OCZ DDR Booster: any good?

I'll start off with a little background info. I have a Folding@Home rig running dual Prestonia core Xeons on an Asus PC-DL Deluxe. I've overclocked it from 1.6 GHz to 3.2 GHz and am running a 200 MHz FSB. I've 2 x 1 GiB OCZ DDR4000 that is guaranteed up to 3.0v.

The motherboard does not allow you to change the vDIMM in the BIOS. Furthermore there is no way to monitor the memory voltage except through the use of a voltmeters. This motherboard is notorious for undervolting memory at stock. I'd like to be able to increase the memory voltage for testing purposes but I've been hesitant to solder a potentiometer to my $200 motherboard.

Then I read an article about the OCZ DDR Booster. If you haven't heard of it it's essentially a small voltage regulator bank that plugs into a vacant DDR slot. You power it through a special cable that hooks online with the ATX 20 pin connector for the motherboarda and when in use it feeds supplemental power to the memory. On the device is a potentiometer knob that allows you to change the output voltage. I've 4 DIMM slots and I'm only using two of them so I think this might be perfect for what I need.

My questions are these: Has anybody here tried this part? Heck, has anybody even heard of this device? My motherboard and PSU do not have ATX connectors, rather, they are EPS12V. I would not be able to use the cable supplied to power it so I would have to hack it up a bit. Is it worth it? After a quick scan I see that I can get it for $26 here in the States. Thanks for looking.

-BTI

P.S. Sorry dons, I know this is probably in the wrong forum but I didn't know if it should go here, in OC&C, or in Memory.

That sounds like a nifty piece of kit.

I'd love to see one in action, and somthing like that'd save me Vmodding too much (as i'm already looking at chipset and Vcore mods)

I'm interested as to how it performas and the electronics behind it... can you cross-feed power from one DIMM to another... even across channels? but if they're selling the kit it must be possible... i'm going to lokie for reviews.

Yeah, becasue it works it seems evident that all the memory runs off a common power source. I think I'm going to bite the bullet and buy it becasue it's relatively cheap. I suppose I could return it if I can't get it to work.

I think there's someone on here that has one iirc but i can't remember who. It worked pretty well though from what i remember so it should be a good buy

According to the OCZ they dont work with 24 pin boards but they can be used with DFI boards. There is a compatibility list here that may help.

I have to say my experiences with this have not been great. I've had two of these, both of which have packed up within a matter of days.

Maybe it's just bad luck though, I've seen others use it without too many problems.

I used one of these on my old NF7-s ver 2 for a while and it was awesome - let me push my memory up to 3.3v and keep it at 2,2,2,11 which was ideal. I swore by it.

Having said that, when I plugged it in to test it the other day before selling it on my Mobo blew up

I still think it was great (think the mobo was on the way out anyway!) Just make sure it's compatible with your mobo before plugging it in.

(Although if you're sticking at 200FSB there won't be much need to up the memory voltage.)

hmm.. listening to all this i'm even cnsiderign getting one. 3.3v on memory woud be nice

mine was fine, most people use it with BH5 and boards that cant give 3v+


mine was running day to day for over 6 [email protected] and i used to ramp it up to 3.5v for benching.

cant use one now because i only have 2 mem slots in this shuttle

unless you're running bh5 I wouldnt bother. It would be worthwhile reading up on oc results from your specific kit, it might be the case that pumping more volts through it will make no difference whatsoever. I know my kit likes 2.7 and not 2.8. Something to bear in mind.

I found mine to be more of an annoyance, the heatsink on it was scorching hot, and the voltage was never very stable, it would vary around +-0.1/0.2V of the set value.

cavemanoc said:

I still think it was great (think the mobo was on the way out anyway!) Just make sure it's compatible with your mobo before plugging it in.

Click to expand...

See the rough part is I already know it's incompatible becasue the ATX power setup will not plug into my board. To make it function in the most basic way I'd have to hack it up.

I do want to exceed 200 MHz FSB, that's the whole idea.

What memory are you runnning BTI, is it BH5?

Used to use one to feed my BH-5 Silly voltages
Works very well, even on some 24 pin mobo's... You need a psu with the 24pin where the 4 pins can be removed from the connector block, as the DDR booster patch cable is 20 pin.

Check board compatibility, as the way the voltage reg is done on some boards they wont like being fed seperate power.... Would result in it going pop....

Summary:
Good bit of kit, read up on it before using.

Sam C

Mikey1280 said:

What memory are you runnning BTI, is it BH5?

Click to expand...

http://www.ocztechnology.com/produc...pc_4000_1024mb_gold_edition_dual_channel-2gb_ is it BH5?

samcat said:

Check board compatibility, as the way the voltage reg is done on some boards they wont like being fed seperate power.... Would result in it going pop.

Click to expand...

Again, by board is DEFINITELY INCOMPATIBLE becasue it is NOT ATX. It is EPS12V.

How many volts do you reckon its currently getting? Will it not go over 200 without falling over? Do you have it at the stock timings (3-4-3-8)?

Mikey1280 said:

How many volts do you reckon its currently getting? Will it not go over 200 without falling over? Do you have it at the stock timings (3-4-3-8)?

Click to expand...

I really ahven't a clue what volts it's currently getting. I don't have a volt meter handy to check but I imagine it inj the 2.45v-2.50v area. That's what the dudes at XtremeSystems say is the everage for this board. I used to have 2 x 512 Kingston HyperX PC3200 that I couldn't run properly at 200 MHz. Switching to the OCZ let me turn it up, presumably becasue it required less voltage.

I'm runing at 2.5-3-3-6 as that's the lowest that will run at 200 MHz. WHen I try to go higher I turn the latencies up as high as they go. It won't POST beyond 205 MHz.

Those just about sum it up.

I cracked down and ordered it from a US retailer this Sunday. It came in the mail today and I quickly busted it open. Ooh, pretty. I installed it per the instructions in the box, this I'm sure of. I twisted the control knob all the way clockwise. I flipped the machine on and the voltage readout glowed to life. 2.4 it said. Aha! Undervolting, I have found ye!

I let the machine boot up to windows. At the loging screen I moved my mouse to put the cursor at the right box. The cursor didn't move. Grrr, I thought. I reached down to pull the plug from the PSU and I noticed a smell. It smelled like a swimming pool with chlorinated water. Uh oh. I pulled the plug.

I opened the side of the case and looked and sniffed around but saw nothing. I removed both DIMMs and felt their heat spreaders. Not too warm. Perhaps the smell is just from the MOSFETs in the Booster being used for the first time. Another part of my feeble brain pointed and laughed at the first part of my feeble brain. Fat chance it said.

I booted again, pulled up the BIOS, and started looking around the mobo for the source of the smell. Mind you, this is at stock volts. I haven't changed anything. It's dark under my desk so the red glow of the voltage readout was bright. 2.4 it said. I leaned over to sniff my CPU sockets and I saw a faint yellow glow by the DIMM slots. Another LED? My brain laughed at itself again. I leaned closer. The DDR Booster was glowing. Just as I glanced at it I saw a tiny tongue of flame lick over the top of my memory module. My computer was on fire.

****!, thought both parts of my brain. I yanked the plug and tore it out of the DIMM slot. It was incredibly hot, too hot to touch (obviosuly). This is what I saw.


Tha machine still works and it appears nothing else appears broken, thank God.

I lose at overclocking.

Ouch that looks nasty. Hope none of your hardware is damaged.

Edit: Just seen the last line of your post, glad it's only the booster that went.

dude, that thing must have got red hot to melt its way through that.

wonder how or why it happened?