I think a very simple way to discuss whether ECC is "needed" or not is your use-case.
1. If you plan to use it with data that will not be backed up and if your server was suddenly unable to read any of the data with no warning and you wouldn't care, then go with non-ECC.
2. If #1 doesn't apply for you 100%, then you should go with ECC.
The problem I regularly see is people that say they are the former, buy non-ECC RAM, and then a few months later make the decision to store their very important data on the server. Some time later they have problems that point to RAM, and they have no data and their backups were trashed due to the non-ECC RAM problems.
If you are the kind of person that can be committed to never storing important information on your server and can handle the limitations above, then go for non-ECC. But from what we've seen in the forums, everyone decided they'll store "just a little bit of important information" on the server, and later regret it.
I'd also like to mention that Supermicro's server-grade stuff generally has better compatibility than random-name-brand-desktop-motherboard. So I personally prefer to stick with the server stuff just because it generally won't cause some of the headaches that the desktop hardware can give you. I used a Gigabyte and ASUS desktop motherboards when I was doing first testing with FreeNAS. They had little quirks that were a pain in the butt. I'm glad that when I bought my Supermicro motherboards that all of the problems just went away. ;)
1. If you plan to use it with data that will not be backed up and if your server was suddenly unable to read any of the data with no warning and you wouldn't care, then go with non-ECC.
2. If #1 doesn't apply for you 100%, then you should go with ECC.
The problem I regularly see is people that say they are the former, buy non-ECC RAM, and then a few months later make the decision to store their very important data on the server. Some time later they have problems that point to RAM, and they have no data and their backups were trashed due to the non-ECC RAM problems.
If you are the kind of person that can be committed to never storing important information on your server and can handle the limitations above, then go for non-ECC. But from what we've seen in the forums, everyone decided they'll store "just a little bit of important information" on the server, and later regret it.
I'd also like to mention that Supermicro's server-grade stuff generally has better compatibility than random-name-brand-desktop-motherboard. So I personally prefer to stick with the server stuff just because it generally won't cause some of the headaches that the desktop hardware can give you. I used a Gigabyte and ASUS desktop motherboards when I was doing first testing with FreeNAS. They had little quirks that were a pain in the butt. I'm glad that when I bought my Supermicro motherboards that all of the problems just went away. ;)