OCZ DDR Booster Review

jmke · 26th September 2004, 23:05

Want to push your memory voltage way beyond what your motherboard has to offer without the need of a soldering iron? OCZ has just the thing; we take a closer look at their DDR Booster which can increase the vDIMM up to 3.9v! An overclocker´s dream come true?

http://www.madshrimps.be/gotoartik.php?articID=227

Sidney · 27th September 2004, 01:42

Good info./review.

How much voltage is too much in general before damage occurs?

27th September 2004, 02:25

I think 3.4 is probably safe, however, once over 2.9v it's rolling the dice to some extent. BH-5 seems to be very robust, so I would feel ok running 3.2v 24/7.

27th September 2004, 15:02

Are those capacitors in the way if you wanted to place the booster in the frist dimm (closest to the cpu)?

Does the added Vdimm affect only the ram sticks or does it also affect the A64 memory controller?

27th September 2004, 15:45

Kristos:
I think in general you should try to fill dimms that are closest to cpu socket 1st as they are "generally" the best as far as oc'ing and stability are concerned. So to me the Booster needs to compliment rather that supplant that idea.

Re: A64 controller taking voltage. I don't think it does, at least doesn't seem to suffer in moderation. There were alot of people killing A64's when they first came out, but I think 90%+ of that was due to motherboard mods and vlink and chipset mods vs. just straight vdimm. In any event. I have had my vdimm on boards in the 3.0-3.2v range 24/7 and never(knock on wood) experienced an A64 failure.

27th September 2004, 16:52

Generally speaking, that is offcourse true but for example on my abit nf7, the middle dimm is the most performant one. Or at least I think it is, I can't find my notes anymore :grum: but it was eather 2nd or 3rd dimm. Also, the only option I have if I want to stay in dual channel is to use the first dimm (with slightly rearanged cooblocks on the booster) on the nf-7 and that's also why I asked about the capacitors. If it would fit, you could place it in dimm 1 and perhaps be hable to use slot 2 and 4 for dual channel

(1&3 and 2&4 are the dual channel combo's in this case right?).

offtopic: what are vlink mods? Or better yet, what is vlink and what does it affect?

jmke · 27th September 2004, 16:58

that performance difference will not be BIG, we're talking 1-2Mhz in my humble opinion.

edit: VLink is the datapath between the North and Soutbridges , from http://www.xtremeresources.com/forum...2&postcount=16 or http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...2&postcount=16

27th September 2004, 17:05

Kristos: on the MSI the dual channels are 1/2 and 3/4
so I plugged in booster in channel 4. My msi review will touch on the confusing nature of how they have that setup.

Yes I agree on NF2 the best dimm slots in general are the one farthest away and #2. I think this is unique to the NF2 though.

27th September 2004, 19:01

HO was handed one to test too recently, but the thing doesnt seem compatible with the motherboards it's meant to be compatible with... (according to compability list, and yes we've tried various BIOSes)

27th September 2004, 19:26

not sure what to say. It ran w/out a hitch in the two boards I tried it on. The MSI which I used for review, and a Chaintech NF3-250 board.

26th September 2004, 23:05	#1
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	OCZ DDR Booster Review Want to push your memory voltage way beyond what your motherboard has to offer without the need of a soldering iron? OCZ has just the thing; we take a closer look at their DDR Booster which can increase the vDIMM up to 3.9v! An overclocker´s dream come true? http://www.madshrimps.be/gotoartik.php?articID=227 __________________

27th September 2004, 16:58	#7
jmke Madshrimp Join Date: May 2002 Location: 7090/Belgium Posts: 79,021	that performance difference will not be BIG, we're talking 1-2Mhz in my humble opinion. edit: VLink is the datapath between the North and Soutbridges , from http://www.xtremeresources.com/forum...2&postcount=16 or http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...2&postcount=16 __________________

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27th September 2004, 01:42	#2
Sidney Member Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 15,738	Good info./review. How much voltage is too much in general before damage occurs? __________________ lazyman Opteron 165 (2) @2.85 1.42 vcore AMD Stock HSF + Chill Vent II

27th September 2004, 02:25	#3
JNav89GT Posts: n/a	I think 3.4 is probably safe, however, once over 2.9v it's rolling the dice to some extent. BH-5 seems to be very robust, so I would feel ok running 3.2v 24/7.

27th September 2004, 15:02	#4
kristos Posts: n/a	Are those capacitors in the way if you wanted to place the booster in the frist dimm (closest to the cpu)? Does the added Vdimm affect only the ram sticks or does it also affect the A64 memory controller?

27th September 2004, 15:45	#5
JNav89GT Posts: n/a	Kristos: I think in general you should try to fill dimms that are closest to cpu socket 1st as they are "generally" the best as far as oc'ing and stability are concerned. So to me the Booster needs to compliment rather that supplant that idea. Re: A64 controller taking voltage. I don't think it does, at least doesn't seem to suffer in moderation. There were alot of people killing A64's when they first came out, but I think 90%+ of that was due to motherboard mods and vlink and chipset mods vs. just straight vdimm. In any event. I have had my vdimm on boards in the 3.0-3.2v range 24/7 and never(knock on wood) experienced an A64 failure.

27th September 2004, 16:52	#6
kristos Posts: n/a	Generally speaking, that is offcourse true but for example on my abit nf7, the middle dimm is the most performant one. Or at least I think it is, I can't find my notes anymore :grum: but it was eather 2nd or 3rd dimm. Also, the only option I have if I want to stay in dual channel is to use the first dimm (with slightly rearanged cooblocks on the booster) on the nf-7 and that's also why I asked about the capacitors. If it would fit, you could place it in dimm 1 and perhaps be hable to use slot 2 and 4 for dual channel (1&3 and 2&4 are the dual channel combo's in this case right?). offtopic: what are vlink mods? Or better yet, what is vlink and what does it affect?

27th September 2004, 17:05	#8
JNav89GT Posts: n/a	Kristos: on the MSI the dual channels are 1/2 and 3/4 so I plugged in booster in channel 4. My msi review will touch on the confusing nature of how they have that setup. Yes I agree on NF2 the best dimm slots in general are the one farthest away and #2. I think this is unique to the NF2 though.

27th September 2004, 19:01	#9
SuAside Posts: n/a	HO was handed one to test too recently, but the thing doesnt seem compatible with the motherboards it's meant to be compatible with... (according to compability list, and yes we've tried various BIOSes)

27th September 2004, 19:26	#10
JNav89GT Posts: n/a	not sure what to say. It ran w/out a hitch in the two boards I tried it on. The MSI which I used for review, and a Chaintech NF3-250 board.