Ddr2 voltage and timing question

[stevie44]

Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H
AMD PHENOM II 955 BLACK EDITION
GSKILL 2X2 GB 800 MHZ DDR2 RAM
ATI HD 6770 1GB XFX GPU



I'm upgrading from win 7 32 bit to 64 bit, to get more ram onboard. Games on the horizon like Battlefield 3 pushing the 4gb of ram "recommended" that i have. Question is on the ram and voltage/timing. Mobo manual shows 1.8 voltage and a timing of
5-5-5-15. I'm finding good deals on other G-skill ram and other brands also. Do I need to match the voltage and timing up with my current two sticks of G-skill or how does that work. Looking to up my ram level to 8gb.


Newb thanks for your help in advance.....Steve

 

[spentshells]

most 800 mhz ram is 1.8v timings will vary you can try to tighten timings without any sort of changes. If you are not overlocking but it may not be possible. It is a lot easier to loosen timings to match and the losses are totaly unoticeable and will allow for easier overclocking of the CPU.

 

[stevie44]

most 800 mhz ram is 1.8v timings will vary you can try to tighten timings without any sort of changes. If you are not overlocking but it may not be possible. It is a lot easier to loosen timings to match and the losses are totaly unoticeable and will allow for easier overclocking of the CPU.

So if voltage is the same but for example another ram brand shows the following....Corsair 5-5-5-18 timing or a different G-skill showing timing of 4-4-4-12, but same voltage. Sorry for being a newb, but trying to make sure my new ram will work with the current ram, which is 1.8 voltage and timing of 5-5-5-15. I have a fair board, that does have some tweaking options.



Steve

 

[spentshells]

Just loosen the ram to match or try to find a middle ground if you can, but I would just loosen it to match or try to bring the ram 5-5-5-15 seems like it could work but that really seems like two different types of ram performance ram and value ram.
You might need to loosen the good stuff to match the newer set. Or like I said move it to 5-5-5-15 no need to mess with voltage.


OC the ram might take more voltage.

 

[stevie44]

so when you say loosen the ram, you mean in the bios. Yes, my current ram is value ram G-skill and Neweggs has Gskill PI...which shows has gaming or high performance ram. Just wanted to learn or understand, if way to adjust the new ram. G-skill has other ram at higher prices or Crucial and Corsair too. Just trying to see my options and learn tech too.

 

[spentshells]

Loosening will impact performace in a vary minor way but can allow for additional OC if you are not just flipping the multiplyer, Most people like to do this but there are gains to be had in other ways. IE upping the base clock Im reffering to my stepdaughters PC which is an x2 4200

Yes all timing will need to be matched in the bios.

 

[stevie44]

Any real plus in the gaming performance ram and the I guess value ram got now. If ran into extra coin, just to make all 4 sticks gaming/performance ram. In the specs I don't see what the diff is??? Follow up question, my board can take 1066 mhz at the max. Worth the extra coin from 800 mhz or not really??

 

[spentshells]

Not worth anything more than 5 dollars no joke.

 

[stevie44]

so don't bother going from 800 to 1066 mhz, to make sure i understand your reply???

 

[spentshells]

I was saying the better timings are worth 5 dollars 1066 for me was well worth it, but that was a intel machine with huge bus speeds

 

[jsc]

Most 1066 RAM really isn't. Most of it is just DDR2-800 RAM that has been tested to run at the higher speed, usually with loosened timings and at a higher voltage.

If you have a problem getting the RAM to run together, try increasing the RAM voltage to a max of 2.2 volts.