Memory overclocking;damages and risks

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Rico
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Memory overclocking;damages and risks

Post by Rico »

Hey,
well, what are the risks of memory overclock? what damages could result; we know that for example vga overclock can fry the gpu;and thats bad :P. What about ram oc?
Also, my motherboard is an MSI, and it has an AMIBIOS.In its menu, there is a section, RAM settings, where there is an option to change the memory for the folowing system speed: "fast,turbo or extreme".Now, in your opinion, what damage could this make if I turn on to extreme, other than no system boot.
Thanks!
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kenc51
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Post by kenc51 »

changing ram timings wouldn't cause any damage to the ram.....the ram either won't boot and or be unstable --> adding too much voltage can and will kill your ram!
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Apoptosis
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Post by Apoptosis »

you can alway damage memory with memory timings, but usually you will change settings before major damage is done.

With lifetime warranties on name brand modules I say overclock and have fun, but expect to have some go out on you and to be without a PC while you RMA it.
Kingtal0n
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Post by Kingtal0n »

Dumb question but,

Say one type of memory is rated 1.8V @ 4-4-4-12 timing

and another is 2.2V @ 4-4-4-12 timing

What is the difference? Will the 1.8V live longer? be slower? Would I WANT to buy the lower voltage to benefit from increased ram life? And could it overclock faster because it uses less volts to beign with?
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dicecca112
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Post by dicecca112 »

the 2.1V ram won't overclock as high as the 1.8V ram potentially. Also the 2.1 ram runs hotter. No differences other than that.
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Kingtal0n
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Post by Kingtal0n »

Thanks for the reply! I have more questions, you will find I am an endless pit of them.

Answer me this if you could please then,
When a mother board says 1000MHz FSB,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813131013

and says "DDR2 800" Memory standard

I know the FSB has something to do with the memory speed, the two have to match or something, so by putting the DDR800 into the 1000MHz FSB mother board, doesnt the Mobo downclock the FSB to 800MHz?

And Isnt that where overclocking comes into play, I could clock the FSB to 1000MHz and the memory should follow also, right? but then may become unstable, so I would have to raise the voltage, right? I've never overclocked anything so bear with me.
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dicecca112
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Post by dicecca112 »

if it says its DDR 800, then the FSB is 400. The FSB comes into play with the CPU. FSB X Multipler is Clock Speed.

In this case the motherboard official supports DDR2-800 or 400Mhz. The highest FSB ever is about 700mhz+. The fastest Memory unoverclocked out is about DDR2-1200 or something like that. The memory is double pumped, so the bus is actually running at twice the speed.
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