long time running 1.8v memory in my overclocked i7

[durace]

I built nehalem last Febuary and overclocked it 90%. It been running nearly every day long time. It's a watercooling setup and has Gigabyte X58-UD5 motherboard.

Now I recently been looking to upgrade the memory. I went to look up the existing 2x4GB of Corsair TW3X4G1600C9D 1.8v Dominator DDR3 memory. It was out of stock from original store. To my horror trying to find the memory from another store, I discovered article about not using memory over 1.65v with Nehalem. I am not surprised the store stopped stocking it. My pc has been fine and stable with memory at 1.8v. I found another dominator memory 2x4gb that is 1.5v that I want to add. I not had the existing memory overclocked but remember in the early days overclocking it. I cant' tell you the speed and voltages of the memory right now im running it at but will get back to you on that.

Do you think I have been damaging or degrading my Nehalem all this time? I think not damaging because it been massively overclocked and would of probably died by now. The memory is officially 1.8v and checked with Corsair.

I never saw warning about the memory voltage at the time and the memory I got was recommended for nehalem. It nearly a year ago now. Should i take up the issue with the store? I also bought the nehalem along with the memory.

What do you think?

 

[durace]

not been into BIOS in such a long time. i found out i been running the memory at 1.5v which was auto settings. talk about undervolted, amazed i could overclock that much. it been always stable. i now set the voltage to 1.66v. i been running it safe all along.

 

[dac7nco]

You have an i7 running a 90% overclock 24/7?!!

Daimon

 

[durace]

In beginning i had stable 4.6mhz overclock which is nigh on 90% .

I now running the memory at 1.8v and fine. The maximum 1.65v is more to do with not having more than 0.5v difference between the vdimm and vtt voltages. I have the vtt at 1.38.

 

[durace]

I was messing in the BIOS today. I got a right result which i cannot reproduce yet. I got 4000k/s moves more in Houdini 1.5 chess engine which is always 13,000k shot straight to 17,000. Deep Rybka SSE42 engine which is normally 570k/s was 869k/s. I was quite amazed. I had the multiplier recently on x12 and turbo on and starting from scratch again to seperate the highest bclock. Something to do with lower multiplier and higher QPI i presume. I cannot fathom why, maybe something to do with BIOS power saving as well. I remember the memory on low setting. I think everything just synced together. I got the memory which is 9-9-9-24 runnning at 7-7-7-20 as well.

This Gigabyte is best board i had ever.

 

[Diogenes2]

not been into BIOS in such a long time. i found out i been running the memory at 1.5v which was auto settings. talk about undervolted, amazed i could overclock that much. it been always stable. i now set the voltage to 1.66v. i been running it safe all along.

Why are you upping the voltage if it was stable at 1.5 ?

What issue with the store do you have ?

 

[durace]

Why are you upping the voltage if it was stable at 1.5 ?

What issue with the store do you have ?

The potential idea was to run it more stable with tighter timings at it's branded volts.

Store recommended the memory bought with there Nehalem nearly a year ago, even though memory is good spec with good heatsinking, the voltage is reported dangerously over spec for Nehalem. I was suggesting, would they swap it for Nehalem compatible memory of similar spec? as i recently first thought i put my hardware at risk all this time. Given the reason, would a reputable good store swap it just like that? As it turns out, i been undervolting the memory.

 

[durace]

I have now added Corsair Dominator DDR3 2x4GB 1.65v (CMX8GX3M2A1600C9) to the original 4GB. They have the same speed, timings and heatsinking. No apparent issues. I run the lot at 1.65v. I put the new bigger memory into the first dual channel bank hoping it make a better difference. This was quite abit cheaper than buying triple channel 12GB of same spec.

 

[toyota]

I dont see how you could have not heard about the 1.65 memory voltage all this time. it was mentioned in most reviews and even the mobos I have seen tell you that.

EDIT: btw as a cyclist, durace looks a lot like dura-ace to me. lol

 

[durace]

I dont see how you could have not heard about the 1.65 memory voltage all this time. it was mentioned in most reviews and even the mobos I have seen tell you that.

EDIT: btw as a cyclist, durace looks a lot like dura-ace to me. lol

It was a oversight upgrading to Nehalem as many a better DDR3 worked in i7. It sounded like deja-vu as it worked. I remember a similar thing from past, customers unsure whether a certain Corsair DDR2 was really 1.6 or 1.8.

I took a total break from overclocking. What i do/did is buy Intel tock, get major architecture, overclock it like mad and then forget about overclocking until the next big tock comes round. Due to cheaper SSD and DDR3 i decided to upgrade to improve performance good. Not holding breath for Sandybridge.

What you need is SRAM Force, best bang for the buck.

 

[durace]

 

[VirtualLarry]

good thing you found out that you were running your 1.8v memory at 1.5. Because if you had been running it at 1.8v, you probably would have had a dead CPU by now.