Faster Ram in Slower Mobo?

Kamrooz

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I know that if memory that is faster then the board spec is placed in the motherboard would throttle it down to the mobo spec. I'm currently doing that now since I RMA'ed..I had p4200 and they gave me four 1 gig instead of the 512 sticks of 5400 memory..And my mobo throttled it down.

The problem lies in this..My friend really needs new memory and since the slower memories are becoming more rare and expensive it's just not worth it. Pc 3200 ram in a 2x 1gb dual channel kit is around 130..(via newegg)..When pc 5400 2x1 gb is 60 dollars. Would the mobo throttle the memory down to the mobo spec?..Reason I'm asking this is it's a big difference in memory speed compared to my throttle down. But yea...If it does work it'd save him some cash. Looking forward to your replies..

Asus P4P800 SE is his motherboard.
 

Kamrooz

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Sorry about that..I'll be more thorough. Basically. I'm asking can I run faster ram in a slower ram specification mobo. I am right now...And I know it works..But I don't know how large the gap can be..

I'm running pc 5400 memory in a pc 4200 computer..And the motherboard lowered the memory to pc 4200. The question lies not for me..but for a friend..Who has a computer that uses pc3200 ddr2...Pc 3200 ram is too expensive since the demand is going down..But I'm not sure how pc 5400 or higher would work in his system. Would it throttle it down just like in my computer..Or will technology that's much newer not work with his mobo since it's older?..

Basically I'm trying to figure out if pc5400 ram will conflict and not work in a pc3200 computer.....Do motherboards outdate and become incompattible with new and faster memory even though they are still of the same class (ddr2)?..or will it just throttle any memory down to spec and work fine even though the memory is newer in technology.
 

Mondoman

Splendid
...I'm asking can I run faster ram in a slower ram specification mobo.
Yes, no problem, just like you can drive a Ferrari at 20mph.

... a friend..Who has a computer that uses pc3200 ddr2...Pc 3200 ram is too expensive since the demand is going down..
This is the confusing part. PC-3200 is DDR RAM, not DDR2 RAM. DDR RAM is the RAM that is getting relatively more expensive. Your friend will not be able to use DDR2 RAM in a DDR system. However, if you mean "PC2-5400" and "PC2-3200", then yes, the faster RAM should work fine.
 

Kamrooz

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Ahh My bad..Yes it's it's pc2-3200...Should of mentioned that more in detail..I apologize...That's nice to know though,....that he can just get pc2-5400 since it's cheaper and have it work in his mobo ^_^..Thx for the info guys.