[SOLVED] 2400MHz Motherboard and 2666MHz RAM

[yungSquirrel]

My CPU supports up to 2666MHz but my motherboard says 2400/2133MHz.
If I get a 2666MHz RAM can I use it at 2666MHz?
Would I need to use something like XMP ?
And are there any cons or dangers to the components by doing so?

 

[cdrkf]

My CPU supports up to 2666MHz but my motherboard says 2400/2133MHz.
If I get a 2666MHz RAM can I use it at 2666MHz?
Would I need to use something like XMP ?
And are there any cons or dangers to the components by doing so?

It entirely depends on what motherboard and cpu you have.... If you have an Intel system then chances are it will be locked to 2400 max - the ram will work but will be limited to that speed. Intel only supports ram overclocking on their higher end motherboards.

If you have an AMD system then it may well work at the higher speed but would need to know more system specs to advice further.

 

[WildCard999]

Which CPU & Motherboard?

Speed is essentially determined by the motherboard so if 2400mhz is the max the board supports then that's what the speed will be. XMP or something similar (AXMP/DOCP/etc) is usually what you need to enable for it to run at the max the board supports. If you use faster memory it will downclock to meet the boards specs.

 

[yungSquirrel]

It entirely depends on what motherboard and cpu you have.... If you have an Intel system then chances are it will be locked to 2400 max - the ram will work but will be limited to that speed. Intel only supports ram overclocking on their higher end motherboards.

If you have an AMD system then it may well work at the higher speed but would need to know more system specs to advice further.

The CPU is i5 9600KF and the mobo is ASUS Rog Strix b250g gaming

 

[yungSquirrel]

Which CPU & Motherboard?

Speed is essentially determined by the motherboard so if 2400mhz is the max the board supports then that's what the speed will be. XMP or something similar (AXMP/DOCP/etc) is usually what you need to enable for it to run at the max the board supports. If you use faster memory it will downclock to meet the boards specs.

The CPU is i5 9600KF and the mobo is ASUS Rog Strix b250g gaming

 

[WildCard999]

The CPU is i5 9600KF and the mobo is ASUS Rog Strix b250g gaming

Well first off that CPU will not work with that motherboard as it only supports the 6th/7th Gen Intel CPU's despite the same socket.

2666mhz should work in that board however like I stated it would run at a max of 2400 with XMP enabled (may be called DOCP in the BIOS).

 

[yungSquirrel]

Well first off that CPU will not work with that motherboard as it only supports the 6th/7th Gen Intel CPU's despite the same socket.

2666mhz should work in that board however like I stated it would run at a max of 2400 with XMP enabled (may be called DOCP in the BIOS).

So I should look into different mobo then. Is pcpartpicker a good tool to check for compatibility between components ?

 

[WildCard999]

So I should look into different mobo then. Is pcpartpicker a good tool to check for compatibility between components ?

Yes Pcpartpicker is good for checking compatibility. If your getting the 9600KF then ideally you'd want the Z390 motherboard for overclocking. Also the F series CPU's don't have a iGPU so unless you have a dedicated graphics card you won't have a display with the CPU alone. For the memory the Z390 boards support faster speeds and considering pricing I'd probably pair it with a 2x8gb kit at 3200mhz.

 

[yungSquirrel]

Yes Pcpartpicker is good for checking compatibility. If your getting the 9600KF then ideally you'd want the Z390 motherboard for overclocking. Also the F series CPU's don't have a iGPU so unless you have a dedicated graphics card you won't have a display with the CPU alone. For the memory the Z390 boards support faster speeds and considering pricing I'd probably pair it with a 2x8gb kit at 3200mhz.

Tbh I didn't even take into consideration some of this stuff before you told me. So thank you for being an eye opener(pc building has gotten harder than I remember ). Since budget is kinda tight I might even look into different CPU's.

 

[WildCard999]

Tbh I didn't even take into consideration some of this stuff before you told me. So thank you for being an eye opener(pc building has gotten harder than I remember ). Since budget is kinda tight I might even look into different CPU's.

Your welcome!

Price to performance it's difficult to recommend Intel over AMD currently with the Ryzen lineup. Considering the cost of the Intel 9600KF & cooling you could get the 3700X which has really good gaming performance. What is your budget for the CPU & motherboard? What will this system be used for?

 

[yungSquirrel]

Your welcome!

Price to performance it's difficult to recommend Intel over AMD currently with the Ryzen lineup. Considering the cost of the Intel 9600KF & cooling you could get the 3700X which has really good gaming performance. What is your budget for the CPU & motherboard? What will this system be used for?

Well my ex GPU was long due of an upgrade but I never got to doing it cuz I just finished school and started a job which sadly takes away most of my time. But like a week ago the said GPU just died on me so I decided its finally time for an upgrade. Managed to salvage something like 1100BGN (~600USD) and started looking for parts. Found a second hand 1070ti with 1 year left on it's warranty for about 250USD. Which leaves me with about 350USD to get myself a new Motherboard, Ram (which i will probably just buy 8 gigs now and 8 next month), and a CPU. I already have SSD(Samsung 860 Evo ?i think?)/HDD(2x 2TB Seagate Barracuda)/PSU(Corsair CS650M) and a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo fan. I will mostly use this configuration for gaming. Stuff like BF5/BF1/GTA 5/RS6/ and the regular stuff like LoL etc.

 

[cdrkf]

Well my ex GPU was long due of an upgrade but I never got to doing it cuz I just finished school and started a job which sadly takes away most of my time. But like a week ago the said GPU just died on me so I decided its finally time for an upgrade. Managed to salvage something like 1100BGN (~600USD) and started looking for parts. Found a second hand 1070ti with 1 year left on it's warranty for about 250USD. Which leaves me with about 350USD to get myself a new Motherboard, Ram (which i will probably just buy 8 gigs now and 8 next month), and a CPU. I already have SSD(Samsung 860 Evo ?i think?)/HDD(2x 2TB Seagate Barracuda)/PSU(Corsair CS650M) and a Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo fan. I will mostly use this configuration for gaming. Stuff like BF5/BF1/GTA 5/RS6/ and the regular stuff like LoL etc.

For that kind of budget you are probably better going AMD....

A good choice would be the MSI B450 Tomahawk Max motherboard (if it's reasonably priced in your region at least) + a Ryzen 5 3600 and 2 x 8gb DDR 4 3200 memory. That should probably fit your budget and would give excellent gaming performance.

 

[WildCard999]

This would be a good setup for under your budget. If the motherboard isn't available the MSI MAX boards ship with the BIOS for the Ryzen 3600.

PCPartPicker Part List
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz 6-Core Processor ($174.99 @ B&H)
Motherboard: ASRock B450M/AC Micro ATX AM4 Motherboard ($69.99 @ Newegg)
Memory: G.Skill Ripjaws V Series 16 GB (2 x 8 GB) DDR4-3200 Memory ($74.99 @ Newegg)
Total: $319.97
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2020-04-06 11:10 EDT-0400

At some point you may want to consider replacing that PSU, pretty sure the CSM's aren't very good quality wise.

 

[yungSquirrel]

Considering the fact that you both said pretty much the same things I would most definitely go the AMD way and look into the options you suggested. Thank you so much to both of you <3