Windows 7 Upgrading to DDR2 800 RAM: Will Higher Voltage Affect Performance?

Jimbo22

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I'm going to upgrade my RAM. I have 2 sticks of DDR2 1G PC2-5300 (333MHz) and 2 sticks of DDR2 512 MB PC2-5300 (333MHz) and there voltage rates are 1.8v. The maximum RAM upgrade I have have is DDR2 PC2 6400 do to CPU limitations. The upgrade I'm looking at are these:
Newegg.com - CORSAIR XMS2 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model CM2X1024-6400

The only big difference that I see is the voltage and it is 1.9. Will the voltage difference create a problem for me and would I see a significant performance increase?
 
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do to CPU limitations
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Nope - not the CPU. As TG said above, as long as your motherboard can handle it, you should be good to go.

But I think you should start looking on your motherboard's website. Find your motherboard and there should be a "QVL" - qualified vendors list. This will be a list of RAM they have tested and verified is compatible with your board. You don't have to buy off that list, but it will show you the RAM specifications/characteristics of RAM that works.

I've always like Crucial and Corsair, but I've been buying a lot of Mushkin lately and have been very pleased. But in reality, almost all RAM has a lifetime warranty so it is hard to go wrong with any brand, as long it is compatible to begin with.

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You'll want to match your existing RAM as close as possible, otherwise there are likely to be issues where lots of bios tweaking will be necessary to fix the problems, if at all.

The higher speed of the new memory wouldn't help since it would be operating at the slower speed of the existing memory.
 
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Ok, so what does that all mean in english. Match ram as in timings? I'm replacing all my RAM, so the new RAM speed would be in effect right.
 
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Oh alright then, yeah. I misunderstood that you wanted to leave the existing RAM installed too.

As long as your motherboard can handle the new speed RAM, and only new RAM is physically in the machine, there will be no problems. You will definitely see a memory speed increase.

To see how fast your memory is now, open a command prompt, type:

winsat mem

then press enter. After installing new RAM, run it again to see the difference.
 
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Thanks TG, did what you said now I can't make heads of tails of it. here is attachment.
Link Removed due to 404 Error
 
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It's telling you that your memory bandwidth is about 6.5 GB/sec.

When you get the new memory installed, that number will be higher.
 
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No problem. I'd say that's about average for DDR2. My two pcs have DDR (main specs machine in profile) and other has RDRAM (older than DDR standard, and rare.)

On the DDR machine, I get about 3 GB/sec and the RDRAM machine is about 2.5 GB/sec.

As a guess, with the new memory installed, you'll likely be in the 8-9 GB/sec range.
 
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do to CPU limitations
Click to expand...
Nope - not the CPU. As TG said above, as long as your motherboard can handle it, you should be good to go.

But I think you should start looking on your motherboard's website. Find your motherboard and there should be a "QVL" - qualified vendors list. This will be a list of RAM they have tested and verified is compatible with your board. You don't have to buy off that list, but it will show you the RAM specifications/characteristics of RAM that works.

I've always like Crucial and Corsair, but I've been buying a lot of Mushkin lately and have been very pleased. But in reality, almost all RAM has a lifetime warranty so it is hard to go wrong with any brand, as long it is compatible to begin with.

Also, here my canned text on RAM wizards:

These popular RAM makers have auto-scanning and/or manual entry RAM wizards to help you determine which RAM is compatible with your motherboard. For manual entry, enter/select the PC or motherboard make and model number and the wizard will list compatible RAM.
Crucial - Memory Advisor
Corsair - Memory Configurator (manual data entry only)
GeIL - Memory Configurator (manual data entry only)
Kingston - Memory Search (manual data entry only)
Mushkin - Advisor
OCZ - Memory Configurator (manual data entry only)
Link Removed - Invalid URL - Memory Search (manual data entry only)
PNY - Memory Configurator (manual data entry only)
Link Removed due to 404 Error - Memory Finder (manual data entry only)​
The following retailers have auto-scanners and manual wizards. They sell brand name and/or "house" brand (re-branded) RAM.
Newegg - Memory Configurator System Tool
MemoryStock - Upgrade Configurator
Link Removed – Configurator
4AllMemory - Memory advisor (automatic and manual)
TigerDirect - Memory Configurator (manual data entry only)​
 
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