RAM some where between 1866MHz and 2133MHz.
Server ram can be error correcting (ECC) or non-ECC. With the current quality of RAM, ECC is losing ground. The other difference is Registered/buffered RAM. This allows servers to access more ram due to the lower electrical load on the memory controller. Many servers require registered memory but some of the newer servers don't, but even the newer ones can handle more RAM if registered memory is used. Both ECC and registered memory are more expensive than desktop memory.
by: murisonc
The memory in a server is expected to be fast, and is called ECC memory. ECC stands for error correcting code memory. This memory system tests and corrects any errors in memory without the processor or user being aware of it. The error correcting code generates a checksum when data is loaded in memory, and when it unloads, the checksum is recomputed and if an error is detected it is automatically corrected. This ensures that the data passed in the server is correct.
All desktop, laptops, and tower computers use different types of memory classed on their speed and structure. They are known as SDR, DDR, DDR2, etc, and as the personal computer world has seen the personal computers getting faster and faster, the memory speeds have also been enhanced over time.
If you put a high-speed memory in a slow speed processor machine, it will probably burn out and the same rule applies vice versa. The memory speed and the processor speed have to be synchronised to work properly.
In desktop computers, you may have had incidents of a memory chip getting defective, or the computer gives a memory-addressing fault. This never happens in a server machine. Server machines are supposed to be zero-fault tolerance machines. The applications that are supposed to perform cannot afford any downtime.
High-end servers have a very robust architecture, as they are used to perform very specific jobs. Therefore, they are built such that the possibility of a fault occurring is minimised. In case, a fault does occur, the machine will not crash or the application will not stop. Therefore, a proper server machine does have different memory from a non-server machine. Very few people are aware of this, as the environments in which they work don't use high-end servers.
by: police666