On the topic of IMC's, memory and what speeds I can expect from a given configuration

[LordHexahedron]

Okay, so I'm in the process of building a cheap HTPC/light gaming rig (if it can run skyrim I'm fine, given the Radeon HD 5770 I had laying about... I should be fine)

But anyway, on the topic of the actual question.
For this build I'm using the Zotac H61MAT-A-E board - it can support DDR3 1066 and 1333, the CPU is an i5-3330S which can support 1333 and 1600.
The ram is Crucial Ballistix Sport 8gb (x2) 1600 MHz with Timings of 9-9-9-24.

So the question is, will it underclock to 1333Mhz (if so at faster timings?) or will the CPU maximum memory speed override the motherboard limitation?

I would try this practically but I'm still waiting for some components, not to mention I still need to upgrade the bios on the motherboard with the patch for 22nm cpus (i5-3330S is on the official support list for the patch, I just need to either order a new BIOS chip with the appropriate version or an eeprom programmer that can take DIP-8 packages).

EDIT: as the title somewhat implies, I'm particularly interested in general information on this topic - I read conflicting things, some say the IMC overrides the mobo limits and others say it's the other way around, mobo dictates final memory speed.
the specific information for this particular usage case is of course interesting but so is the generic information - hence the vague title.

 

[Tradesman1]

Can try at 1333 8-8-8-24 (if no joy then 9-9-9-24), you can try going for 1600 if the BIOS allows it, and it will prob takle increases to the DRAM andthe the MC (memory controller) voltage

 

[LordHexahedron]

Can try at 1333 8-8-8-24 (if no joy then 9-9-9-24), you can try going for 1600 if the BIOS allows it, and it will prob takle increases to the DRAM andthe the MC (memory controller) voltage

assuming of course that the BIOS lets me, given that it's a board with the H61 chipset I'm going to guess it has very few overclocking options - if any (probably no voltage control for starters) - I was more interested in what I can expect it to default to, probably 1333 (9-9-9-24) - unless there's an XMP profile that tells it otherwise (and that's assuming the bios even has such support - I don't even know what brand bios it uses, zotac provides a flashing utility I can't even identify based on name (eFU301 - google provided nothing))

best case: I have voltage control, I could then tinker with it and see what sort of numbers I can push.
worst case: I have no voltage control, and I have to deal with whatever it underclocks to - this seems the most likely but I'm not 100% sure how it'd underclock, not even sure it's possible to know without testing tbh.

 

[Tradesman1]

XMP applies to DRAM 1600 and above, haven't used your particular mobo but should have voltage adjustments

 

[LordHexahedron]

indeed, I wager it would - but if it by chance does not have voltage adjustment is my assumption of 1333 (9-9-9-24) realistic?
Regardless, I wager I have enough data here - given that I haven't been explicitly told that my assumption is wrong it's probably not wrong, without voltage control it'll most likely either run at 1600 (9-9-9-24) or 1333 (9-9-9-24), or perhaps 1333 with some other combination of timings but that doesn't matter much - memory timings are not going to be the bottleneck in this system, the five (almost six) year old graphics card is.

Thanks for the data, this will probably help me pick parts in the future (the parts on this build were picked with budget in mind as one of the primary considerations - this ram was the cheapest and thus this curious scenario took place, once a bios chip loaded with the newest bios revision arrives I can boot 'er up and see what I can do with memory speeds and timings, at least I'll get to know what speed it'll be running at)