Performance enthusiasts take note. Pushing DIMM voltages beyond 1.65V on an X58 motherboard fitted with a Core i7 CPU can seriously damage the processor.
Performance enthusiasts take note. Pushing DIMM voltages beyond 1.65V on an X58 motherboard fitted with a Core i7 CPU can seriously damage the processor.
The warning was revealed when XFastest published some photos of the retail-packaged Asus X58-based P6T Deluxe motherboard. In the photos, the DIMM slots are covered by a sticker (pictured) reading: 'According to Intel CPU spec, DIMMs with voltage setting over 1.65V may damage the CPU permanently. We recommend you install the DIMMs with the voltage setting below 1.65V.'
Now, 1.65V is quite a bit higher than the DDR 3 voltage spec of 1.5V, but there is a wrinkle here - some RAM manufacturers are already selling DDR 3 modules that need as much as 2.0V in order to be able to run a maximum speed. Another issue that could see people trashing their new Core i7 chips is the fact that ASUS has confirmed that it won't be limiting DIMM voltages to a safe level on X58 boards.
I can see this resulting in trashed Core i7 chips.
