Newbie question about RAM

[kosobai]

I bought 4x4 sticks of UMAX RAM on the cheap and I now have 16GiB toasting nicely on the board. The memory is rated at 1600 MHz, but I read the post about excessive speed spanking the Phenom II's MMU for modest gain so I decided to play with the latencies instead. At 1333 (666) MHz the memory is rated at 9-9-9-24-33, and at 518 MHz it's rated at 7-7-7-19-26. I thought 'what the hell' and input the 518 MHz settings for the 666 RAM, and lo and behold it passed Memtest86+.

My question is, can operating the RAM latencies out-of-spec bork the memory and other components in the medium/long term? I didn't touch the voltages.

[absic]

こにちわこさばいさん

Adjusting the timings will not cause any problems and is a much better and safer option than running RAM faster. Keeping the voltages at the specified rating or lower, if possible, is also a good way to go as this will reduce the heat being produced from the modules.

[kosobai]

Thanks for that. It's what I suspected.

About the voltage: the RAM is rated at 1.5 volts and yet... the board, an almost new GA-880GMA-USB3, defaults the RAM voltage to 1.6 v (actually 1.588). Should I lower this, or is it a case of "If it an't broke, don't fix it"?

By the way, it's こ「そ」ばい！

[absic]

Hi again,

I'm a believer in if it ain't broke........

that said, on some motherboards the RAM Voltage is set a little higher to improve system stability. In some instances lowering it is not possible but, as they say, if you don't try you won't know. If your RAM is rated as 1.5V then it should run at that and you can try pulling the RAM Voltage back in the BIOS and see what happens. If the system falls over bring the voltage back up a little until you get stability.

By the way, it's こ「そ」ばい！

Yes, I know. in my haste to type 日本語　I hadn't fogotton the basics! My wife is Japanese and she is alwys complaining about my abuse of her native tongue!! 

[kosobai]

Following your post I tweaked the BIOS and now the RAM voltage stands at 1.488 volts. Once again, the memory passed Memtest86+ with flying colours.

It's strange how the memory was only stable at 11-11-11-40 (despite being rated at 9-9-9-24 for both 1600 and 1333 speeds) with the bus set to 1600MHz, and yet at 1333MHz, the CAS latencies will go all the way down to 7-7-7-19.

1600MHz is a definite no-no with these boards/processors.

ありがとうございました。

[autotech]

Eack set of ram is different and you pay for what you get. My ram is rated at 1600 and running it at a tad over at 803.6 2t which is 1607.2 and at 9-9-9-24 is just fine had it running this way since i bought the 1090t and ram on the day the chip came out.  Almost feels like the longest i have stayed with ram and processor when the bulldozier comes out it will go over 2000 mghtz so new board , ram , chip at that point.

[Aussie Allan]

  Another slant as well is.....dropping the timings down to 7-7-7-19-26 at 1333 is far more effective at improving overall performance then raising speed (MHZ) ......1600 with those timings ( 9-9-9-24-33 ) will not be as efficient and fast as the tighter timings....if you scale your tighter timing to 1600 they would end up at 11.11.11.30 ...by far more effective running at 1333 with those dimms .... but as Absic said ..... "There all different"

  Aussie Allan

[kosobai]

Well, 7-7-7-19-26 1T @1333MHz is the best I'm going to get from these sticks. 16GiB for 64 pounds;  can't really complain.

[autotech]

Dont ask why i am no way an expert in these things but at 1333 with 8-8-8-20 i can run but not to well seems slow and unresponsive and at 7-7-7-19 wont start so cant say about the speed. I can really tell the difference at 1600 from what i can get at 1333.  Could be numerious reasons even tried turning the cpu down and lowered voltage and bumped it up a bit too. When i have more time and am in the mood i will try again.