An advice provided by INTEL
A serious advice has been provided by the world’s one of the famous processor manufacturers INTEL, that motherboard and RAM vendors about their new X58+Core i7 combo and to abide to a strict memory voltage limit of 1.65 volts limit. If the advice is not followed, they have warned that the CPU will get fried.
These all started when the photos of ASUS P6T Deluxe motherboard showing the severe warning of ” According to Intel CPU SPEC , DIMMs with voltage setting over 1.65V may damage the CPU permenantly. We recommend you install the DIMMs with the voltage setting below 1.65V” gets public. It was a a big sticker over the DIMM slot. ASUS has admitted that the story is true.
Since many memory vendors offer faster RAM kits that operate at higher voltage levels, this may arise as a big big problem. For eg: OCZ Reaper PC3-14400 operates at 1.9V, Mushkin’s XP Series uses 1.9-1.95V while Corsair’s Dominator high-end takes you all the way up to 2.1V. Some series like DDR3 JEDEC specs really have nothing to worry since they require only a 1.5V to operate.
However, Mushkin have already started to work on this problem. They will re-design their kit specifically to suit the X58/Core i7 combo and should be out sometime next month. But except Mushkin, all others have kept a dead silence about this problem.
Intel is not yet able to explain why the memory voltage would damage the CPU. This may appear to be a great threat to the integrated memory controller of the Nehalam. People importing the Core i7 should make sure that they get a compatible RAM kit or they will have to underclock it.
