Can I use PC3-12800 RAM with a PC3-10600 motherboard?

[dude7691]

Hi all, not particularly familiar with RAM upgrades for laptops but my old laptop recently broke and I have a spare 4GB stick of DDR3 PC3-12800 RAM from it. My new laptop (which is older) has a motherboard which supports PC3-10600 DDR3 RAM. Will the PC3-12800 4GB stick work in it? Laptop is a HP Elitebook 8440P and the RAM is linked below. Thank you!

RAM: https://www.offtek.co.uk/ibm-lenovo/laptop-memory-upgrades/ideapad-notebook-series/ideapad-z500-ram?module=1436659&source=google_shopping&gclid=CJKW2fq_xtECFYky0wod3G0F4w

Laptop: http://www.pureitrefurbished.co.uk/product/hp-elitebook-8440p-core-i5-530m-2-4ghz-4gb-ram-250gb-hdd-webcam-win-7-pro/?gclid=CJT33ILBxtECFYUaGwodwb8Nlw

 

[herrwizo]

If you only intend to use that single stick, it should work. Nothing wrong can happen, that's for sure. It will automatically reduce the speed to PC3-10600 standard. However, if you intend to use it together with a different stick, you can potentially have instabilities or crashes/reboots due to RAM incompatibility.