As someone who runs physical servers for hosting, you really get what you pay for.
I've had non-ECC RAM systems destroy database tables leading to data loss.
Systems with ECC are either able to correct the error (and log it), or throw the alarm bells. Even discounting RAM bit flips, simple bad RAM can destroy your data. Having an ECC aware system (including getting Linux to check the EDAC or have the baseband monitor do so) has saved me many times from failing hardware.
I've had non-ECC RAM systems destroy database tables leading to data loss.
Systems with ECC are either able to correct the error (and log it), or throw the alarm bells. Even discounting RAM bit flips, simple bad RAM can destroy your data. Having an ECC aware system (including getting Linux to check the EDAC or have the baseband monitor do so) has saved me many times from failing hardware.