I need this answered quick, that's why I put it here. In a few hours time I'm going to buy some RAM off Ebay, but the two I'm looking at run at 2.1V. My board has 4 1.8V DIMMs. Will the memory not work, or be downclocked or will my motherboard supply them with more volts? I need this answered quick, so I hope you can help.
What motherboard do you have?
GA-EP31-DS3L (Revision 1.0).
What brand is it?
Honestly, I wouldn't buy new hardware, especially RAM, on Ebay. Prices in regular (online) shops won't be much more expensive and they usually offer better service and warrante.
This is the 2.1V one:
[url]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Corsair-XMS2-6400-DHX-800Mhz-twin-2GB-modules-4GB_W0QQitemZ280427751036QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_ComputerComponents_MemoryRAM_JN?hash=item414acbe67c[/url]
And this is 1.8V now I look closer:
[url]http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Corsair-XMS2-Memory-4GB-Kit-DDR2-800MHz-PC2-6400_W0QQitemZ180434468570QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Computing_ComputerComponents_MemoryRAM_JN?hash=item2a02bb7eda[/url]
And the reason I'm buying from Ebay is that otherwise I'd be paying nearly double.
The motherboard should supply the correct voltage. If it doesn't then you should be able to set the voltage manually.
If I supply it with a higher voltage than my motherboard is supposed to is there any chance of damage/overheating? Because at this point I'd rather play it safe and spend £7 more on the 1.8V sticks.
No, the motherboard can handle the extra voltage. My old mobo had the option to turn up the voltage to something like 2.3 or 2.4V (which of course would be bad for the RAM, but not a problem for the mobo).
Ok. I'm just wondering why my motherboard's page says "4 x 1.8V DDR2 DIMM sockets supporting up to 4 GB of system memory" then.
[QUOTE=X-Neon;18564546]Ok. I'm just wondering why my motherboard's page says "4 x 1.8V DDR2 DIMM sockets supporting up to 4 GB of system memory" then.[/QUOTE]
Probably because 1.8V is standard. My old mobo has the same description and it ran 2.1V RAM just fine.
Thanks, 1 last question then. My BIOS says turning up memory voltage can also damage my CPU. My CPU runs quite hot as it is and I don't want it overheating or completely failing. Is this true?
[QUOTE=X-Neon;18564693]Thanks, 1 last question then. My BIOS says turning up memory voltage can also damage my CPU. My CPU runs quite hot as it is and I don't want it overheating or completely failing. Is this true?[/QUOTE]
That's a new one on me, my BIOS says that increasing the DRAM voltage can damage the RAM (duh) but I've never heard of it damaging the CPU. At least not for LGA 775 CPUs. I wouldn't worry too much about it, probably just a blanket "do this and things might break" warning.
Lots of high spec DDR2 RAM requires 2.1v, so that's not unusual.
If I was you I'd probably play it safe and pay the extra £7.
I didn't win the auction, but thanks for your help anyway people.
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