Asus Mobo and RAM speed issues

[Selsiuss]

I recently upgraded my computer with new components. I have been having problems clocking my G.Skill 1866 RAM to factory settings. The highest I can get it to go is in the 1700's area. I don't know if it is a problem with my RAM or my motherboard.

Purchased from Newegg, this is what I got:

Asus M5A97 R2.0 Motherboard. Newegg lists it as having 1866 RAM capability with RAM overclocking in the 2000s area. Running latest UEFI BIOS release.

AMD Phenom II x4 965 black edition CPU

16Gb(4x 4Gb sticks) of G.Skill Sniper Series 1866 RAM

Sapphire Radeon HD 7870 2Gb GHZ Edition OC

The BIOS does not have an option for 1866 RAM speed by default. When I try to manually set the RAM to 1866 speed, my computer will not start up and I have to hit the "RAM OK" button on the motherboard to reset it.

Maybe I'm just doing something wrong. I've never had lemons from Newegg before so if someone could provide an in-depth guide to set my RAM to its factory clock or let me know if I need to get a different motherboard model then that would be great.

 

[PP Mguire]

The problem is simply the IMC is rated for 1600 on AMD chips and only the newer FX chips can really use 1866. Even then, it's still shady. AMD has a serious memory bandwidth problem to where anything higher than 1600 is diminishing gains and not really noticed or supported. You will either have to deal with 1600 or take the RAM back as it requires FSB OCing (high OCing) to make 1866 work on Phenom 2.

A new motherboard wont help, nor new RAM.

 

[LifeAsAaron]

I just learned that myself. I got a new rig with 1866 ram x 8gb and the same cpu you baught, 965 be and I found out the asus mobo sets the ram to 1300 mhz naturally because that is what the 965 supports, I OC'd it to 3.7ghz cpu / 14xxmhz ram but no point in going more.