Try a little logic, lol, that's what I've been trying to tell you to do since I started responding in this thread. Logic would have already told you to start researching this in a real hardware forum a long time ago.
Take another look at the hardware recommendation thread, again, see any mention of ECC memory?
Better yet, NickN frequents Simforums.com all the time, how about asking the engineer with two PhD's his take on using ECC memory? While you're at it you could also ask about the X58/socket 1366 i7 issues reported by the hardware savvy bunch over at Newegg, that ought to get a laugh or two.
I've got to hand it to you, I've seen some B.S. excuses in train-game forums before but this just about takes the cake. You really have to get out more often, seriously.
What's next are you going to tell us all about railroad operations with no railroad experience?
ECC Memory is used in high-end workstation and server-class machines, and rarely in consumer game-class/home-class machines. ECC memory has parity checking and adds a level of data integrity. There is quite a price difference between ECC and none-ECC memory, but you get what you pay for in not only data integrity, but also machine stability. On a new PC you may not see the difference especially with new components, but as they age, they do become unstable and thus memory errors creap in and cause crashes. With ECC memory, this is less of an issue. Up until recently there was no other memory other than parity memory. The cheap comsumer grade stuff, has only been around probably about 10 years or less.
If you're wondering about my qualifications, your talking to someone that has worked in the hardware end of the electronics and computer industry for over 20 years out of my 30 years in the high tech industry. I have built computer systems long before they were called PCs, and in fact my first computer was a CP/M 3.0 based machine for which I had to write assembly language programs in order to use it for anything other than word processing. This was way back in 1983 when PCs were just becoming mainstream, and not all ran the MAC OS or MS-DOS.
During this time, I supported the ONTEL Amigo, repairing the mainboards right down to the component level, and also supported to the component level the rest of the Ontel products including the OP-1/64 front end along with its I/O controllers, disk drive controllers, Shugart 8" and Teac 5-1/4" floppy drives and controllers. The drive controllers required precise testing in order to configue and calibrate the drive controllers and floppy drives. The hard drive controllers also handled the large Wren and Phoenix drives, which required field replacement of their heads. The rest of the Ontel systems had seperate memory and video hardware cards, which required troubleshooting of failed components with various hardware tools such as DVMs, oscilloscopes, logic analyzers, and logic probes. After working with the field service department, I was then promoted to engineering and worked on prototype equipment. All of the prototype devices used the latest at the time, processors, memory, and video circuitry.
This was at one company. After leaving there, I handled a complete product line of communications equipment for a local TELCO equipment manufacturer, and eventually ended up in engineering there as well. When the manufacturing group was disbanned, I was moved up to MIS where I worked with the DEC VAX/VMS mainframes and SUN workstations.
Has hardware changed in the past 30 years? Not really. The components have gotten smaller and faster, but that's about it. There are still the same inherent issues now as there were back then, and probably more so because of the faster speed. Having the hardware troubleshooting experience as well as an Associates in Engineering, has helped me in the troubleshooting process, and has helped me in my hardware purchases.
Instead of throwing a tantrum, and calling people names, I have taken the time to
research problem issues before I made the purchase. Remember I was the one that said there were what appeared to be timing issues. No one else in the forums said this. This is taken again from my hardware troubleshooting experience, as I've seen this in the past. The sheer number of similar problems across many manufacterers of the similar hardware points to an underlying problem with the new processors and motherboards. Eventually these issues will come to pass, but at this point, there are still teething problems with them, and I felt it was best to wait it out for a few years. Being on the bleeding edge all the time is not always a good thing.
You may think that building a bunch of systems makes you an expert, it doesn't. Anyone can put components together, but understanding whether the problem lies with a poorly designed motherboard, a flaky processor, or an unstable clock circuit, requires an understanding of how the hardware works.
John
