The dangers with red LED's?

[JallaTryne]

Hello
I am very new to building computers, and have a question to you pro's. My important specs are:
motherboard GA-X58A-UD5
Intel i7-930 processor
6GB Corsair Dominator DHX+ DDR3 1866MHxz
XFX black edition 750W PSU
PowerColor radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5

I notice in BIOS that my memory frequency is 1066 Mhz as default. Performance enhance is "turbo". This was a surprise. I tried the X.M.P setting from "disabled" to "profile1" and that changes the mem. frequency to 1867Mhz.

That is nice, but now all kinds of leds start to show themselves on my mother board. Worrying leds. The most worrying is the CPU voltage LED which is in the red. Other LEDS are
DDR voltage LED 1 light
Probably (diff. to see exactly) 2 LED lights at NB voltage.

I have no overclocking of CPU or anything.

My worry continued because suddenly my sound became choppy and "sparking". I run sound from the motherboard. Is this a result of over-voltage? How am I supposed to get my mem run at its designed speed without red leds for my CPU etc?


Any answer is much appreciated!
JT

[Dark Mantis]

Well the short answer is that you ARE overclocking The thing is that the JEDEK specs for the memory stop at 1066 and by selecting the XMP profile it is automatically overclocking your system to amke use of this extra speed that your memory can run at.

[JallaTryne]

I see. Would you advise against overclocking the RAM because of the higher voltage? Would this impose a danger to my system? I did not have any instability, and the sound problem seems to be gone.

A very noob comment for sure, but "what is the point of 1866MHz ram if it entails damaging overclocking"

JT

[Dark Mantis]

I see. Would you advise against overclocking the RAM because of the higher voltage? Would this impose a danger to my system? I did not have any instability, and the sound problem seems to be gone.

A very noob comment for sure, but "what is the point of 1866MHz ram if it entails damaging overclocking"
JT

The thing is many people want to get the best performance wise out of their machines and so are quite happy to overclock components to do so. It does reduce their lifespan but it is all relative. If for example you changed your computer every three years(and there are plenty who do so more regularly) then as long as the components lasted that long it wouldn't be a problem. Generally you have the choice to run at a lower speed or to overclock and get sa much from your system as possible, as long as it's stable I don't really see the problem. Some people even underclock their computers to get a longer lifespan and more stability. Your choice

[JallaTryne]

Right, so 1800MHz ram is made for those who want to oc. I'll do a modest overclock to 1600, and no evil red led's appear. I would want my computer to last 5 yrs at least.

Thank you for your answers Dark Mantis.

JT

[Dark Mantis]

You're very welcome. Come back if you have any further questions.