I wanted to buy a Gigabyte Z97-HD3 mainboard and an Intel i3-4160 processor. The question is if I buy DDR3 / 2400 (2x 8GB) memory can I setup XMP memory profile to make use of this faster memory… Some people tell me if I have an Intel processor which cannot be overclocked I have in the BIOS no access to the overclocking capabilities of the mainboard. The sales guy at the Panthip shop was not helpful at all…. So therefore I ask it here….

For DDR3 2400 you pay nearly double the price of DDR3 1600. Would you not be better off spending the extra on a i5-4690 processor, rather than faster memory?

Here in Bangkok in Panthip the prices for 16GB (2x 8GB) DDR3/1600 G.Skill Trident X is 5590 THB, and for the 16GB (2x 8GB) DDR3/2400 G.Skill Trident X I pay 5890 THB..... What sis only a price difference of 300 THB

Intel i5-4690 cost 7490 THB, which is 3610 THB more... for my application I only need single core performance, the Intel i3-4160 is probably the best single-core performance to price and performance... if I can pump the performance just a bit more with faster memory it would be helpful...

Prices have come down a lot if it's now only a 5% premium for 2400 over 1600. Used to be much higher.

and it probably doesn't help that I'm thinking DDR4 2400 pricing...

Take a look at the Gigabyte site where you can download the motherboard manual and memory support list, and see if that gives you the info you require.

The DDR3/2400 memory is supported, the motherboard supports up to DDR3/3200 memory in OC mode. What brings me back to my original question, with modern Z97 BIOS systems some overclocking abilities are not available if you have a processor that is not overclockable.

So if somebody has a motherboard with Intel Z97 chipset and a regular processor can you still use the Intel XMP (Extreme Memory Profiles) in your BIOS setup?