Just to dispel this myth - here's all my electronic devices that have replaceable memory, and which of them support ECC:
ECC support (and using ECC memory):
- my old home server (an old Xeon E5-2630v2, DDR3, Supermicro MB, slated for disposal)
- my new home server (a Ryzen V3C48 embedded system, solid-run, uses DDR5 SO-DIMM)
- my desktop (a Ryzen 1700X, DDR4, ASrock mainboard)
Broken ECC due to BIOS:
- my laptop (HP Elitebook 845 G9, Ryzen 6950HS, DDR5 SO-DIMM, CPU supports ECC; BIOS hangs on boot when I insert ECC memory)
No ECC:
- none, actually.
(dis-)honorable mentions, no ECC, but memory not replaceable anyway:
- my geriatric wifi router (some TP-link, about to be ditched)
- my 2 extra wifi APs (also some TP-link)
This rate of ECC support is probably a bit exceptional, but… the primary reason ECC support is hit-and-miss is that Intel decided to fuse it off on their desktop CPUs to do market segmentation.
The fact that a handful of enthusiasts on a technology forum have machines with ECC has zero relevance to whether it is rare. It is. Virtually all consumer prebuilt x86 PCs lack ECC. The majority of DIY builds are Intel, and their enthusiast Core CPUs lack ECC. Most Ryzen boards do not actually support it.
When people say ECC is rare, they’re not talking about you.
Just to dispel this myth - here's all my electronic devices that have replaceable memory, and which of them support ECC:
ECC support (and using ECC memory):
- my old home server (an old Xeon E5-2630v2, DDR3, Supermicro MB, slated for disposal)
- my new home server (a Ryzen V3C48 embedded system, solid-run, uses DDR5 SO-DIMM)
- my desktop (a Ryzen 1700X, DDR4, ASrock mainboard)
Broken ECC due to BIOS:
- my laptop (HP Elitebook 845 G9, Ryzen 6950HS, DDR5 SO-DIMM, CPU supports ECC; BIOS hangs on boot when I insert ECC memory)
No ECC:
- none, actually.
(dis-)honorable mentions, no ECC, but memory not replaceable anyway:
- my geriatric wifi router (some TP-link, about to be ditched)
- my 2 extra wifi APs (also some TP-link)
This rate of ECC support is probably a bit exceptional, but… the primary reason ECC support is hit-and-miss is that Intel decided to fuse it off on their desktop CPUs to do market segmentation.