DDR3L useable on Asus Z97-E

[slimyrock]

Quick question. A friend of mine gave me some RAM he ordered and didn't need. I have an Asus Z97-E motherboard, and have your typical DDR3 RAM in it.

The RAM he gave me is DDR3L. Will that RAM run on the motherboard with no issues? Do I need to change it manually in the bios to 1.5v instead of the 1.35v? Or is that even an option.

 

[InvalidError]

You could start by checking the DIMM's specs to see if they are rated for 1.5V. If they are, then you don't need to worry about DRAM voltage. Many DDR3L chips are designed to work fine on 1.5V - it spares DRAM manufacturers the trouble of manufacturing two different product ranges.

 

[slimyrock]

The board says that it is for 1.5v. So since that is the case I can plug my DDR3L into the DIMMs no problem? I know on Skylake if you don't use the DDR3L you can damage the motherboard and CPU.

 

[InvalidError]

I was not asking about whether the motherboard supports 1.5V, I asked about the DIMMs. Some DDR3L DIMMs are rated for 1.35V and 1.5V, others are 1.35V only.

 

[slimyrock]

if the DIMMs are rated only at 1.35v, then they won't work on the board?

 

[InvalidError]

Haswell is supposed to support DDR3L but if the motherboard only does 1.5V and up, then you would be running your 1.35V DIMMs over-volted to 1.5V. Potentially not good if your DIMMs are 1.35V-only.

When you run components significantly out of specs, you never know if it will work, be stable and not fail catastrophically until you try it. If you don't want to take that chance, then get components that are officially rated for the voltage they need to operate at.