Am I hurting my ram?

[envelopment28]

What are the long term effects of running your ram at 2.85 instead of 2.65. I see this being done a lot around here, but no talk of what the side effects are of it.

 

[Fricardo]

Like with any component, increasing the voltage will lower its life. 2.85 is a pretty high voltage and I wouldn't be surprised if one day when your system was running for a while your RAM fried. Then again, it may last years. That's the gamble you take with overvolting. The only sure thing is that your RAM won't last as long as it would otherwise.

 

[Corporate Thug]

what is the ram rated to?

 

[AWhackWhiteBoy]

a lot of ram thats of decent quality will allow for higher voltage. mines good for 2.6v-2.9v

 

[ScrewFace]

Heat is the biggest issue when using such high voltages. You'll need either a 5200 BYU air-conditioner blowing directly into your opened case or a water-cooling. Always buy DDR with heat shims. You'll be glad you did. I have my Athlon XP 2400+ (2.0GHz, 266Mhz fsb) at 2.5GHz and a 400MHz bus using 2.15 volts. This'd normally fry the CPU but, with my air-conditioner, the temps are 33 Celsius normal and 38 Celsius full load which is 7 Celsius lower that at the CPU's default voltage of 1.65.:beer:

 

[InlineFive]

Originally posted by: ScrewFace
Heat is the biggest issue when using such high voltages. You'll need either a 5200 BYU air-conditioner blowing directly into your opened case or a water-cooling. Always buy DDR with heat shims. You'll be glad you did. I have my Athlon XP 2400+ (2.0GHz, 266Mhz fsb) at 2.5GHz and a 400MHz bus using 2.15 volts. This'd normally fry the CPU but, with my air-conditioner, the temps are 33 Celsius normal and 38 Celsius full load which is 7 Celsius lower that at the CPU's default voltage of 1.65.:beer:

Holy cow dude how did you get that system to do that with a NF7-S 1.2 and at those voltages?! :Q

-Poe

 

[Avalon]

I've got Geil Golden dragon memory...those don't come with heat spreaders because supposedly this new architecture that they implement keep the memory chips cool as hell...they're rated for 2.55v-2.95v. I'd like to bump my voltage up to 2.9v to get a nice overclock on them...but is this going to mean my RAM's impending doom a lot sooner, or not be too much a big deal? I want my memory to last me a year.

 

[beatle]

If the chips are rated for 2.95v, they should last, and your warranty should be covered.

 

[Fricardo]

Originally posted by: beatle
If the chips are rated for 2.95v, they should last, and your warranty should be covered.

beatle's right: if that's what the RAM is rated to, then you don't need to worry at all. If you only need to keep it a year, I highly doubt that it would fry withing that time. Even if it did, it'll be under warranty since it's rated for that voltage.

 

[bjc112]

Originally posted by: ScrewFace
Heat is the biggest issue when using such high voltages. You'll need either a 5200 BYU air-conditioner blowing directly into your opened case or a water-cooling. Always buy DDR with heat shims. You'll be glad you did. I have my Athlon XP 2400+ (2.0GHz, 266Mhz fsb) at 2.5GHz and a 400MHz bus using 2.15 volts. This'd normally fry the CPU but, with my air-conditioner, the temps are 33 Celsius normal and 38 Celsius full load which is 7 Celsius lower that at the CPU's default voltage of 1.65.:beer:

I don't know if it's worth the extra 100 mhz Screwface...

Reguardless of the SLIGHTLY lower temp, resistors start to break down at that voltage..

As for the ram, 2.8V is perfectly safe. Most newer modules from Kingston and Corsair will replace it even it if was ran @ 2.9V..

 

[Avalon]

Thanks everyone
I too came to the realization that I had lifetime warranty ;D

 

[Sokratz]

it's not like a puppy. you can always buy more ram. wait, maybe it is like a puppy.

trust me, puppies are very sensitive to voltage. please increase level slowly.

 

[high]

ocz warrants 3.3V so I basically max it to get the maximum overclock

 

[Margalus]

Originally posted by: envelopment28
What are the long term effects of running your ram at 2.85 instead of 2.65. I see this being done a lot around here, but no talk of what the side effects are of it.

2.85 ain't nuttin I currently have some ocz pc4200EL running at 3.35v, but I may need to go higher since I am only at 300mhz 1:1 currently.

seriously, if you have decent ram, 2.85v won't phase it as long as you don't let it get too hot.