DDR2 Voltages

[996GT2]

I have 2 GB OCZ Gold DDR2-667 (Infineon), currently running at DDR2-620 at 4-4-4-12 from the 533 divider on my K9N Platinum at 2.8 GHz.

I need more than 2.2V (OCZ's Warranty limit) to do DDR2-800 Stable at 5-5-5-15, since at 2.2V windows loads but soon crashes. I'm just wondering if voltages beyond 2.2V (stock VDimm is 1.8 for my RAM) will be harmful for long-term stability?

 

[MADMAX23]

It depends on your memory, as you have said, yours is rated to run at a limit of 2.2v before avoiding their warranty, 2.1v and 2.2 are safe values for an everyday Oc...but like I said, it depends on your memory chips...so get informed by your manufacturer.
For example; my cheap GEIL sticks are rated at 1.8v....but reading deeply into Geil datasheets and some non public info from Geil's engineers, I discovered the chips that the DDR2 value series have can handle up to 2.4v as a max safe for an everyday use....Take a look at GEIL's DDR2 1000 value series...their voltage is set to 2.3v for an everyday use and their chips are the same as the ones in DDR2 800 value series.
Mine can do higher than DDR2 1000 speeds at only 2.25v.....you see....

So, to sum up, do not tresspass the 2.2v barrier until you get more info.

 

[Brunnis]

As MADMAX23 said, the first thing you should do is to check the specs for the memory chips used on the sticks. I definitely wouldn't go above 2.2V before checking this.

That's some bad luck with that memory, though. My ultra-cheap Kingmax DDR2-667 does 800MHz 4-4-4-15 on 1.85V.

 

[996GT2]

Wow seems I really got a dud set of DIMMs from OCZ this time...will try some Corsair XMS2 DDR2-675 soon from a friend and see if that works any better.

 

[markymoo]

apparently some have pushed there ram voltage to a crazy 3.3 3.4 before it died. so i expect running it at 2.45 is ok. nice to have some extra fan blowing on your board/ram.

 

[996GT2]

Well, I tried some different options than pure clock speeds, and got about the same performance gains with my RAM at DDR2-620 with timings of 3-4-4-8. Also, this setting only needs 1.95V to run stable, so I guess this is what I'm sticking with...

Oh yeah and that Corsair XMS I tried...it was stable for a bit at DDR2-800 (2.2V), but then would suddenly cause random reboots; I later tried DDR2-620 at 2.0V and the reboots still occured...so I just ended up giving that back

Hopefully MSI will provide some more RAM divider options in their updated BIOS versions; only having 400/533/667/800 is pretty limiting to an OC's RAM performance.