so for @wendell since he's always going on about how everyone should have a home server running a self written JARVIS type program that may or may not destroy the world someday.
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Joking aside, a proper NAS basically necessitates ECC memory correct? Well according to a few forums and the manual for the board the ASUS AM1M-A it adds support for Unbuffered ECC memory to the AM1 platform, where a 1.3ghz quad core CPU only costs $29(3850) , though you're limited to 2 sata ports on it, this still makes it a fair candidate for a NAS if the ECC support is true.
So my question becomes, do you think this would be something you could test to verify? I'm reading it's difficult to really test for error correction, but I'm sure you'd fine some way.
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The board
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132097
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The forum posts
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Also I've heard of some AM3+ boards with ECC support, know anything about that? that'd be better for more powerful cheap NAS needs
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ECC, even if it's not registered ECC, helps with a system that has rather large RAID arrays. Data corruption in a RAID array starts with memory bit errors. My honest opinion? Build one with the parts. There is no reason why you should need Xeon or Opteron class hardware for a home Network attached storage device and spend extra just for ECC support for a consumer grade capable platform.
Well Pentiums and i3s at least officially support ECC as well, but this costs even less than those
I've read around that the AM1 platform does support ECC, however, there are no bios/uefi options revolving around it, so people don't know whether it's working all the time or not. People have tested it in Memtest86, and it worked fine for them.
I have no experience using it, just repeating what others have said. I was going to also build my own NAS with an AM1 processor until I found out how underpowered they are, and how ECC is a bit weird on them.
The UEFI options I can assure you exist for certain on any of the Asus Motherboard products. If the CPU actually supports ECC or the socket is capable of using ECC Buffered (registered) or Unbuffered, it has it. From my experience Asus has ECC support enabled in the stock UEFI settings, but I cannot speak for other motherboard manufacturers. The others may also have it enabled in UEFI but they don't have a setting for it similar to how OEM manufacturers lock down their UEFI in their motherboards (Dell, HP, etc.).
I've always heard that it is completely impossible to accurately test AMD products for ECC support.
I have exactly the same board and was planning on using it for FreeNAS but can't find any concrete evidence on whether it supports ECC or not. I know it works with some types of ECC memory but whether error correction is working is another matter entirely.