The internet information complex has alarmed me about ECC memory. My understanding is that lack of ECC with ZFS can (rarely but sometimes) result in silent data errors that are not caught by checksums. Is there substance to this?
I would really like to run a personal ZFS server on a mini-pc like a Beelink or even Odroid, but the question of ECC caught my eye and no mini system or SBC has such memory to my knowledge. Thank’s y’all.
ECC is nice to have, whether you’ve got ZFS or not.
Lack of ECC is not any more dangerous in a ZFS system than it is in any other system.
Much longer answer: Will ZFS and non-ECC RAM kill your data? – JRS Systems: the blog
ECC memory is good for any filesystem, be it zfs, btrfs, ext4, etc.. This is not specific to zfs. It is just that the zfs devs have been the first filesystem developers who recommended ECC memory to their users. But all other filesystems benefit from ECC the same way.
That’s good to know, thank you both. @mercenary_sysadmin I wasn’t aware of your ZFS blog. 
I would just like to add, in case you haven’t seen it - Odroid H4 Ultra is an x86 pc in sbc format. While it does not have classic ECC ram option, it does have “In band ECC” which is basically a poor man’s ecc. While I have not myself used the boards. Other people seem to enjoy them a lot.
You can read more about it here - ODROID-H4 ULTRA – ODROID
@Skoven thanks for mentioning, I had no idea about that feature.