Newb question on ram for biostar board

[OnDborder]

I bought an amd combo today. The board is BIOSTAR TA870+.

I know it takes ddr3 but does it require the lower voltage ram like the i7's? Or the older stuff?

 

[trents]

Take this for what its worth but some of our forum participants lately are having trouble with some motherboards not having a range of dimm voltage choices that goes low enough for the lower voltage ram and so they are having stability problems because they are forced to run the ram a voltages higher than it was designed for. On the other hand, some of the Phenom I CPUs (weak IMCs) didn't want to work with higher voltage ram. I don't think that's a problem with the Phenom IIs, however.

 

[coonmanx]

Should work fine with any good quality DDR3 1600. Should be no reason that it would require low voltage ram.

 

[OnDborder]

Thanks for the replies.
Well I stuck in a couple of sticks of Corsair rated 1.9.
Started with the one stick, booted to bios, kicked up the voltage to 1.9, and stuck in the second stick. Boot up process completes.
Now let's see about installing some os's..

 

[Ghostcustoms]

Only issue I have is the ram not running close to specs... Otherwise I'm very happy!

 

[coonmanx]

Usually the ram defaults to a lower speed so you have to set the speed up in BIOS.

OnDborder are you certain that the ram calls for 1.9 volts. That seems a bit high. Check with the manufacturer's specifications.

I run my ram at 1333 speed and then with my OC it gets up to 1500 speed. Timings are 9-9-9-25 2T.

 

[Devourment]

Lol, set ur RAM speed, timmings, voltage in ur BIOS... Its all written on the sticker...

 

[OnDborder]

Usually the ram defaults to a lower speed so you have to set the speed up in BIOS.

OnDborder are you certain that the ram calls for 1.9 volts. That seems a bit high. Check with the manufacturer's specifications.

I run my ram at 1333 speed and then with my OC it gets up to 1500 speed. Timings are 9-9-9-25 2T.

Yep. It's on the sticker. It's some of the older ram.

 

[QuietIce]

Yep. It's on the sticker. It's some of the older ram.

Older RAM works fine in these rigs. I'm sure you've got enough experience to deal with the rest of the issues. You really should set the main timings, speed, and voltage manually, though, if you're going to OC. Some of these BIOS writers need to get another job.

Anything over 1600 is overkill for these rigs. AMD's like slower and tighter over loose and fast. Optimal is about 14-1500 @ CL6 if you can get your RAM to do that or as tight as possible in that range if you can't get it that tight. Also, the cpuNB speed is critical in RAM performance. The IMC (intergrated memory controller) runs at cpuNB speed and anything going to/from RAM passes through that making it's speed at least as important as RAM speed. cpuNB speeds of 24-2600 MHz is not uncommon.

Which CPU did you get ...???

 

[coonmanx]

My Corsair runs great at 1500 speed with the OC. I had it all of the way up to 1656 but that limited the OC so I dropped it down to 1333 in order to go farther. Now it's at 1500. Stable with CL9 timings so nothing spectacular.

 

[xoke]

I'm running 8gb at 1600mhz with pretty decent timings...no issues here. I saw a post about an older BIOSTAR motherboard (DDr2) not having any voltage adjustments for RAM...very strange. I'm unfamiliar with that motherboard though...all my BIOSTAR motherboards have had very adjustable voltages...up and down.

 

[OnDborder]

@QuietIce
I got this combo http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=647973
It was so cheap I couldn't resist. Thought it would be a good learning tool.

 

[Devourment]

I'm running 8gb at 1600mhz with pretty decent timings...no issues here. I saw a post about an older BIOSTAR motherboard (DDr2) not having any voltage adjustments for RAM...very strange. I'm unfamiliar with that motherboard though...all my BIOSTAR motherboards have had very adjustable voltages...up and down.

8-8-8-28 2T is not tight enough... At least u got it at right speed... Tho, ive heard bad of the BlackDragon with AMD...

 

[xoke]

8-8-8-28 2T is not tight enough... At least u got it at right speed... Tho, ive heard bad of the BlackDragon with AMD...

Well, the stuff I have is only rated for 9-9-9-33-2t I think, so I'm pretty happy with 8-8-8-28-2t running at 1600. I'm also running 4 sticks, so I'm not trying to push my luck. I don't know about the Black Dragon/AMD issues...this is my first AMD system in probably six years, so that might explain it. I personally have never had an issue with Geil...granted, it doesn't overclock as well as Corsair in many cases, but given that 1333 is more than enough RAM speed I'm not really too concerned. I've owned plenty of Corsair, and they all overclock, but the extra speed never made up the price difference in my opinion, so I usually end up running Giel or Mushkin unless I get a good deal somewhere.