Question about chaud's Dolphin build for May

[Blindjanitor]

I was checking out this build the other day, and I noticed that the motherboard posted uses DDR3 1866 (OC)/1333/ 1066 memory standards, but the memory selected for the build is DDR3 1600. Is that a mistake or will it still work?

[vesseblah]

Short answer: yes

Long answer:

Official DDR3 standard has only two speeds, 1066 and 1333MHz, and anything faster than 1333MHz is considered to be overclocked RAM, including 1600 and 1866MHz. That 1866(OC)/1333/1066 means it supports the standard 1066/1333 speed and any overclocked RAM up to 1866MHz. If you use faster than 1866MHz RAMs those will downclock to 1866 maximum.

Because 1066 and 1333 are the only officially allowed speeds and anything above it is considered to be overclocking the board manufacturers have a list of supported memory that breaks the standards (run faster) but still should work with the board anyway. All old processors using DDR3 RAM will always use the memory at 1333MHz speed at maximum no matter how fast sticks you put in unless you overclock the RAM, but new Sandy Bridge motherboards will automatically overclock RAM speed only up to 2133MHz to match the memory.

[Blindjanitor]

Thank you for the detailed reply, much appreciated!