Intel 13-3220, ECC support or not, Confused

[avalon60]

I have been reading the hardware section on boards and cpu's, and as I have a Intel i3-3220 3rd gen cpu, I read this with interest:

This (the X9SCM) is a socket 1155 board so it uses the E3-1200v2 series and 2nd and 3rd gen i3s, Pentiums and Celerons.

Then in the CPU section it says:
Middle-of-the-road

Update: Per this thread the 2nd Generation and 3rd generation i3s do not have ECC support (there are a few exceptions, but they are so expensive that you'd be better off buying a Xeon at the prices the i3s are selling at).

Then according to Supermicro's site :
Key Features
1. Single socket H2 (LGA 1155) supports
Intel® Xeon® E3-1200 & E3-1200 v2
series, 2nd and 3rd Gen Core i3
processors***, Pentium, Celeron

I have had this setup for almost a year now, and never realised that the cpu may not support ECC ram.

So does it or doesn't it. I would say it does, but I stand to be corrected.

 

[BigDave]

according to the revised ARK pages, it does not.

 

[Ericloewe]

It is a messy situation that nobody seems to fully understand.

The only certainty is that the Xeons do support ECC.

 

[avalon60]

Ok so just supposing it doesn't, what impact will or does the cpu have on the ECC ram or performance of, if any at all.

 

[Ericloewe]

Ok so just supposing it doesn't, what impact will or does the cpu have on the ECC ram or performance of, if any at all.

Worst case, there is no ECC.

Best case right now is something like "yeah, we left ECC in, but didn't really validate it, so we'll list it as unsupported".

 

[avalon60]

Okidoki, I think I'll go for this then, as its cheaper than a xeon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Intel-Penti...&ie=UTF8&qid=1428170811&sr=1-2&keywords=g2130

 

[marbus90]

Only Xeon support ECC with certainity. Somewhere there's a thread where Ericloewe et al explained ways how to find out of that system supports ECC or not.

 

[Ericloewe]

Only Xeon support ECC with certainity. Somewhere there's a thread where Ericloewe et al explained ways how to find out of that system supports ECC or not.

This is why I like unusual titles, it makes searching much easier:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...-and-ecc-santa-clara-we-have-a-problem.28210/

 

[anodos]

This is why I like unusual titles, it makes searching much easier:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...-and-ecc-santa-clara-we-have-a-problem.28210/

That's why I try to mix in off-topic rants with my posts. Months later I remember I posted a how-to in which I ranted about [homes] and postmodernism. Then I search for 'postmodernism' and there's only one result.... Crap now there's two. I'll stop revealing my secrets now.

 

[avalon60]

According to the listing on Intels Ark page for socket 1155 cpu's which support ECC memory, there are only Celerons and Pentiums cpus for my Supermicro X9 board.

Edit:
I had a VT something selected as well in the search, and now have Xeon cpu's listed as well

 

[pschatz100]

This is why I like unusual titles, it makes searching much easier:

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...-and-ecc-santa-clara-we-have-a-problem.28210/

I have a Core i3-3240 on a Supermicro X9SCM board. When I ran the small program referenced in the thread above, it reported that I do have ECC capability. Unfortunately, nobody has come forward to say how good that test really is.

 

[avalon60]

Well according to this, it doesn't:
http://ark.intel.com/products/65690/Intel-Core-i3-3240-Processor-3M-Cache-3_40-GHz

Confused we will be!

 

[anodos]

According to the listing on Intels Ark page for socket 1155 cpu's which support ECC memory, there are only Celerons and Pentiums cpus for my Supermicro X9 board.

That's because they recently changed it. See here for old version of page https://web.archive.org/web/2013011...ntel-Core-i3-3240-Processor-3M-Cache-3_40-GHz

The pessimistic side of me says that they found out ECC doesn't work properly on those i3 processors , but rather than release an advisory they changed their data sheets.
Keep it classy Intel.

 

[Ericloewe]

That's because they recently changed it. See here for old version of page https://web.archive.org/web/2013011...ntel-Core-i3-3240-Processor-3M-Cache-3_40-GHz

The pessimistic side of me says that they found out ECC doesn't work properly on those i3 processors , but rather than release an advisory they changed their data sheets.
Keep it classy Intel.

It doesn't make much sense, though. It's the same die as the Celerons and Pentiums.

My working theory, assuming that ecc_check.c is accurate and that the Celerons and Pentiums do support ECC, is that they never intended for the i3s to support ECC. Since their memory controllers are the same as for the lower-end processors, they ended up supporting ECC in hardware, without it being validated by Intel, with confusion ensuing within Intel about their ECC support.

For the distracted, the above paragraph is my interpretation, not official information released by Intel. And it does assume that ecc_check.c is accurate on all Sandy Bridge, Ivy Bridge and Haswell processors.

 

[avalon60]

Ok, I have now taken the plunge and ordered one of these for my FreeNAS box :

Intel BX80637E31220V2 Processor for PC / LGA12C Socket / 4 Cores

 

[Ericloewe]

Ok, I have now taken the plunge and ordered one of these for my FreeNAS box :

Intel BX80637E31220V2 Processor for PC / LGA12C Socket / 4 Cores

Can you do us a favor and get the output of the ecc_check.c program from both processors?

 

[avalon60]

I would if I knew how to do that. Oh and where do I get the said program from?

 

[Ericloewe]

https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...-and-ecc-santa-clara-we-have-a-problem.28210/

Cyberjock packaged it up for FreeNAS on page 2, IIRC.

 

[danb35]

Just for a couple of datapoints--my Linux server has an i3-3240 with a single 8GB stick of Crucial ECC RAM, and my FreeNAS server has an E3-1230v2 with four sticks of the same. Both have X9SCL-F motherboards. Output on the Linux server:

Code:

[root@e-smith files]# ./ecc_check 
5004-5007h: 20 0 63 3 
5008-500Bh: 0 0 60 0 

Output on the FreeNAS box:

Code:

[root@freenas2] /mnt/tank/media# python ecc_check.py 
5004-5007h: 20 20 66 3 
5008-500Bh: 20 20 66 3 

As I understand it, the right-most byte being '3' indicates that ECC is present and enabled. I'm guessing the absence of that in the second line on my Linux server is a result of only one stick of RAM being installed.

 

[avalon60]

Yes its on page 2 post #29 ecc_check.zip How do I get the actual program/file onto my NAS box so as to run it, do I put it on a USB stick or something?