Increase RAM Voltage

[Riznarf]

What does increasing the ram voltage do? Do you have to do that to the ram when you're OCing the ram like you do when OCing a cpu?

I have 2x1gb of crucial ballistix, but im not sure what voltage theyre at. newegg says default is 2.2v maybe? or maybe thats max voltage....can someone please tell me what i should do?

 

[veedubfreak]

Most motherboards set the ram voltage at the bare minimum, usually 1.8 volts which is fine if you dont plan to overclock. I'm running at .2+ just to make sure i stay stable. You can use cpu-z to see what the voltage is actually at.

 

[Riznarf]

i dont see the ram voltage in cpuz, just the cpu voltage, which page is it on?

 

[b1gapl]

To set the Crucial Ballistix, to it's manufacture's spec, set the RAM voltage to +0.4v....Right now it would say Normal, correct? The normal is the standard, which is 1.8v like veedubfreak mentioned. So 1.8 + 0.4 = 2.2v

 

[Riznarf]

To set the Crucial Ballistix, to it's manufacture's spec, set the RAM voltage to +0.4v....Right now it would say Normal, correct? The normal is the standard, which is 1.8v like veedubfreak mentioned. So 1.8 + 0.4 = 2.2v

thanks b1gapl, so would/should i ever go higher than 2.2v or will that fry the ram?

 

[b1gapl]

I don't think it's necessary, because on stock voltage, they're capable of going DDR2-1200 CAS5. Anymore voltage, like 2.3 and 2.4 won't fry, but it won't last long.

 

[veedubfreak]

The rule of thumb with voltage is to use as little as needed to remain stable. I'm running my memory at 5-5-5-15 and 2.0 volts and it seems to be stable right now. If i could just figure out how much voltage i need to get my core stable at 3.6 It crapped out on me at 1.3v when i played around with it at lunch.

 

[Riznarf]

The rule of thumb with voltage is to use as little as needed to remain stable. I'm running my memory at 5-5-5-15 and 2.0 volts and it seems to be stable right now. If i could just figure out how much voltage i need to get my core stable at 3.6 It crapped out on me at 1.3v when i played around with it at lunch.

hahah thanks, 3.6 on a q6600......****. i head the q6's can take up to 1.5v though so you got some room to run.

on another note, should i put my ratio at 4:5 to give my ram a little more speed or keep it at 1:1 (theyre at 950mhz cas 5 now....)

 

[veedubfreak]

I would back it down to 1:1 until you get a stable overclock on the CPU. Thats what i plan to do. Once i can get my CPU dialed in where i want it i'll start dialing in the memory.

 

[Riznarf]

I would back it down to 1:1 until you get a stable overclock on the CPU. Thats what i plan to do. Once i can get my CPU dialed in where i want it i'll start dialing in the memory.

yeah thats probably a good rule of thumb. I'm pretty sure my cpu is stable, it passes orthos for 6+ hours, but my system is still unstable, so im guessing its the ram since orthos doesnt test ram much if at all. ive adjusted my ram settings, it was at 1.8v 5-5-5-17 (?) and changed it to 2.2v w/ 5-5-5-15 and it seems to be working fine now........but will tell.