Does workstation need ECC memory?

[msivil]

Hello,

I need to update my workstation soon. Do you have experience if ECC memory is a must, recommended or unnecessary in point cloud and photogrammetry processing?

[Kruse]

Hello,

I need to update my workstation soon. Do you have experience if ECC memory is a must, recommended or unnecessary in point cloud and photogrammetry processing?

Unless you have a critical server that needs to run 24/7 365 days a year, I think you'll be just fine running standard memory on a desktop/laptop. My current desktop has 128GB of standard DDR4 memory and its been going strong for the last 3 years with maybe 2 blue screens in that whole time frame, which I'm betting was due to me overclocking it more than anything . I've processed around ~25,000 scans through Register 360 and it's never blue screened during an import and I've maybe had an import fail 4 or 5 times in 3 years (all of which were no issue as it happened almost immediately after starting the import). Just buy your memory from a reputable brand and I think you'll be just fine without spending the extra money on ECC sticks.

[msivil]

Thanks Kruse!

I have had a workstation with Xeon and ECC for almost 6 years and it has been very stable, but maybe I take a leap of faith to non-ECC now

[smacl]

As Kruse has said, ECC will reduce the number of potential crashes for PCs and servers that are on all the time given everything else in that PC is working well. My experience is that you're more likely to get crashes for so many other reasons, ECC is not worth the extra money for anything other than critical servers. I'd make sure you have an excellent PSU, cooling, motherboard and drives before considering ECC as if any of these are poor quality, in my experience they'll lead to more crashes than non-ECC memory. Even then, most of your crashes will relate to graphics drivers, software updates, OS updates etc... What is worth considering if you're concerned about data loss is setting up a RAID system with redundant drives covering you against disk failure.

[msivil]

Thanks Shane!

My initial point was to get an understanding how common are crashes due to non-ECC memory when doing point cloud and photogrammetry processing, especially on big project sizes. I don't construct the workstations by myself, or even let someone individual do that. I have bought, and probably continue buying, my workstations from some big manufacturer with maximum quarantee of 5 years.