Soooo, I just went full balls out and decided to say "Fuck these consoles" and build myself a PC instead. Thus far I am very satisfied with this decision of mine, however, as with many first-time-PC'ers, not everything went as planned. The problem lies with the DRAM sticks. They are advertised to be able to run in 2400 mHz through XMP (1.65 V), but everytime I choose to use the #1 Profile of XMP and press "save & restart" in the BIOS, the computer restarts and upon boot I get the error message "Overclocking failed!". Now, in order to ensure you that I didn't just went full retard, I checked both my motherboards manual aswell as Intel's compability list in order to ensure that preciselly those DRAM-sticks would work - and they were listed as compatible indeed.

Any ideas what might be wrong? I can currently only run the memory in substantially lower frequencies than the desired one.

For reference I have the following motherboard, processor and memory:

ASUS Maximus VI Gene, i5 4670K, Kingston HyperX Predator 8GB (2x4GB) (http://www.kingston.com/dataSheets/KHX24C11T2K2_8X.pdf)

Go with AMD next time :)

/flamewar

Most likely you have to do it manually on your bios and adjust the voltage. When I bought mine I also tried setting it to 2400 but it didnt work. I went with 1600 and worked fine and can't really complain about it.

If you know nothing about it I wouldn't recommend messing around too much, research how to do it properly for your brand/model first.

Are you overclocking your CPU at all? RAM and CPU speed is linked now in Haswell, so increasing ram speed may cause your CPU to become unstable if it was.

http://www.overclockers.com/3step-guide-to-overclock-intel-haswell

After setting the RAM voltage to what the manufacturer specifies, can you run it at a lower speed?

I just put the parts in and leave everything stock, don't feel like creating headaches for myself.

The thing is, you didn't research what your motherboard and cpu can handle, as far as ramspeeds go.

Mobo specs As you can see, everything over 1600 is considered overclocking.

CPU specs Same here, nothing over 1600 is "supported"

Now, there is a big difference between not supported and impossible.
In the pdf you linked, you see three different modes for your ram, JEDEC, XMP one and two.
JEDEC, is what'll work straight out of the box.

XMP ones are settings that the ram manufacturer has tested in the factory (in addition to the jedec spec), and guaranteed that the ram will run at. ( they have guaranteed their product, not it working with any unstable pc on the planet )

Problem is, this high ram frequency creates additional stress on the other components, ( hence why they only officially support 1600 ) If you want to run your ram at 2400 and it doesn't work just by flipping it to XMP, it is because the other components ( cpu mostly ) is becoming unstable.

To combat this you have to tinker with some settings, like increasing voltage for the memory controller ( which is built into the cpu ) and stuff like that.

As far as actual real world performance, you probably wont notice a difference between having your ram run at 1333, and 2400.
But if you want to actually run it at 2400, which is a pretty high frequency, i might add.
You have to read up on your platforms voltages, and how high you can push em, what's considered safe for the components etc.
Before you start messing around in the UEFI.

Seeing as my brothers have already given you good advice, I'll say this, Welcome to the master race.

select restore to default, press f10 then enter...no offense but beginers should never mess with the whole "overclocking" thing...1 additional voltage could fry all ur motherboard and u would end up screaming "fuck those pc's i should have stayed with my console"

Never overclock. That's my mantra. If you're going to build a PC for a specific game, save your money until you can buy the parts you need to run it how you want by default.

Always overclock. That's my mantra. If you can get extra performance for free, why wouldn't you?

It does take a bit of extra work and know-how but I find it enjoyable; it's part of the reason I like the PC so much.

With that being said 2400MHz is fast and RAM is one of the last things I would be overclocking if I wanted to speed up my system.

For point of reference, my GPU is pushed as far as it will go, my CPU has a modest overclock and my RAM is at 1600MHz.

double check to see if they're compatible with your mobo and then run a memtest86+ on them to see if they might be defective straight out of the box.

Meh. I'd rather not risk melting my system. Of course, I just spent a ton of money on high-end parts last Monday, but I'm very satisfied with my build.

Yeah, if you're satisfied, then you're better off not messing with it.

I can't really be satisfied knowing there is extra performance to be had from my system.

I actually just started setting up a water cooling loop, so no melting for me.

Also, memtest is a good idea. RAM is the part I've had to RMA most often.

Godspeed, then. I've heard some horror stories about botched water cooling installations and malfunctions...not pretty whatsoever. But good luck, hope it works!

@devildoll: Thanks alot for the clarification! That really made sense and you're right to say I should have put two and two together and just figured that out. But now I figure the most desirable thing for me to do is to set it up so that the DRAM's could work in 1600 mHz. Since 1333 mHz mode comes straight out the box and works, I figure cranking it up to merely 1600 should be relativly issue-free, no? Compared to getting 2400 mHz working I mean.

@squaretheroot: yeah, 1600 should be achievable with the same timings and voltage that they have defined for 1333, thats my guess.

Just set it up in UEFI.

Never buy a cheap motherboard... that's my mantra. I spend as much on the motherboard as I do the CPU. With a quality motherboard, RMA's aren't something I need to worry about doing which is the primary goal. I also get the ability to do overclocking very easily with a minimal amount of work. Why would I not want to take my 3.5GHz processor and turn it into 4.5GHz?

I have easily added 10fps to Assassin's Creed 4 by changing a single parameter. To get an equivalent framerate boost with stock hardware would cost at least $200.