Undervolting DDR2 Ram = Good Or Bad Idea?

[rossaw]

Hi

Ive been further tweaking my old c2d system to keep me in the game

Ive currently got my ram at DDR 900MHz 5-4-4-12 (450MHz fsb so 1:1) and i know from my experiments with a lower multi that it caps out at 980MHz @ 1.9v (which is all im willing to pump in). Im sure i havnt got a divider to give me <80MHz and ive tightened up my timings as much as i can, so naturally i go about lowering the voltage

To my amazement it posted @ 1.65v!!! 1.55v failed so back up to 1.65v it went

currently running memtest, 2 passes completed so far

my question is, is lowering my voltage so much going to damage the ram (or anything else)? I've got nothing to gain from upping it so it seams a waste to run it in spec @ 1.8v, but im just shocked its running so low.....

for those of you who struggle to remember ddr2, 1.8v -2.1v or so was the norm.

thoughts?

ps, its just rather standard ddr2 800mhz @1.8v ram. corsair xms2 like the link below
http://www.base.com/buy/product/corsair-xms2/dgc-cor-twin2x4096-6400c5c.htm?awc=2694_1328743634_6424d8b8d65793c08683e55093bce251

 

[blazorthon]

That's a pretty good pair of modules you have there. I don't know if undervolting them that much will damage them, but I'd put it a little higher. There isn't much to waste by running it higher.

Try doing a stress test benchmark, an hour or so of passmark should do the trick. If it doesn't fail then you should be fine. If it fails then raise the voltage a little and try again, repeat until it passes at least an hour.

 

[rossaw]

That's a pretty good pair of modules you have there. I don't know if undervolting them that much will damage them, but I'd put it a little higher. There isn't much to waste by running it higher.

Try doing a stress test benchmark, an hour or so of passmark should do the trick. If it doesn't fail then you should be fine. If it fails then raise the voltage a little and try again, repeat until it passes at least an hour.

well its been running 2hrs of memtest now. 3 passes complete and no errors as of yet.....

i think ill leave it testing overnight (its midnight in uk) and see if they are still error free in the morning. if so i think ill leave them at 1.65v. any other posts are welcome though if anyone thinks it could cause problems.

 

[blazorthon]

memtest is not a stress test, you need something like passmark to really know if it's stable.

 

[nforce4max]

Undervolting can't damage the ram but it can make the kit unstable at higher clocks and tighter timings. See if you can go 4.4.4.12 at that clock and voltage? I am lucky my self that I got 8 GB 1066 in my 775 build atm.

 

[rossaw]

Undervolting can't damage the ram but it can make the kit unstable at higher clocks and tighter timings. See if you can go 4.4.4.12 at that clock and voltage? I am lucky my self that I got 8 GB 1066 in my 775 build atm.

I cant get 4-4-4x, i tried up to 2v and im not worried enough to want to put more v in. i may however try lowing the strap to the 200mhz one...... and there was some other timing i was interested in (i think it was trd?) if there is no joy at 2v with them then ill slam the volts back down.

it did 4 hours of occt large data size and it was fine so i think its fine at 1.65v.......

 

[rossaw]

Yep, 1.65v is fine, with matched timings to go with it.

Although my motherboard specifies support for memory at 1.5v, I have a 8GB 1600Mhz XMS3 Kit running at 1.65v just fine.

im talkling about ddr2 ram though. so its more like would it be ok to run your ram at 1.4v?