DDR2 800Mhz RAM voltage

[Flyer]

mobo: Gigabyte EP45-UD3P
CPU: E8400
RAM: F2-6400CL5D-4GBPQ (2x2G)

I do not overclock, nor have I changed any voltages in the BIOS but since system build in January, the DDR voltage I get in "auto" has been 1.92v. The specs say this is 1.8v RAM. The system has been stable but I am wondering what the effect of the higher voltage might be over time, if any? Also, what may be the effects if I do change this manually to 1.8v? Should I?

[Tradesman]

You should be able to drop it, may go all at once or a bit at a time and test stability as you go, the lower the voltage the lower the heat (possibly minuscule), but the lower voltage, if possible with your system, will prolong life of the sticks a bit. Also keep in mind that not all mobos actually provide true voltages, not do the various software programs. If you were to run cpu-z it would prob show a different voltage than the BIOS does.

[Flyer]

Actually, that is what I got from CPU-Z and CPUID HWMonitor and PCWizard. Of course all from the same company so they may use the same programming to get the voltage. That is also the voltage I saw when I had EasyTune 6 loaded (a Gigabyte program that has been uninstalled). This is from CPU-Z.

Hardware monitor ITE IT87
Voltage 0 1.07 Volts [0x43] (CPU VCORE)
Voltage 1 1.92 Volts [0x78] (DDR)
Voltage 2 3.34 Volts [0xD1] (+3.3V)
Voltage 3 4.97 Volts [0xB9] (+5V)
Voltage 7 12.16 Volts [0xBE] (+12V)
Voltage 8 3.09 Volts [0xC1] (VBAT)
Temperature 0 41?C (105?F) [0x29] (System)
Temperature 1 31?C (87?F) [0x1F] (CPU)
Fan 0 1353 RPM [0x1F3] (FANIN0)

I thought the BIOS set it at this voltage because of having 2 sticks as I've read where in some cases with 4 sticks, you had to bump the voltage. So I assumed what the BIOS is doing is correct.

Do you see any other problems with leaving it at 1.92 that might be created besides heat? I was (am) having some intermittent problems with cold boot shutdowns... a shutdown about 3-4 seconds after power is applied and before the beep code. Just curious if this could be a factor. It is so intermittent it is hard to trouble shoot. I eliminated the PSU. Someone suggested to bump up the Vcore at bit and see what that does. Because this fix involved playing around with voltages, I thought I'd check here about the DDR voltage and its effects.

[Tradesman]

It won't hurt to kick up the vCore some (the rated max is 1.3625 but that would only be with an extreme OC), but with your settings and no OC all should be fine at stock settings. One thing you might look at in the BIOS is your tRFC setting the UD3P sometimes goes a bit low, with your two sticks you probably want 64-66 or so.

And having the mobo/CPU combo you have, I'd be thinking OC, w/ the stock CPU heatsink you can easily run 3.3-3.4 GHz. I'd suggest 3rd party for more as the 8400 does get warm, but with a Zalman or freezer Pro you could prob get up around 4 GHz on air.

[Flyer]

I have the AC Freezer 7 Pro cooler. I was running the system o/c'd to 3.6 without any problems but I really didn't see any difference in speed in the apps I use. It made some difference in the benchmarks I tried but I'm just really interested in a smooth running reliable system.

If CPU-Z is giving me the actual tRFC, then it shows 52. I didn't know if that was what it actually is or should be.

Memory Type DDR2
Memory Size 4096 MBytes
Channels Dual, (Symmetric)
Memory Frequency 399.9 MHz (5:6)
CAS# latency (CL) 5.0
RAS# to CAS# delay (tRCD) 5
RAS# Precharge (tRP) 5
Cycle Time (tRAS) 15
Row Refresh Cycle Time (tRFC) 52
Command Rate (CR) 2T

If my cold boot shutdowns stop, I'll be a happy camper. Next big headache... going from XP Pro to Win 7 64bit.

I guess the only other question I have regarding this voltage... if the mobo is not highly accurate in the voltages it shows, how do I feel safe with setting 1.8v? That could be anything??? I imagine that it's better to come down in small increments if I do it at all. As I seem to have to wait about 10 days after I make any change to be sure how it affects this intermittent problem, making any change is painful right now.

[Tradesman]

Freezer Pro 7 is one of my favorites, great cooler, I'll use either that or one of the Zalmans 95,97 or 9900 in 18-19 out of 20 builds, the odd balls are boxes that the client already has bought something or specifies a HS, for whatever reason.
As I said earlier, might raise the tRFC a bit, you show 52 now, maybe to 60 (might help with the cold boot, or yeah kick up the vCore a bit, or possibly the NB. Might try each idea, document it and see if problem persist, if it does, change things back and try next item, etc, If no one suggestion works, try combining two of the options.
Voltage shouldn't vary enough to cause problems. And actually, when you hop to Win7, it will probably be more stable. On my systems, Win7 seems to be more tolerant of various BIOS changes and voltage spread. You'll want to keep your drivers (all, mobo, monitor (if any), GPU, everything) updated and before you go to Win7, make sure you have those versions available on CD/DVD....If, when you go to 64 are you going to increase your RAM?....if so, might get it ahead of time and just go ahead and try it with XP...or if you can get a copy of the the latest beta version of Win7 64 you could load that in a dual boot to play with until you get the official copy.

[GSKILL TECH]

Setting memory voltage is better than AUTO. AUTO could be 2.4V.

Thank you
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