DFI Admits 5Volt Vdimm Problem

[FedExpress]

3. DFI sell these boards stating that it is capable and supported to run a 4 volt jumper. OCZ sell RAM that is capable and supported to run RAM at 3.4 volts (VX RAM).
SO if i have a board that i bought that is advertised and supported to feed my ram UPTO 4 volts and i buy RAM that is advertised and supported to do 3.4 volts, how come people including me are killing there ram at 3.2 volts. This is where i argue back and say i want it sorting, i paid the money to the companies, it doesnt work, fix it or give me back my money.

Topboy

Well , I think you should ask OCZ first ... Why their UTT DRAM from winbond can be rated as 3.3V in spec , 3.5V in safe range

We all know that UTT is untested parts from winbond ...
I don't know if winbond will still have full range of gurantee to their UTT DRAM ... Also , as far as I know now , there is no single DDR DRAM chip gurantee that it can handle 3.3V voltage in all kinds of condition ...

I really don't think that OCZ already did enough stree testing @ 3.5V daily operating condition before they release the UTT memory ... UTT is something appear in the market in recent month only ...

Another problem is that .... Are you sure that you never use any DRAM voltage higher than 3.2V during your overclocking and DRAM tuning process ??? Come on , we are all bleeding edge tweakers ... If there is someone here say that he bought this board , put the JP-17 in 5V location and never use DRAM voltage higher than 3.3V , what do you think if someone here say this to you ???

[Mangler]

Anyone else remember that article that Legit Reviews did on UTT Memory based memory modules? Here was my favorite quote and it ties in directly with what we are seeing today:

"who knows how these modules will hold up down the road. With a lifetime warranty on memory running 3.5Volts possibly 24/7, we might be seeing a lot of burnt out modules one or two years from now. Don't forget this is the first time we are seeing 3.2+ volts on motherboards and 3.5+ volts on DRAM as standards, so who knows the real lifespan of these products."

The original article was published almost a month ago and seems to hit the nail on the head, except we are seeing it after several months!

I've personally been running the SLI-D board at 3.4V with no issues and have OCZ's VX memory though, so who knows what is going on. With 3.4+ volts on DDR1 memory it's expected that some will overheat and die. Then again we are overclockers and when pushing to the max stuff will fry...

[topboy]

well i have a rule of thumb....being that i work in the industry for 20 years i know what can happen if i push things out of limits....so i dont.

I ran my ram ay 3.2 volts on the 4 volt jumper. no higher ever.

So im well within the supported specs that the manufactures advetised their products at.

This is why im getting so upset. If i had ran out of spec, then yes i would be more than happy to accept the fact that my waranty would be void, this is why i DO NOT do this. I work hard and paid good money for this stuff, so i want the waranty.

Topboy

[FedExpress]

well i have a rule of thumb....being that i work in the industry for 20 years i know what can happen if i push things out of limits....so i dont.

I ran my ram ay 3.2 volts on the 4 volt jumper. no higher ever.

So im well within the supported specs that the manufactures advetised their products at.

This is why im getting so upset. If i had ran out of spec, then yes i would be more than happy to accept the fact that my waranty would be void, this is why i DO NOT do this. I work hard and paid good money for this stuff, so i want the waranty.

Topboy

Well , Sorry ... I really can not believe that since you are a well experienced user , why you use JP17 in 5V location if you only want to run your memory @ 3.2V ... For me , it seems that there is no reasonable reason to do this when you can use 3.2V with JP17 set in 3.3V location ...

The JP17 is set default in 3.3V location , my manual told me that using JP17 to increase the range of the memory voltage up to 4V may kill the DRAM / CPU / MB as well ... So , there is only one reason to set JP17 in 5V location , that's for trying voltage higher than 3.2V ... I really do not know why you use JP17 in 5V location but never set voltage higher than 3.2V for even 1 sec ...

[Alexo]

Hello Topboy,

what volts you running alexo

I am not running any voltage yet.

I got the DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D motherboard with the OCZ EL DDR PC-3200 Dual Channel Gold VX memory. Still waiting for the CPU to arrive and haven't bought the PSU yet (leaning towards the Seasonic) so the question is academic for now.

Of course I'd like to run my RAM at maximum speed (OCZ says CL 2-2-2-8 at 3.2V) so I am trying to find out if there is a safe way of doing it with my board and this looks like the best place to ask.

Thanks,
Alex.

[pastorjay]

Alex, as long as you keep the J17 jumper in its 3.3v position you should be fine. I toasted my 3200 Gold this last week, and was only running 3.2 through it, but I had my board in the 5v position. I had been running it there since I reviewed the board a couple months ago. It ran fine with my TCCD stuff, but it did not take very long to toast my BH-5.

Anyways, I have put the jumper back in the original position for now. Until we see how all this shakes out, I would stay away from the 5v position.

[topboy]

well i have a rule of thumb....being that i work in the industry for 20 years i know what can happen if i push things out of limits....so i dont.

I ran my ram ay 3.2 volts on the 4 volt jumper. no higher ever.

So im well within the supported specs that the manufactures advetised their products at.

This is why im getting so upset. If i had ran out of spec, then yes i would be more than happy to accept the fact that my waranty would be void, this is why i DO NOT do this. I work hard and paid good money for this stuff, so i want the waranty.

Topboy

Well , Sorry ... I really can not believe that since you are a well experienced user , why you use JP17 in 5V location if you only want to run your memory @ 3.2V ... For me , it seems that there is no reasonable reason to do this when you can use 3.2V with JP17 set in 3.3V location ...

The JP17 is set default in 3.3V location , my manual told me that using JP17 to increase the range of the memory voltage up to 4V may kill the DRAM / CPU / MB as well ... So , there is only one reason to set JP17 in 5V location , that's for trying voltage higher than 3.2V ... I really do not know why you use JP17 in 5V location but never set voltage higher than 3.2V for even 1 sec ...

I seem to have misled you my freind.

Let me expalin

When i first got this board i had OCZ VX4000, running at 3.3 volts with JP17 on the 5 volt jumper which is still within specs and supported. These modules died so i RMAed them back to OCZ for some handpicked 3200 VX that ran at 3.2 volt 250 fsb 2 2 2 2...great work OCZ once again.

when i installed the 3200 VX i moved back to the 3.3 volt jumper as i was running at 3.2 volts. Had this board running like this for 2 months no problems.

i then received some DFI TCCD 5000 DFI specials to review and at this time changed my bios to OSKARS 510-2 bios. After 5 days my board died. It died while running 2.8 volts on the 3.3 volt jumper.

Im sure that the extended period of running this board on a 5volt jumper killed the board....however i do know that all the components i have used have been ran well within specs and supported ones at that.

As i stated in my first post, this is an issue with the board running on the 5 volt jumper, not a ram issue, a board issue.

And let me also say that its not just OCZ ram that has a problem with this board, its also Mushkin, and other UTT ram products. This is not a RAM problem but a problem with the board supplying abouve 3.2 volts to the ram.

Lets be clear here, its a board issue and not a ram issue.

Again i love DFI products and think they are a great company and look forward to a fix on this issue.

hope this explains my situation abit more

Topboy

[FedExpress]

Since your board die @ 3.3V jumper location , it may die because of some other reason but not the 5V jumper you " EVER " use to cause your board be a dead one ... From the the quote " What Frank wong said " , I did not see he admit that once using 5V jumper and switch back to 3.3V may still kill the board ... I think he only say that using 5V jumper may kill the BOARD and DRAM while we ALREADY see that has been mentioned from the manaul ... That's two different story !!!

[topboy]

yes your correct it maybe that somthing else killed my board.

However my first post is reporting what information was told to me by DFI and all i am doing is letting DFI users know this information so they can make a intelligent decision themselves.

As i said in my first post, DFI informed me not to use the 5 volt jumper as this was killing ram and could kill the board chipset, so i feel it only right to let out user base know this information

Topboy

[FedExpress]

yes your correct it maybe that somthing else killed my board.

However my first post is reporting what information was told to me by DFI and all i am doing is letting DFI users know this information so they can make a intelligent decision themselves.

As i said in my first post, DFI informed me not to use the 5 volt jumper as this was killing ram and could kill the board chipset, so i feel it only right to let out user base know this information

Topboy

Maybe you did not know this ... But what I know is that ...
It's already been " SERIOUSLY INFORMED " since the day one the board is released !!!

[topboy]

Could you explain a little more please what you mean Fedexpress about It's already been " SERIOUSLY INFORMED " since the day one the board is released !!!

Topboy

[FedExpress]

1 . There is a warning sheet ship with the board in the package(I got the very first batch A00 board when the board is released)...

ATTENTION:
The DRAM voltage as originally supported by the spec is up to 2.85v only. Jumper J17 allows you to select beyond the defined spec. Although the function is supported (at the hardware level), selecting a higher voltage may cause unstable current supplied to the system board which may subsequently cause damage to the CPU and DIMMs

2 . In the manaul it also list this information

3 . In the explain of how to enable 4V DIMM option through JP17 in DFI FAE website , it's listed also !!!

All the information told you that it's a risk and possible to cause damage enabling JP17 to select higher voltage because of unstable current ...

I think it's DFI's fault that this kind of warning may not known for every customer because apparently you were not aware of this warning when you try to put JP17 in the 5V location for higher voltage ...

[topboy]

Yes i have seen this.

However this Disclaimer is a standard one so that DFI CAN NOT be heald responsable for damage to the CPU or RAM.

Basically it trys to express the following....If a user enables the 5 volt jumper (JP17) to feed above 3.2 volts and upto 4 volts to the Ram, and a user feeds 4 volts to their ram, DFI cannot be held responsable for the damage to the ram.

If however a user uses ram that supports 3.6 volts and uses that ram at 3.2 volts, then i see that as being well within specs...wouldnt you agree.


Topboy

[topboy]

Just a note..........

I am going to sit back now and wait for DFI and others to come out with results of the testing they are running on this issue.

Lets wait and see what the engineers have to say when they have ran thier tests.

Topboy

[FedExpress]

Yes i have seen this.

However this Disclaimer is a standard one so that DFI CAN NOT be heald responsable for damage to the CPU or RAM.

Basically it trys to express the following....If a user enables the 5 volt jumper (JP17) to feed above 3.2 volts and upto 4 volts to the Ram, and a user feeds 4 volts to their ram, DFI cannot be held responsable for the damage to the ram.

If however a user uses ram that supports 3.6 volts and uses that ram at 3.2 volts, then i see that as being well within specs...wouldnt you agree.


Topboy

I did not agree with this because there is no DDR I chip can gurantee above 2.8V in it's industrial spec ... You can just check all the datasheet of all the current available DRAM chip ... This is what I say in my 1st post here ... OCZ makes you think that 3.3V DRAM voltage is within the spec , however DFI says that 2.85V is DRAM spec ... This is huge difference between them ... Which is correct ? Well , depend on what you choose to believe ... For me , I am working for memory related company , I know there is no DDR I DRAM chip gurantee 2.8V above working voltage , so even I fry my DRAM @ 3.0V , I would not blame module maker or the MB maker ...