RAM Voltage question

BoomAM · 18 Apr 2011 at 11:05

Hi,
My motherboard (IP35-Pro) has an annoying habbit of once in a bluemoon forgetting the voltage settings for my RAM on boot, which i dont notice until the instability starts getting annoying.
IIRC, the RAM i have (Geil GX22GB6400DC) specifys 1.8v on the stick, but i always set it to 1.9v for a reason i cant remember (it may be because there was 4 sticks, so theres a 0.02v drop on the 1.9v, making it 1.88=stability).

Anyway, what im asking, and i think i know the answer to this, will this extra 0.1v on the RAM damage it in anyway?

Thanks.

Plec · 18 Apr 2011 at 17:38

If your using 4 sticks in an IP35 - you may find upping the NB voltage an increment or two will help stability. It's usually required when using all 4 slots.

It sounds like the BIOS is resetting the memory to its default settings of 1.8V -is the system clocked?

I've had to run memory higher than it's recommended voltage in the past (when clocking) - it will reduce the life expectancy of the memory slightly and technically negate your warranty (i would't start worrying about it now

).

BoomAM · 18 Apr 2011 at 22:43

Plec said:
If your using 4 sticks in an IP35 - you may find upping the NB voltage an increment or two will help stability. It's usually required when using all 4 slots.

Tbh, apart from when the memory voltage drops occasionally (hasnt done it in almost a year prior to today), the systems been pretty rock solid.
According to speedfan the MCH is at 1.25v, that sound about right?

It sounds like the BIOS is resetting the memory to its default settings of 1.8V -is the system clocked?

Thats exactely what its doing, system is stock though, i see little point in OCing when even now it handles everything i throw at it.

I've had to run memory higher than it's recommended voltage in the past (when clocking) - it will reduce the life expectancy of the memory slightly and technically negate your warranty (i would't start worrying about it now ).

lol.

Plec · 18 Apr 2011 at 23:20

My initial theory was that the memory may be reverting back due to an unstable clock - obviously this is not the case.

If you're running at stock then so will your MCH so i would deff bump it up by at least one increment as you're using all the DIMM slots. This may be the reason that voltages are reverting to stock and the cause of your instability - because the memory controller ususally needs more oomph to run 4 sticks.

If things become unstable again, after a one increment increase, then up it again by an additional increment.

It maybe that you eventually wont need to overvolt the memory, with the increase in the MCH, but we'll carry on using the voltages you've been using for now.

EDIT: stress test the new settings with memtest to test stability - download and use the bootable ISO from here - link.