memory voltage question

quick, hopefully simple question.
Im looking to buy this memory:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146565

When look at the specs, what does the "voltage" setting me? I am really not familiar with that and would like to know if that is someting I need to consider before buying.

I have seen other voltages that are lower, so before I drop some money, what do I need to look for.

Thanks.

Sektor

It means that you want to be able to adjust your BIOS to set memory voltage to the number specified. What MB are you using? It will usually be labeled DRAM voltage or similar. You will often have to turn on another setting in BIOS to "un-gray" the item.

Edit: 2.2 is high for DDR2 and giving a lot of Asus and Gigabyte board owners heartache.

I'm running 4gb @ 2.2v... all is good...

mortimer said:

Edit: 2.2 is high for DDR2 and giving a lot of Asus and Gigabyte board owners heartache.

Click to expand...

those particular crucial ballistix memory kits actually thrive on that high(er) voltage. to get them to overclock to 500MHz (DDR2-1000) and higher, people have been using 2.3v to get them there. As long as the sticks have good airflow around them, 2.2v should be absolutely fine

one of the matx boards that i've been looking at - the asus p5k-vm has a limit of 2.1 volts, so sad. luckily the gigabyte alternative - the ga-g33m-ds2r gives you enough volts to fry your chips to your hearts desire.

the asus board was originally limiting the ram chips i could pick up (and i had decided on the OCZ 8500 SLi edition, rated at 2.1) i have now decided against this board because i dont want my OC to be limited by volts.

My pc first booted the 4 sticks with only 1.9v... Never did a stress test on them though, prolly woulda got loads of errors, not sure though...

the voltage setting means they guarantee the modules will run at CAS4 at DDR2-800 with that voltage set in bios. But there is always room for adjustment as the crucial stix I have will run 4-4-4-12 at DDR2-1000 with 2.2vdimm. These are very versatile modules. The mobo you want to match these with to get the most out of them should be able to go to 2.5vdimm set in bios. However, that doesn't mean you won't results similar to mine with a board that will only go to 2.2vdimm in bios. IMHO that is the lowest you will want to go as far as what you can manually set in bios.