AMD Phenom II - 1.50V or 1.65V memory?

[TraumaticHug]

Hey guys.. I've read the forums for a while but never posted, so thank you for all the advice so far!


But this is just a quick memory voltage question, as I can only really find info on Intel processors:


I'm helping my brother with a new AMD build (for budget reasons), so I am paying a bit more attention than I did with my own as it is someone else's money.

He has already chosen the AMD 975BE, ASUS M5A97 and Corsair XMS3 4GB, but with the memory he was unsure of whether to go 1.50V or 1.65V.

I stuck 1.50V in my AMD build, but looked closer when helping him and realised that both his and my motherboard memory compatibility table list the 1.65V (CMX4GX3M2A1600C9), but don't mention the 1.50V (CMX4GX3M2B1600C9).



I am also wondering if I should swap out my 1.50V for 1.65V while memory is so cheap, since I don't want to damage anything.

[Jasp]

Both should be compatible and you shouldn't experience any issues with either. 1.5v Ram was made for Sandybridge as the processors memory controller was built in and was a little touchy with higher voltage ram. Using 1.5v should offer a couple of advantages of less power consumption and less heat in the long run, though were talking 1-2watts tops lol.

[scaryjim]

As Jasp says, for a PII there's no meaningful difference. Intel's memory controller was very voltage sensitive, but the PII memory controller is designed to work with either DDR2 or DDR3, and since DDR2 regularly required 2.0v or more, it's much more resilliant to high voltage memory.Lower voltage memory will not damage anything - in fact (as Jasp also says) it will use slightly less power and generate slightly less heat.

So for him just get whatever's cheapest, and for you don't worry about changing your memory as 1.5v memory is perfectly fine for PIIs

[joshil92]

1.5V is better. Less heat=longer life span.

[Oswald]

Longer should be better. Less heat, less power consumption, ... My BIOS set the voltage automatically to 1.5 but it wouldn't boot. Setting it manually to the 1.65 the Kingston requires did the trick.

[Phenom_965]

I actually should put a kit 1.5V on my Phenom2 system on a gigabyte ud5p motherboard...will it support it not overvolting it?

[Phenom_965]

How to change that setting on my mobo's bios? I have a GA-MA790FXT-UD5P with F7 bios. Can't find a setting to lower voltage of DDR from 1.6V. Is it a problem to use a 1,5V DDR @ 1,6V ? I'm having *big* problems to get working 2 DDR modules from G.Skill...