The main board design is likely being close to finalisation so changes will not happen now, the fact that the deep dive didn’t mention it means that we won’t have ECC
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@TheTwistgibber Now that the main specs are released for Framework 16 pre-orders, is it possible to comment (one way or the other) on the mainboard’s support for ECC? Assuming we bring our own SODIMMS?
Or is this still being held back since the product itself has not fully launched yet?
Thank you!
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To save people a click
What DRAM/memory is supported by Framework Laptop 13 (AMD Ryzen™ 7040 Series)?
DDR5 modules have on-die ECC support. Full ECC support is not currently confirmed as compatible with non-PRO Ryzen 7040 Series mobile processors.
It certainly looks like ECC is confirmed as compatible for non-pro 7040 series processors:
https://www.amd.com/en/product/13036
https://www.amd.com/en/product/13041
The pages for the 7040U series also say they have ecc support.
We did see that on the AMD product pages, but on discussing with the AMD team, haven’t gotten confirmation on it actually working (in limited testing, we have found it does not).
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This article seems to reaffirm that ECC is supported:
Could you please bother the AMD engineers again to maybe assist you enabling it in firmware/EFI/BIOS?
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Yeah ECC would be great!
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ECC support would be really nice to have. If it’s not doable in the current Framework 16, I really hope it becomes a feature for future models as I personally would like all of my computers to eventually all be on ECC.
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Having all ECC is a preference of mine as well. I’ve had a lot of PC memory problems recently and I feel like having the integrity of ECC memory will just do so much to prevent strange problems. I seem to just have bad luck when it comes to PC memory!
@nrp Super awesome to hear Framework team is at least engaged to try and get ECC working!
FYI from reddit re desktop AM5 boards:
SnowSwanJohn reported that there has been an AGESA bug preventing ECC to work on AM5 chipsets. With the latest AGESA version 1.0.0.5 patch C, users are starting to confirm ECC working on some boards. ECC support status for the majority of boards is still unknown, if you have testing results, please reply to this post.
Seems fair to assume something similar might be the case for the mobile Zen4 chips too. AMD does appear to be actively working on their memory controller code in AGESA with new versions pending. See here.
Framework may need to press AMD to ensure these updates take the “ECC on mobile” use case in to account for both the dev and testing of memory controller firmware on their end. After all, enthusiast tweak-able laptops are kind of a new thing. 
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According to officiel AMD Specifications, both the AMD Ryzen™ 7 7840U and the AMD Ryzen™ 7 7840HS do support DDR5 ECC RAM with the FP7r2 Slot.
https://www.amd.com/de/products/apu/amd-ryzen-7-7840u
Today the Bedrock R7000 was unveiled which officially supports DDR5 ECC RAM along with the 7840u, which means, that it is absolutely possible:
If the Framework 13 and 16 do support ECC with the AMD CPUs I would order at least 5 of each.
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I’m late to this thread, and it’s become a bit of a TLDR… but I’ve a naïve question, why the excitement over ECC?
When does Error Correcting Code memory make a real difference in a one-person computer like a laptop?
ECC memory improves system stability, reduces potential data loss, and lets you know when memory begins to go bad. All of which are important when running data sensitive tasks like scientific computing.
I’m excited, as this is framework, so there will be the option to repurpose the main board as a home server, which currently has very few consumer options.
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ECC makes a real difference any time it matters what’s in memory, similar to how backups and redundant storage make a real difference any time it matters whats in the long-term storage.
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There’s a thing known as bit rot that can occur over time in non ECC systems as data is read and rewritten to storage. A good example of this is the tendency for Windows to slowly get corrupted over time. Chances are if you ran an sfc /scannow command on your PC it would find and repair some issue. In comparison, ECC memory is able to correct some (not all) bit errors to help mitigate it.
For me personally, I have both a main desktop I use for everyday and gaming use that doesn’t use ECC and a workstation that I built with ECC. The workstation hasn’t had a single freeze or issue with Windows corruption from an sfc scan side, whereas I regularly run sfc on a monthly basis and typically have it find one or two things it has to fix.
ECC isn’t some magic fix to everything, but it can help add some stability that’s worth the slower memory speeds for many people.
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ECC is the only way to protect your computation from errors. And it has to be done in hardware you can’t do it in software. Everything else (mass storage, network traffic) you can protect in software, but memory is only reliable with ECC. And since your files and network traffic, among with all other calculations get cached or manipulated in memory, if you don’t have ECC memory they are at risk as well. So if you want to be sure your computer calculates the correct results, and alerts you if there was a problem, you have to get ECC. Even as a consumer.
For businesses ECC also has high availability function, that you tend to not need as much for personal use.
The problem for years has been that the RAS and correctness functions have been conflated giving the wrong impression that you don’t need ECC for personal computers. This is not correct!
If you want your computer to calculate error free you requre full ECC (no, on-chip ECC is not sufficient!). Some Intel CPUs support so-called inband ECC which works too, but also requires hardware support and as far as I understand it reduces memory bandwidth.
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I argue ECC is not required for personal computers used for media consumption, gaming, and other casual tasks. If you use your computer for your job, then ECC is worth considering.
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I argue that is not correct. But nobody is forcing you to buy ECC memory so you do what you think is right for you 
But let’s get back on topic:
Have Framework talk with the AMD engineers 
to get this working.
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I’m looking forward to seeing if it’s mentioned in the Connectors deep dive if the board has the traces and physical hardware support for ECC like what would be used for testing it. Depending on when it was tested on the system maybe they had a board modification they made, I’m not sure.
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