Can I use ECC memory on a consumer motherboard?

No — not in the way you’re hoping. Consumer boards like B760, Z790, B550, and X570 are designed for non-ECC memory. Even if you plug in ECC sticks, they’ll either run in non-ECC mode or the board won’t post. AMD Ryzen technically supports ECC only on certain chipsets like Pro or workstation boards, while Intel locks it to Xeon/W-series platforms. For a standard desktop upgrade, just buy regular DDR4 or DDR5.