Running ram at higher speed than supported by motherboard

[wrg1919]

Hi, I just installed 4 modules of pc28500 4gb per module ram for a total of eight gigs up from my original 4 that were pc25300 at 1gig a piece totaling 4 gigs. I'm running off of a 64-bit version of Vista and the system recognizes the increase in memory but not the ram speed. The maximum supported memory speed the motherboard supports according to the HP specs on their website is 6400. Is there any way around this? Is there any way to get the motherboard to recognize the ram as 8500, or do I have to get another motherboard?

[Amd Athlon]

Your motherboard will communicate with your 8500Mhz ram at 6400 rates. There is nothing at all to be concerned about. Your motherboard needs to talk to ram at a speed not less than 6400Mhz. So getting memory below that speed is a problem. If you put in faster ram, then your ram won't be a bottleneck. It won't operate any faster than 6400Mhz, but it should work.

[PeterAGASSI]

There is no point in using ram that is faster than the maximum the motherboard will support. It can run no faster than the motherboard will let it, and no faster than the slowest of all the ram modules, if applicable. Ram is backwards compatible as far as speed goes, but other factors may make it not work in your motherboard properly, or other ram may not work properly when certain other ram modules are installed.

Since it appears you are having problems with the maximum speed, you are much better off to return the ram if you can and get modules that suits your motherboard supported speed. Or else get the motherboard that will support the speed of those ram.