ECC RAM won't work in most Intel NUCs.

Unless you specifically bought a NUC with a Xeon processor (rare and expensive), the memory controller in the Core i3/i5/i7 chips used in standard NUCs ignores ECC entirely.

You can physically plug in ECC SODIMMs – they use the same form factor – but the ECC bits will just sit there doing nothing. The system will run, but you get zero error correction. So you’re paying extra for a feature that does nothing.

Even the few NUCs that do support ECC (like some models in the “Pro” line with Xeon W-1100E or similar) are overkill for a typical home server. You’d be better off with a used Dell Wyse or Lenovo Tiny that takes unbuffered ECC DIMMs, or just accept that a standard NUC is reliable enough without it.

For a home server running lightweight services, regular RAM is fine. ECC is nice but not a dealbreaker.