Can I use 2133MHZ (XMP) RAM with H77?

[Bencenum]

I would like to revive an "old" 3770 I have, but the only M-ITX Z77 motherboards I can find in my country are really overpriced.

I don't care about CPU OCing, as it's locked, but I don't want to convert the 2133 RAM I have into a 1333 kit. If I can use the 2133 XMP setting in H77, I will just buy Asrock H77M-ITX.

Anyone knows if that's possible?

Thank you for your time.

 

[MarkW]

I found this on the AsRock web site, for the motherboard you listed:

- Dual Channel DDR3 memory technology
- 2 x DDR3 DIMM slots
- Supports DDR3 1600/1333/1066 non-ECC, un-buffered memory
- Max. capacity of system memory: 16GB*
- Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 1.3 / 1.2

*Due to the operating system limitation, the actual memory size may be less than 4GB for the reservation for system usage under Windows® 32-bit OS. For Windows® 64-bit OS with 64-bit CPU, there is no such limitation.

**The highest supported DRAM frequency depends on the CPU you’ve installed. For detailed CPU specifications, please refer to Intel® official website.

So your "old" 3770 controls what the memory can do.

On the Intel site, for the I7-3770, they list:

-Memory Specifications
Max Memory Size (dependent on memory type) 32 GB
Memory Types DDR3 1333/1600
Max # of Memory Channels 2
Max Memory Bandwidth 25.6 GB/s

So after all of that, you know it will work at 1600 for sure. Anything faster is a gamble. My guess is that it would probably be 50/50.

Memory speed is not a huge factor with Core 2 CPU's. I cant tell the difference between 1600 and 2400 on my box.

 

[Bencenum]

I found this on the AsRock web site, for the motherboard you listed:

- Dual Channel DDR3 memory technology
- 2 x DDR3 DIMM slots
- Supports DDR3 1600/1333/1066 non-ECC, un-buffered memory
- Max. capacity of system memory: 16GB*
- Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) 1.3 / 1.2

*Due to the operating system limitation, the actual memory size may be less than 4GB for the reservation for system usage under Windows® 32-bit OS. For Windows® 64-bit OS with 64-bit CPU, there is no such limitation.

**The highest supported DRAM frequency depends on the CPU you’ve installed. For detailed CPU specifications, please refer to Intel® official website.

So your "old" 3770 controls what the memory can do.

On the Intel site, for the I7-3770, they list:

-Memory Specifications
Max Memory Size (dependent on memory type) 32 GB
Memory Types DDR3 1333/1600
Max # of Memory Channels 2
Max Memory Bandwidth 25.6 GB/s

So after all of that, you know it will work at 1600 for sure. Anything faster is a gamble. My guess is that it would probably be 50/50.

Memory speed is not a huge factor with Core 2 CPU's. I cant tell the difference between 1600 and 2400 on my box.

The CPU supports higher XMP settings for sure, the problem is the mobo, it appears that XMP above 1600 won't work, but Asrock doesn't say that explicitly, they can be saying that without XMP the max rate is 1600.

 

[MarkW]

They are listing the numbers that are officially supported. Im sure there were contractual obligations to only list up to 1600.

**The highest supported DRAM frequency depends on the CPU you’ve installed. For detailed CPU specifications, please refer to Intel® official website.

I too believe that motherboard and that CPU will function with 2133 memory. But I have to leave an opening where if you spend the money, and it doesn't work, I can say, well, I told you it might not work at that higher speed.

But like I said earlier, memory speeds are not a big factor with core 2 CPU's. Article after article have shown that for most programs, 1600 is fine, 1866 sometimes shows a small improvement, and 2133 and up, most of the time has virtually no improvement at all over 1600 or 1866. Just try it. It will work one way or the other.

 

[Bencenum]

You are right, it isn't worth it buying a Z77 motherboard just to make sure the RAM will be at its full potential. I'll go with the H77 then. Thank you.