Ryzen 1000 series ECC support

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1

So, I’ve got an OG Asrock X370 taichi that actually lists some supported ECC memory in it’s official supported memory list.

Thing is I’ve seen people run other nondescript dimms without giving so much as a whimper to whether or not there was some specific compatibility.

With the advent of the 3000 series upon us I am looking to upgrade my current rig CPU wise. This time with better memory, and just as much if not more so a balls to the wall mobo.

Once I upgrade I’ll have a perfectly good board and CPU to use along with enough spare parts to throw together another server. A server that could replace my hot as hell xeons in core and thread count while also being more power efficient and faster.

I know that ECC will work with ryzen, my question is whether compatibility is good right now, or should I shell out for the very specific dimms listed on asrocks website?

I have the money for all of it I just want to know if I can put more money into the inevitable GPU upgrade or if I’m just much better off buying the officially supported dimms.

Although if the RDNA drivers take as long as vega to get sorted out that gpu upgrade might be a long way coming.

2

Do not get any Ryzen 3 processors. My friend has a Taichi and a Ryzen 3 1200 and has a weird issue where the ECC only works in single channel. Apparently that is common for that processor.

Don’t skimp.

3

R3 or Ryzen 3?

4

I can not confirm that. I have two systems running Ryzen 3 1200 chips with ECC (yes, error correction is active) running perfectly fine. One on the Asus Prime X370 Pro, one on the Asus A320M-K.

5

Did you take any head of the official lists for your board or did you just slap some ECC off the shelf?

6

I just went for slower dimms, 2133 in my router and 4x8 2400 for my FreeNAS machine. This is one of the slower modules:

hynix
hynix.jpg1000×751 202 KB

For the NAS I used Kingston dimms, the part number is KVR24E17S8/8MA.

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7

You’re a legend, noenken.

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It’s a problem on the Taichi boards though. There’s been reported problems with the Ryzen 3 1200 and the Taichi for ECC.

9

OK, so it is common for the board in combination with those chips, not for the processor itself. That makes more sense.

Would still like to see a source for that. It sounds like something is wrong in the motherboard software and if so that might have gotten fixed at some point?

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My friend is on the latest Taichi BIOS and it’s still only single channel. Dual channel ECC prevents post.

11

So an R7 1700 should be fine though?

12

Sorry but I don’t count your friend as a source and I can’t find anything about this online. Maybe your friend’s shit is just broken?

As long as I don’t see more information that tells me otherwise, I would say any Ryzen chip (EXCEPT the APUs) will do.

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I’m the friend that FurryJackman mentioned.

TLDR:
I would say it’s a good idea to stick to the QVL for a higher chance of your RAM working correctly.

I have a ryzen 3 1200, X470 taichi (non-ultimate) and 2x16GB of these 2666mhz dual-rank DIMMs: CT16G4WFD8266

I looked at the QVL lists for summit ridge for both the X370 and X470 Taichi boards (PR is Pinnacle ridge, the Ryzen 2000 CPUs). Here are the ECC modules listed on the QVL for the taichi boards when used with summit ridge or pinnacle ridge:
x370 SR: CT8G4WFD824A.18FB1, M391A1G43EB1-CPBQ
x370 PR: CT8G4WFD824A.18FB1, M391A1G43EB1-CPBQ
X470 SR: CT8G4WFD824A.18FB1
X470 PR: M391A1G43EB1-CPBQ
The CT8 model is a 2666mhz-rated model from Crucial and the M391 a 2133mhz-rated model from Samsung. Both are only 8GB; no 16GB ECC dimm is listed on either QVL. I found it strange that the X370 QVL lists both models, while the X470 lists only the Crucial ram for ryzen 1000, and only the samsung ram for ryzen 2000. Also, they added the Ryzen Ryzen 3000 series (Matisse) to the CPU support list, but haven’t added a memory QVL for it yet.

I looked for the 8GB sticks first because of the lower prices and because single rank (different from single channel) supports higher frequencies than dual rank. The manual lists the single-rank capability as 2667, and the dual rank capability as “2400-2667”. Wikichip also lists the 1200 and 1700 as supporting dual channel single rank up to 2666mhz, but dual rank up to only 2400mhz. Since my DIMMs are 2666mhz dual rank, they might be too fast for single channel.

I went with the ECC 16GB DIMMS because I couldn’t find any of the ECC 8GB DIMMs for sale at the time. Also, I wanted 32GB total, and only in 2 sticks (not 4) because better speeds can be acheived with 2 vs. 4 sticks.

Here are the results I had during testing my system:
With the DIMMs in different channels (slots A2 and B2, as recommended by the manual), or in A1 and B1, the PC would always either do one of two things:
a) fail to post, or
b) it would boot and the bios would recognize both sticks and all 32GB, but memtest86 and Ubuntu 18.04 (kernel 4.15) would only recognize 16GB, even though both sticks would be seen by dmidecode in linux.
Sometimes it would change between a) and b) if I reseat one or both of DIMMs.
I tried all the bios versions from 1.10 (what it arrived with) up to 3.40, aside from the beta ones. None of them made a difference.
With both the DIMMs in channel B, the system booted fine, but of course only with single channel memory.

T-topology and daisy chain are different ways of laying out memory stuff on motherboards. T-topology is better for 4 sticks of RAM, and daisy chain is better for 2. I’ve heard it affects the max speed of the RAM, but i’m not sure if it affects compatibility. If I were to build another system, I would use the 8GB single-rank ECC RAM instead and buy a motherboard that uses a daisy-chain configuration, instead of the X470 taichi. According to Buildzoid, 2x8GB can sometimes be a disaster on T-topology boards. source: 23:18 his video “mobo PCB Breakdown: MSI X570 Godlike”

I’ve ordered a ryzen 3700x, which should be coming in on monday. If that doesn’t work with dual channel, I’ll probably either get some of the 8GB single-rank ECC RAM that is on the QVL, or just get some non-ECC RAM.
This weekend, I might try to get the Ryzen 3 1200 working in dual channel by removing one stick, setting the speed to 2400, inserting the second stick, and then booting again. But, this isn’t really a high priority with the 3700x coming in.

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14

Now that sounds way different. Thanks for clearing that up. :+1:
Oh, and welcome! :slightly_smiling_face:

15

Sorry to necro, but this is great info. Thanks a ton. I might take a look at differences between IO chips between the 1700 and 1200 to make sure for compatibility. I say that being I have been told that the IO chip on the 3700x has been cut down compared to the 3900x and 3800x for cost saving measure. Since you’re getting a 3700x it might be useful to know that the memory write throughput is about half of the 3800 and 3900. That’s still somewhere in the realm of 25 Gigabits(or bytes, not sure) a second but if you’re running with more than that amount of memory that might be important to you.

My personal situation I’m not too worried about ram speed. These servers will be for me and a few choice friends and family members.

Thanks a ton!

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