PC Peripherals Which RAM for i-2500k based build?

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DirtDiver

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Hey everybody..ill be buying my new SB system in next 3-5 days. I realized that SB mobos RAM @ 1.5volt is recommended. But RAM @ 1.65 v is easily available in the market. Although RAM @ 1.65v would work..it would be really pushing it as Intel specification gives 1.575v as the upper limit(thank user Lord Nemesis for correct info) for SB mobos.

My question is:

Is 1.65v RAM gonna work without problem on a 24/7 @ 2years uptime for my PC?

Is anyone on this forum using 1.65v RAM on a P67 motherboard?



The following is the build i am going to have:

Component | Make | Price | Comments Processor |i5-2500k|10200|

Motherboard |MSI P67A-GD55|9900|

RAM |Single 4Gb module @1600 Mhz|2600| The local dealers said its corsair ram with heat sink but when i asked XMS3 or vengence they had no clue. And they didnt have one at store or weren't interested in making the effort of showing. I too didnt push hard then as i wasn't aware of the voltage issue. PSU |Corsair 650TX|5720|Bought from primeabgb.com. Arrived today.

Gfx Card |Palit GTX570 Sonic Platinum|21000|I have a quote @ 19500 for MSI refrence 570. But since palit in non ref design 21k is my estimate and is just a placeholder for now

Case |CM 690 II Advanced with transparent window|5800

Keyboard/Mouse |Razer cyclosa + abyssus|2500|Online quote. I am sure local price would be cheaper.

| Total |57720

Thanks for help..:)
 
haven't checked whether RAMs rated with 1.65 V will work with SB mobo's but IMO it should work. If you want to stick with 1.5 V RAMs you can buy GSkill Ripjaws X,corsair xms 3 or vengeance
 
Apart from issues reported by a few people on international forums, 1.65V RAM's should work fine. There are people on these very forums who are using 1.65V RAM's. If you can help it, try to get 1.5V RAMs like the GSkill Ripjaws series to be on the safe side.
 
I am using 1.65V RAM perfectly fine.

I would recommend GSkill Ripjaws CAS 8 1600Mhz 2x2GB for 3k from SMC
 
vivacious_tg said:
haven't checked whether RAMs rated with 1.65 V will work with SB mobo's but IMO it should work. If you want to stick with 1.5 V RAMs you can buy GSkill Ripjaws X,corsair xms 3 or vengeance
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Lord Nemesis said:
Apart from issues reported by a few people on international forums, 1.65V RAM's should work fine. There are people on these very forums who are using 1.65V RAM's. If you can help it, try to get 1.5V RAMs like the GSkill Ripjaws series to be on the safe side.
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I know all Vengeance are @ 1.5v so they seem to be the safest bet. I am surprised so many ppl are building Sandy Bridge bades systems here and nobody is rasing this issue. Its clearly specified by intel that 1.5v is recomended for 24/7 use. There must be a reason behind it.

Most of the people on international forums are recomending ram @ 1.5v for SB.

Ill now have to check if Vengeance is locally available. Gskill is very expensive here. If i cant get it locally, ill get it online.

But are there people on the forum using ram @ 1.65v on SB builds?

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---
rite said:
I am using 1.65V RAM perfectly fine.

I would recommend GSkill Ripjaws CAS 8 1600Mhz 2x2GB for 3k from SMC
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Ok nice..but i hope this doesn't create problems in future. Ill keep reading about this. If i manage to get 'vengeance' locally then it will be great. I recently lost a decently powful rig because of relying on a local cheap PSU(i kno, it was stupid) and running high perf components on it..so i wanna be careful this time around.

PS: I lost 5 HDDs. All are in process of RMA now..will post experiences on that too sometime.
 
Guys, am behind this. What is the conflict behind 1.65 vs 1.5 volts for the RAMs.

Also, OP , really nice grid. Excellent way to post.
 
1. Intel's own recommendation (according to their spec docs) for RAM voltages on Sandy Bridge is 1.5v +/- 5%. That puts their max safe voltage recommendation at 1.575V. Anything over that limit can theoretically kill the CPU/reduce life.

Overclockers UK Forums - View Single Post - Sandy Bridge 2500k Just Died

2. Theoretically speaking, 1.5V is the standard (& recommended) spec for running any DDR3 RAM according to DDR3 specs.

DDR3 memory provides a reduction in power consumption of 30% compared to DDR2 modules due to DDR3's 1.5 V supply voltage, compared to DDR2's 1.8 V or DDR's 2.5 V. The 1.5 V supply voltage works well with the 90 nanometer fabrication technology used in the original DDR3 chips.
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According to JEDEC[2] the maximum recommended voltage is 1.575 volts and should be considered the absolute maximum when memory stability is the foremost consideration, such as in servers or other mission critical devices. In addition, JEDEC states that memory modules must withstand up to 1.975 volts before incurring permanent damage, although they are not required to function correctly at that level.
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DDR3 SDRAM - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So basically Intel designed its chips and recommends safe voltages for the RAM in accordance with the JEDEC specs for DDR3.

Any DDR3 RAM that is operating outside these limits (like the 1.65V sticks) is essentially overclocked RAM that has to be pumped voltages outside the JEDEC specs in order to make it work at clocks higher than it was designed for. For instance Cosair XMS3 1600MHz is rated to run 1600Mhz at 1.65V. It is probably DDR3 designed to run at 1333MHz @ 1.5V. Corsair is basically saying that this RAM can also run at 1600MHz if you pump 1.65V.

If you run CPU-Z and see the RAM properties, It will show the JEDEC and XMP profiles there. For 1.65V RAMs, the 1600MHz clock @ 1.65v would be an XMP Profile. The highest JEDEC profile would still be well within the safe voltage levels (i.e 1333Mhz @ 1.5V etc). RAM's that are rated 1600MHz @ 1.5V (Like my CL8 Ripjaws X) will a JEDEC Profile for the same. The XMP profile would be same as the highest JEDEC profile or like in my case, makes the RAM run at lower timings than what it was originally designed for.

Practically speaking, it was found that apart from a few rare cases, there was no problem running 1.65v RAMs on Sandy Bridge. While this is essentially RAM running at overclocked speeds using voltages higher than specified in JEDEC specs, what has ever stopped overclockers from running stuff at healthy (often unhealthy) overdoses of voltages. :P Considering Sandy Bridge doesn't allow fiddling of BCLK, you would mostly be running the RAM's at rated speeds only, so no chance of going any higher than 1.65v.

As a side note, I have also read that recent batches of popular 1.65v RAMs like XMS3 1600Mhz have been known to run at rated speeds at safe JEDEC voltages (possibly due to a change in chips used). So if you are using such rams, you should check whether you can run these rams at something like 1.58V which would completely negate any risk even theoretically.
 
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in my opinion get a vengeance stick
it is made for a sandy bridge so you will be on the safe side
it costs 2700 on prime but it is available for 2500 too

though i must warn you that they have tall heat spreaders that can cause problem if you are installing a big cpu cooler
apart from that they are great
and they are great to overclock too
on a different note
CM 690 II Advanced with transparent window
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not worth it dude
the nzxt case is bigger and comes with all the fans pre installed

on the cooler master you will get only 3 fans
adding more would mean shelling out at least 1500 bucks more

and the evo is cheaper too
 
@Lord Nemesis:

Really nice explanation. Thanks..!

It would be interesting to check if any one was able to run Corsair XMS3s' @ 1600 @ less than 1.65V.
 
Lord Nemesis said:
1. Intel's own recommendation (according to their spec docs) for RAM voltages on Sandy Bridge is 1.5v +/- 5%. That puts their max safe voltage recommendation at 1.575V. Anything over that limit can theoretically kill the CPU/reduce life.

Overclockers UK Forums - View Single Post - Sandy Bridge 2500k Just Died

2. Theoretically speaking, 1.5V is the standard (& recommended) spec for running any DDR3 RAM according to DDR3 specs.

DDR3 SDRAM - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Click to expand...

Respect! Thank u for the awesome explanation, link. I am sure it will help so many people on this forum.

asingh said:
Also, OP , really nice grid. Excellent way to post.
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Heh heh..thanks. :)

zero_cool said:
in my opinion get a vengeance stick

it is made for a sandy bridge so you will be on the safe side

it costs 2700 on prime but it is available for 2500 too

though i must warn you that they have tall heat spreaders that can cause problem if you are installing a big cpu cooler

apart from that they are great

and they are great to overclock too

on a different note

not worth it dude

the nzxt case is bigger and comes with all the fans pre installed

on the cooler master you will get only 3 fans

adding more would mean shelling out at least 1500 bucks more

and the evo is cheaper too
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I dont think the Vengeance series was made for SB, it has been around for long time. Its just that it it hi-perf low voltage RAM. I think getting Vengeance is the best thing i can do.

As for the CM 690 II- I am getting it because of the hot swappable sata dock they have. I work with lot of HDDs so thats a very good feature to have built into the case. Also it looks good and extra fans i can install later.

yashchitale said:
just get this OP Gskill Ripjaws 1600Mhz DDR3 4GB X 1

Or Gskill [Ripjaws] DDR3-1600 (PC3 12800) 4gb kit if you wanna avail the benifits of dual channel.
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G.skill is not easily available here locally. Ill order online if i cant get Vengeance. I dont want duel channel 4Gb kit as i am getting 4 Gb single module and in another month another one for duel channel.

Thank u for the link to 4gb module. :)
 
DirtDiver said:
Respect! Thank u for the awesome explanation, link. I am sure it will help so many people on this forum.
Click to expand...

Thanks Man, Its just knowledge that I myself gathered when I was researching for my own Sandy Bridge Build. ;)

Anyway, I would strongly recommend against getting the vengeance series unless you are water cooling. If you are going for a tower HSF, The extra tall heat spreaders on the vengeance will kill any chances of future RAM upgrades. Even if you don't think you would go beyond 8GB RAM, I would say keep your future options open. I would recommend getting one of the GSkill kits if you can go for it. Both Prime and SMC have stocks of GSkill's at decent prices.

Also why don't you just get 2 x 4GB Dual channel kit now instead of going 4GB single stick and another stick at a later time? I guess it would add another 2.7k to the cost which is not such a huge diff considering you are spending 57~58k already.
 
Get the cheapest modules rated at 1.5V. I used to run my SNB system on a Transcend 2GB DDR3 1333MHz module for a fortnight and gave me absolutely no issues.
 
Lord Nemesis said:
Thanks Man, Its just knowledge that I myself gathered when I was researching for my own Sandy Bridge Build. ;)

Anyway, I would strongly recommend against getting the vengeance series unless you are water cooling. If you are going for a tower HSF, The extra tall heat spreaders on the vengeance will kill any chances of future RAM upgrades. Even if you don't think you would go beyond 8GB RAM, I would say keep your future options open. I would recommend getting one of the GSkill kits if you can go for it. Both Prime and SMC have stocks of GSkill's at decent prices.

Also why don't you just get 2 x 4GB Dual channel kit now instead of going 4GB single stick and another stick at a later time? I guess it would add another 2.7k to the cost which is not such a huge diff considering you are spending 57~58k already.
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I know about the hight of this ram but ill most probably be getting a water cooling solution for cpu. Air coolers are very big and ugly..and have lower effeciency. Of course the price premium is there too..

And ya i think ill try getting the 2x4Gb kit. Although my budget is already overshooting by 5-6k already.

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---
Gannu said:
Get the cheapest modules rated at 1.5V. I used to run my SNB system on a Transcend 2GB DDR3 1333MHz module for a fortnight and gave me absolutely no issues.
Click to expand...
Ya that is also an option..if money gets tight.
 
I have ordered for two 4 Gb Vengeance sticks from SMC @ 2600 each. I wanted G.skill ripjaws X, but that wasnt in stock. The ram i ordered are 2 independent sticks and not a kit, but i dont think that should be a problem at all running them in duel channel.
 
dude why did u buy two 4gb seperate sticks man? corsair is raising a fuss scolding people on their forums that this is akin to mixing different rams and they cant guarantee speeds with it.
further vengeance has very high heatsink which interfere with aftermarket coolers.
theory aside the max voltage a sandy bridge can sustain is 1.65v. that is the JEDEC upper limit. u can run 1.65v 24/7 without a problem. xms3 runs at 1600 mhz at 1.65v. but some asrock sandy bridge boards have uper limit set at 1.58v. here it might cause a problem. and its future use is also non existent as max voltages will only get lower. that is why sandy with xms is a stupid combo
 
dude 1.5v is for 1333mhz. for 1600mhz corsair recommends 1.65v at 9-9-9-24 timings. check their site. but if it works at 1600mhz at 1.5v for u then its awesome man. u can probably oc it further.
BTW u can get a 2000mhz xms3 kit to do 1600mhz at 1.5v:duh: but thats not the discussion here:)
 
yeah i dont know :P I just went to DRAM and set volt to 1.5 with the XMP profile and when even i check BIOS it says 1.5v . How to do 2000mhz on these sticks? I cant get that ..
 
As far as the height of the modules is concerned, its not an issue cos ill be using water cooling. The voltage is 1.5 and i wanted to play it safe this time around.

Hopefully the 2 septate 4Gb modules will work without a problem in duel channel mode. In my last build i has 2 different ram modules, running at different frequencies, from different brands but same size, working in duel channel so i guess it wont be an issue.
 
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