AlexZ wrote on 2026-07-17, 08:27:

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In 64bit mode, I would definitely use 3GB RAM. The best bet is buying 3x registered ECC DDR 333 and run it at 400 (should work at 3 3 3 8 ). Server RAM is often very cheap as people fear it and nobody buys retro servers. If the price is about 5€ per stick then it's worth it. Registered RAM is in general better if many memory sticks are used, like 3 with s754 or 4 with s939.

It's pity but s754 mainboards usually won't support registered ECC DDR, especially nForce based. I really don't know the main reason why manufactures so limited their s754 products.
Maybe because of many s754 steppings won't support it. The Venice E9 90nm does.

On Asus and Gigabyte there is hope as their 939 boards did support it. My Gigabyte GA-K8NE does have ECC settings in BIOS and they activate with unbuffered ECC memory. BIOS support will be needed to enable ECC, but even without that it should work as standard memory as long as CPU accepts it.

There are various CPU steppings available for s754, from the later ones E5 (Lancaster, Newark), E6 (Sempron). There is hope with those.

https://www.techpowerup.com/cpu-specs/turion-64-ml-44.c1164 and Google AI as a result will tell you that Lancaster doesn't work with ECC. But in reality it does, at least with unbuffered ECC. I will test on more steppings and boards once I get super cheap registered sticks. It was an "unsupported" feature in the way they never validated it for consumer products and didn't mention it in manuals. My BIOS has typos in ECC setting names, but when you activate them they do have an effect. Mobile CPUs were never expected to have ECC memory in laptops either.

AlexZ wrote on 2026-07-17, 09:45:

On Asus and Gigabyte there is hope as their 939 boards did support it. My Gigabyte GA-K8NE does have ECC settings in BIOS and they activate with unbuffered ECC memory. BIOS support will be needed to enable ECC, but even without that it should work as standard memory as long as CPU accepts it.
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Yes, as for s754 Gigabyte GA-K8NE (and ASUS K8V) is a rare exception - is capable to work with Reg ECC DIMM

Roman555 wrote on 2026-07-17, 10:50:

Yes, as for s754 Gigabyte GA-K8NE (and ASUS K8V) is a rare exception - is capable to work with Reg ECC DIMM

I checked and my Gigabyte GA-K8NE rev 2.0 works with 1 registered ECC stick only with Lancaster CPU. 2 sticks result in a long beep. Individual sticks are ok. With 1 stick the board works fine.

AlexZ wrote on 2026-07-22, 21:56:

Roman555 wrote on 2026-07-17, 10:50:

Yes, as for s754 Gigabyte GA-K8NE (and ASUS K8V) is a rare exception - is capable to work with Reg ECC DIMM

I checked and my Gigabyte GA-K8NE rev 2.0 works with 1 registered ECC stick only with Lancaster CPU. 2 sticks result in a long beep. Individual sticks are ok. With 1 stick the board works fine.

It's a good result for Turion 64 as for a mobile CPU. Which size of RDIMM did you try?

Roman555 wrote on 2026-07-23, 09:35:

It's a good result for Turion 64 as for a mobile CPU. Which size of DIMM did you try?

2x 1GB registered ECC Micron DDR 333 sticks. They OC up to DDR 480, CL3, Command Rate 1T, possibly above so the sticker spec is irrelevant. I may test with 2GB reg ECC sticks in the future as I found a very cheap source. Most likely only 1 will work too.

I also have 4x 1GB ECC UDIMM, those work without problems with multiple slots populated.