can i use DDR500 on a DDR400 mobo?

[dbuttcheek69]

i have an ASUS P4P800 SE and i was thinkin of buying faster memory
i want to get like DDR 550 but im not sure if it will work with my mobo. ASUS website just sayd DDR400 dual channel.
does that mean i could use ddr500 but it just would be dual channel or not?

 

[Bozo Galora]

yes you can
generally, higher bandwidth RAM needs slower timimgs and more voltage, however the Samsung TCCD chips used on many new offerings seem to work great under wider possibilities
to get dual channel you have to put one stick ea in alternating mem slots
one stick = no dual channel
you should get same brand and model/size, better yet "matched pairs" guaranteed to run well.

 

[ts3433]

No motherboard maker can say their board supports higher than DDR400 because no JEDEC specifications exist above that for DDR1. Refer to the above post for the rest.

 

[stevty2889]

Higher than DDR 400 is used for overclocking..if you don't overclock, it will just run at DDR400 speeds. As already stated, there is no Jedec spec for DDR higher that DDR400, so no motherboard will say higher than DDR400 is supported.