Low voltage RAM - any point?

[HumanBlur]

Hi Guys,

I am hopefully going to get the ASUS F1A75-I DELUXE. This will be running the AMD Llano 3870k.

Now i want this system to be as power efficient as possible. What are the benefits of low voltage RAM? And will picking too high or too a voltage do any harm?

[Greecean]

Power efficiency and low voltage ram go hand in hand - you should be fine mate - personally id try and source some samsung green 30nm stuff

[HumanBlur]

Noted.

I don't want to spend too much though. I haven't checked, but i take it that the motherboard should provide the specs for the voltage of RAM?

Any other benefits apart from lower power usuge?

[HumanBlur]

Just had a look at prices. I have budgeted £25. I think the samsung come way more than that.

What can i get for that much? Focussing on the fact i want power efficiency BUT i do need speed since it will directly affect gaming (with the CPU being a AMD APU)

[scaryjim]

At that price, you're probably looking at 4GB 1.5v DDR3-1600, CL9. Should be relatively easy to source.

If you're willing to invest a bit more cash and want low voltage, I'd go for the Corsair Vengeance White kit - an 8GB (2x4GB) kit of DDR3-1600 at 1.35v, generally priced around £50. Hexus did some testing a while ago and I believe they measured a 1W - 2W drop compared to standard 1.5v RAM - not much to write home about really. But they're reasonably priced for an 8GB kit, so worthy of consideration...

[Greecean]

if you are going for a cheap machine to run, i wouldnt bother looking at ram tbh

[HumanBlur]

One word, hmmmmmm.

Don't think i need 8GB. It would very unused in my machine. What do you guys think?

Is there any sort of 1.35 for cheap. I mean for the corsair vegeance white kit, i would happily pay half for just 4GB.

[scaryjim]

Vengeance white only comes as an 8GB kit, AFAIK.

Hmm, curious. A quick check on ebuyer has found this Crucial 4GB 1.35v kit for £20! I've check the part number on the crucial website which confirms the voltage. Sorted

EDIT: Ahha, I've spotted the twist: that's memory is CL11, which is longer latency than "normal" DDR3-1600. That said, I think bandwidth is going to be much more important that latency for your APU, and I doubt you'd even notice the difference betwen CL9 and CL11 in anything other than artificial benchmarks...

[HumanBlur]

Another hmmm, scaryjim. Well about the latency.

I still generally believe what you're saying is right for the APU. But honestly, by goodness, that is a GREAT price.

If i can't find anything better, that looks like the one. That 8GB is hella tempting though.

[HumanBlur]

New question. I now am forced to get the Gigabyte A75N-USB3. This only lists 1.5v ram in the specs.

So if i get low voltage RAM at 1.35v, will it be supported?

For example:

http://www.ebuyer.com/285763-kingsto...600c9d3lk2-8gx

[Ulti]

Just wanted to add that I've got the Samsung Green 1.35V RAM and I bought it for overclocking to improve the performance of the iGPU. I went from 1400mhz CL9 to 1866mhz CL9 (at 1.35V it's stock performance is 1600mhz CL11 too) and saw roughly 20% improvement in terms of FPS. I was hoping for a bit more but oh wells. I think in normal situations, unless it's the same price or cheaper, then it's not worth it. scaryjim has a great find!

[HumanBlur]

Thanks Ulti for the first hand knowledge. I didn't know about the overclocking potential, which as Scaryjim and myself have discussed, would be similar to undervolting the CPU.

But I'm wanting to know is it safe and possible to put lower rated RAM into a motherboard that that states a higher voltage. The M/B i plan to get states compatibility with 1.5v. So would me buying 1.35 be ok?

[Ulti]

It will work, but you might not be able to downvolt it to 1.35V, hence I suggested not to buy it unless it's at the same price or cheaper.

[HumanBlur]

Cheers, might spend a little extra and get the 8gb one.

And i just read, 8gb actually does make a difference. Do want future proofing after all.

[ladcrooks]

The samsung green 30nm - very good reviews!

Voltage wise what you would save is not worth worrying, as others have said.

If i was a company running umpteen servers, than maybe!

[dfour]

4 GIG PC1600 RAM 2000MHZ £27 Due today

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/4gb-(...9-10-9-27-165v

This is overclcokers results with the samsung green ram

Overclocking Features (Not Guaranteed)
- 1600MHz (7-8-8-24 1N) @ 1.40v
- 1866MHz (9-9-9-27 1N) @ 1.40v
- 2000MHz (9-10-10-28 1N) @ 1.45v
- 2133MHz (10-10-10-28 1N) @ 1.45v
- 2400MHz (11-11-11-28 2N) @ 1.50v
- In our own in house testing we were able to achieve all the above clock speeds on an Asus X79 platform with 4x4GB modules (16GB total) SuperPI Stable too, 32M