Ram overclock to 1866MHz

[diamondmines]

My friend has the MSI Z77A-G45 Intel motherboard and he also has these two sticks of ram:

CORSAIR 8GB (2x4GB) Vengeance DDR3 1866MHz CL9 ram.

The specs for the motherboard for ram are:

1066/1333/1600/1866*/2000*/2133*(OC), 2200*/2400*/2600*/2667*/2800*(OC, 22nm CPU required)

What does he have to do exactly to use the ram in 1866MHz frequency? Does he have to adjust the voltage settings or just set the frequency to 1866 in bios?

Thanks.

[dacads]

Yep just change the frequency and if the PC crashes etc then bump up the voltage

[Domestic_Ginger]

The ram will default to 1333 or something. Set the latency, frequency and voltage in the bios and it should work. All the details will be on the ram. I would get memtest on a cd and boot form it to run a few tests (should take about 30-40 minutes). One pass should be okay but you can leave it longer. It'll tell you if you get nay errors.

The swine thing is if you just plug it in it will probably just set the voltage to 1.65.

[Thorsson]

He should should be able to turn on XMP and it will correctly clock the RAM.

[Mehta23]

I turned on xmp and I'm pretty sure it started to oc my cpu too

[Bonebreaker777]

The ram will default to 1333 or something.

That depends on the CPU I believe, 32nm (Sandy Bridge) or 22nm (Ivy Bridge). Obliviously correct BIOS recognition is also crucial

I would get memtest on a cd and boot form it to run a few tests (should take about 30-40 minutes).

You can get it now with a cleaver USB installer. Memtest86 Version 4.1.0 USB Windows Installer

I turned on xmp and I'm pretty sure it started to oc my cpu too

Funny default BIOS settings?

I recently sorted my RAM out. I have a B75 board (no RAM overclocking) and a i5-2400 (32nm CPU so the RAM will default to 1333Mhz but the CPU was very cheaap).
I found that if I had Spread Spectrum enabled, the Memtest86 passed without problems, but in Windows crashed very early. After I disabled the SS, and tested the RAM in Memtest86 again, on the same settings it was causing errors (using the same timing and voltage as before).
Right now with disabled SS, 1.65V I can go 1333Mhz 7-7-7-17. Just a thought.

[diamondmines]

Thank you guys. Problem solved.

[Mehta23]

Does ram overclocking actually make much of a difference?

[Ketias]

Does ram overclocking actually make much of a difference?

In my experience Ram overclocking doesn't really show any increase is speed but what you will probably notice is a higher level of smoothness when running large or multiple apps.

[hb904460]

Does ram overclocking actually make much of a difference?

It does with an APU system where the graphics component is dependent on the RAM speed.

[d3m0n1q_733rz]

Yes, it can speed up boot times when loading programs into RAM, can speed-up suspend to RAM, RAM drive access, etc. If it uses it, it'll speed it up.

[Willzzz]

1866Mhz generally makes a worthwhile difference, but you get diminishing returns after that.

[Mehta23]

Could I OC my Corsair vengeance?

[kalniel]

Could I OC my Corsair vengeance?

Maybe, depends on your other components. The sticks themselves might have a small amount of headroom, and you might be able to loosen timings to get higher frequency, but there's not usually anything to be gained realistically.

[Willzzz]

Usually they bin memory pretty accurately, if it's 1866mhz chances are remote that it could hit 2000mhz or they would sell it as such.

[AbuRyu]

Thanks OP. I just finished my build. I used Kingston HyperX Beast 8 GB Kit (2x4 GB) 1866MHz . But my bios also showed it as 1333mhz, and I was worried that my ram was wrong. So am I right to conclude that when the RAM is advertised as 1866mhz, it doesnt mean it will default to that speed, and that in most cases if not all it needs to be manually set in bios?