Hi.  this is a multi-parter.  I need a short briefing on the
difference between ecc and non-ecc memory, and the answer to the
following:
how would errors symptomatic of having non-ecc memory manifest themselves?
Don't current intel chipsets do the ecc portion on the motherboard?
What types of errors would you see from not having ECC memory?

Thanks much,

Scary

Hello Scary

Thanks for posting your question, I hope my answer is understandable
and what you are looking for.  If it is not please do not hesitate in
asking for clarification, I am here to help you.

ECC stands for Error Correction Code (which is similar but not
identical to the way a parity check works).  ECC-memory is therefore
memory that uses Error Correction and non-ECC does not contain error
correction.

Basically, the error correction memory has an extra 8 bits of
information that is used to detect multiple errors when the
information stored is returned to the application.  Should there be a
single error (as opposed to multiple errors) it is possible that the
error can be corrected without corruption.

Current memory technology has improved vastly since the early days of
computing and is much more stable than it used to be, this means that
memory errors are rare.  ECC memory decreases the performance of your
PC by about 2-3% (because of the extra checks being performed) so
unless your environment is critical you may wish to stick with non-ECC
memory as to the average user it has few benefits.

The errors manifest themselves by either system/application crashes or
error messages mentioning corrupted data.  Almost always these errors
are fatal.  The types of error message you may see are:

Memory parity interrupt at xxxxx 
Memory address error at xxxxx 
Memory failure at xxxxx, read xxxxx, expecting xxxxx 
Memory verification error at xxxxx 

I am not sure about your Intel chipset question but I assume you mean
that you need a special chipset to use ECC memory and the answer to
this is yes.  ECC will only work on a motherboard with the correct
BIOS settings.

You can only use ECC memory if ALL of your memory is of the same type
(ie ECC).  You cannot mix ECC and non-ECC memory and still expect the
error correction to work!  Also ECC memory only has advantages IF your
motherboard supports it AND it is configured to use it.

Some links that you may find of use
-----------------------------------

ECC Memory: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/ram/errECC-c.html
Parity and ECC: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/ram/errParity-c.html
Memory Errors: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/ram/err.htm
Mixing Parity/ECC: http://www.pcguide.com/ref/ram/errMixing-c.html
Different kinds of memory: http://www.kingston.com/tools/umg/umg05a.asp
What is memory: http://www.kingston.com/tools/umg/umg01a.asp
Other technologies: http://www.kingston.com/tools/umg/umg05b.asp
Memory Capacity: http://www.kingston.com/tools/umg/umg04.asp
How memory works: http://www.kingston.com/tools/umg/umg03.asp

Great.  Thank you for the answer.  Sorry for the delay in rating.