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Thoughts on Intel i7 3820 and Mushkin Redline 2133

mnguyen84

Senior member
I want to build a system around the Intel i7 3820 core. I am looking at the reviews for the Mushkin Redline 2133 ram, but all the reviews are from people with AMD setups which confuses me. I intend to overclock. Would these ram be appropriate for my setup.
 
Yep, no sinks needed. Not sure about the guys at 2400-2600, but mine have barely been warm to the touch during all my usage, gaming and/or encoding.
 
I have the Mushkin Redline 2133MHz RAM and run it at 1.65v with my 2600K CPU. Built the system last October and no issues with the RAM. It does have a full heat sink on both sides of the RAM with cooling fins on the top. I didn't know about the Samsung low voltage RAM when I built my system, otherwise I would have given them a try and see if they could do 2133. With a Sandy Bridge chip, the fastest RAM it can use is 2133, but Ivy can support faster.
 
I have the Mushkin Redline 2133MHz RAM and run it at 1.65v with my 2600K CPU. Built the system last October and no issues with the RAM. It does have a full heat sink on both sides of the RAM with cooling fins on the top. I didn't know about the Samsung low voltage RAM when I built my system, otherwise I would have given them a try and see if they could do 2133. With a Sandy Bridge chip, the fastest RAM it can use is 2133, but Ivy can support faster.

But 1.65 v ram is not good for sb or ivy
 
But 1.65 v ram is not good for sb or ivy
Yeah, I've been reading that. Some people say not to run RAM over 1.55v, while others say 1.65v is still OK. I guess if this Samsung RAM ever gets back in stock, I could buy it and replace my Mushkin with it, as it can overclock to 2133 with 1.55v from what people have posted. I originally had 4 sticks of G.Skill 2133 (16GB total) but it got a lot hotter than the Mushkin as it needed 1.68v to run at 2133. I sent it back and got the Mushkin Redline, had no issues with 16GB of them at 2133 at 1.65V, but has to use 2T (2N) timing on the clock cycle since I have 4 sticks installed. With 2 sticks it can do 1T. I wonder if I installed 16GB (4 sticks) of the Samsung and overclocked it to 2133, if it would run at 1T or 2T.
 
But 1.65 v ram is not good for sb or ivy

Show me one example where someone blew up their SB or RAM running it at 1.65v. If not, then it is just internet rumors.

I run the 3820 with 2133 RAM running at 1.62v. I ran by old 2500K with 1866 RAM running at 1.65v for over a year. Never an issue.
 
Show me one example where someone blew up their SB or RAM running it at 1.65v. If not, then it is just internet rumors.

I run the 3820 with 2133 RAM running at 1.62v. I ran by old 2500K with 1866 RAM running at 1.65v for over a year. Never an issue.

This. So the chip might last 4 years instead of 5 if you run high voltage ram. Doesn't matter much as it'll be obsolete in 2.
 
I can run this Samsung RAM at 2305MHz (108 bclk) 10-11-11 at 1.65V, which I do for benching. No issues and it doesn't get any warmer on me than 48C so far. Some of us don't care about it being plain or ugly 🙄 I ditched Vengeance with pretty blue sinks that couldn't do faster than 1700 for this Samsung.

The only issue with 1.65V that I've read about is keeping the CPU IMC voltage (VCCIO usually) within 0.5V of your RAM voltage. 1.65V on RAM would be run with 1.15V on VCCIO, then. Intel hasn't specifically put that information out there, though.
 
I can run this Samsung RAM at 2305MHz (108 bclk) 10-11-11 at 1.65V, which I do for benching. No issues and it doesn't get any warmer on me than 48C so far. Some of us don't care about it being plain or ugly 🙄 I ditched Vengeance with pretty blue sinks that couldn't do faster than 1700 for this Samsung.

The only issue with 1.65V that I've read about is keeping the CPU IMC voltage (VCCIO usually) within 0.5V of your RAM voltage. 1.65V on RAM would be run with 1.15V on VCCIO, then. Intel hasn't specifically put that information out there, though.

I've been waiting on the g skill ddr3 2800 memory. 😉 It even matches my motherboard
 
My heatsink completely all of my RAM slots anyway, so who cares about looks? 😉

Many top-end air coolers don't have a lot of RAM clearance anyways on s2011, so the 'less fancy' DIMMs are usually better.
 
Yeah, I've been reading that. Some people say not to run RAM over 1.55v, while others say 1.65v is still OK. I guess if this Samsung RAM ever gets back in stock, I could buy it and replace my Mushkin with it, as it can overclock to 2133 with 1.55v from what people have posted. I originally had 4 sticks of G.Skill 2133 (16GB total) but it got a lot hotter than the Mushkin as it needed 1.68v to run at 2133. I sent it back and got the Mushkin Redline, had no issues with 16GB of them at 2133 at 1.65V, but has to use 2T (2N) timing on the clock cycle since I have 4 sticks installed. With 2 sticks it can do 1T. I wonder if I installed 16GB (4 sticks) of the Samsung and overclocked it to 2133, if it would run at 1T or 2T.

No need to get new chips, I'm sure your redline will do 1.56v @ 2133 or so. You might need to relax the timings but not likely. You probably just need the voltage due to using so many sticks.
 
No need to get new chips, I'm sure your redline will do 1.56v @ 2133 or so. You might need to relax the timings but not likely. You probably just need the voltage due to using so many sticks.
Mushkin makes two, but the only difference is the heatsink. This is the one I'm using:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820226200
The timing is 9-11-10-28, but have it at 2T (2N) since 4 stick are installed (will not boot 4 sticks at 1T). I haven't tried lowering the voltage below the 1.650v yet. What other timings would your recommend?
 
Mushkin makes two, but the only difference is the heatsink. This is the one I'm using:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820226200
The timing is 9-11-10-28, but have it at 2T (2N) since 4 stick are installed (will not boot 4 sticks at 1T). I haven't tried lowering the voltage below the 1.650v yet. What other timings would your recommend?

You can undervolt your sticks without sacrificing stability through relaxed cas timings. My black line does cas 9 10 9 29 1t 2133 @ 1.56v, and my gskill does 10 10 10 29 1t 2133 @ 1.56v. PT 7.0 gives me the same memory scores at both default and undervolted voltages and i have no stability issues. Decent DDR3 2133 is pretty flexible.
 
SBe max RAM voltage is 1.85v 1.65v is fine. I went with the lowest CAS 1600 since the old Nehalem reviews showed that it was faster during gaming and normal usage. 1800+ is for SiSandra,SuperPi and IntelBurnTest/LinX. I only play those for a couple of hours every 3 years. Why do people think that a quad channel memory controller is starved for bandwidth?
 
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Just to see what would happen, I started lowering my voltage down from 1.650v but kept the same frequency of 2133MHz and timings of 9-11-10-28 2T. Right now it's at 1.590v and seems stable, passed Super PI 32M and Intel Burn Test with 10 runs at Max Ram. I'll keep lowing it down a few notches and see how low I can get it before any problems pop up.
 
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