CM2X2048-6400C5C stock voltage

[Veritas]

Hi

 

I recently bought 4GB of the said RAM (as replacement) for a Gigabyte X38-DQ6 motherboard. The sticks themselves are marked as "800MHz 2048MB 5-5-5-18 1.80V ver8.6"

 

When I put them into the MOBO and set everything at stock, CPUID Hardware Monitor reports that the RAM is running at 1.9V.

 

I am wondering how I can reduce the voltage in the BIOS down to the stated 1.8V so they will run a little cooler and at spec?

 

All the settings in the BIOS are about increasing voltages, not decreasing them below "Normal".

 

Its not a biggie (big issue), but am intrigued just the same.

 

Thanks in advance.

[peanutz94]

I am wondering how I can reduce the voltage in the BIOS down to the stated 1.8V so they will run a little cooler and at spec?

Simply highlight that line in your bios and put the voltage in manually. But if your board is setting them at 1.9v and they are stable, I would leave well enough alone. .1v isn't going to make them run any cooler anyway.

[Veritas]

Thanks peanutz for the reply. I have done a bit more research. It seems Gigabyte upped the default memory voltage for my board in one of their BIOS updates around February 2008 to address "stability issues". So unless I roll back the BIOS to before that (and lose support for my processor in the process (pun intended)) I am stuck with 1.9v stock memory voltage. I also discovered why I was having stability issues with my 4 sticks of 1GB RAM. Apparently the MCH on this board doesn't like 4 sticks running at 1066MHz so I either down-clock them or go for two sticks of 2GB, which is coincidentally, what I have just done. You are right of course - 0.1 of a volt is neither here nor there, although Gigabyte seems to think it makes a difference to overall stability.

[peanutz94]

It seems Gigabyte upped the default memory voltage for my board in one of their BIOS updates around February 2008 to address "stability issues". So unless I roll back the BIOS to before that (and lose support for my processor in the process (pun intended)) I am stuck with 1.9v stock memory voltage.

Totally understandable that Gigabyte would do that. Some boards tend to undervolt the memory and obviously this is why they did that.

I also discovered why I was having stability issues with my 4 sticks of 1GB RAM. Apparently the MCH on this board doesn't like 4 sticks running at 1066MHz so I either down-clock them or go for two sticks of 2GB,

Sure, thats just because of the increased load on the memory controller. But that doesn't mean it can't be done. You may need to bump memory voltage to 2.0-2.1v along with adding .2v to your North Bridge voltage.

 

Even if you had to underclock them to 800mhz, it's not going to be much slower than 4 sticks at 1066mhz. I would tend to believe the increased capacity may be close to or greater performance boost over two sticks at 1066mhz. It's really going to help your overall system response.

 

You are right of course - 0.1 of a volt is neither here nor there, although Gigabyte seems to think it makes a difference to overall stability.

In all reality it could make a huge difference. All I was getting at was that .1v wouldn't be enough to harm the modules or any other part of your system, or even cause excess heat.