Core i7 860 and 1066Mhz RAM

[AndrewJBeard]

What is the impact of pairing a Core i7 860 on a LGA1156 platform (which supports up to 1333Mhz memory) with 1066Mhz memory (assuming standard timings)? Will the 1066Mhz memory affect the speed of the CPU or other components sat on the motherboard (i.e. are the base clock rates linked)? Or is it purely the memory bandwidth that will be affected? If so, would the real-world performance degradation be noticeable?

 

[das_stig]

1066mhz will not effect anything on the motherboard and you are correct in thinking that the memory bandwidth performance is worse that 1333.

Real world, hardly noticable, but if you do go 1333, you can always drop it down to 1066 and tighten the timings to get better performance.

Its all swings and roundabouts.