1.8v or 1.8-2.1v RAM?

[heavyartillery]

I'm a hardware newbie. My board (Intel DG965WH) says, according to Intel, that it will only run with 1.8V RAM. I've noticed a LOT of RAM says 1.8-2.1V in the description, will that stuff work or am I milited to strictly the 1.8V only sticks?

Basically, I'm looking for a solid pair (2x512mb) or DDR2 800Mhz RAM for this board, around $110 or so (don't want to go higher.)

Thanks!

 

[jeff_2087]

Your board says 1.8v because technically, all DDR2 is supposed to operate at 1.8v in compliance with the JEDEC standard. In reality, though, a lot of DDR2 sticks are meant to be run at around 2.1v to achieve their rated performance.

Something like this will do nicely:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231102

Edit: After a quick search, it looks like you can't change the RAM voltage on that board without a different BIOS. So unless you want to flash to a modified BIOS, it seems you're stuck with RAM that can operate at 1.8v. The one I linked to can.

 

[Mondoman]

See the new "Overclocking 9 value-priced DDR2-800..." article.

 

[heavyartillery]

I had seen that one, but the reviews people say it doesn't work well with the 965 board, so I'll try another one. Actually looking at this one

Let me add that I'm not planning to overclock anything yet, I'm a newbie remember My build plan is as follows: (I already have the chip, board, and OS)

-Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 Conroe 1.86GHz LGA 775 Processor
- Intel DG965WH LGA 775 Intel G965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard
- Microsoft Windows Vista Ultimate
- Antec Performance One P180B ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
- Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive
- EVGA 256-P2-N615-TX GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
- HIPER HPU-4B580-MS ATX12V v2.2 580W Power Supply
- A-DATA 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit