The integrated memory controllers (IMCs) on Nehalem and Sandy Bridge are incredibly hardy and can Overclock a loooooong ways...Intel is just quoting a guaranteed tested rating, and obviously will say nothing about their OCing capabilities. My i7-860 desktop is using 4x4GB=16GB of 2000 MHz RAM, and every last byte runs 100% stably at that speed, thanks to the memory controller in the nehalem (which is only rated to 1333 max).
The i7 Mobiles will handle up to 32 GB of RAM. Unfortunately we can't probe their OC limits because the BIOS in the G74 does not allow any adjustments or tweaks at all. It also seems that for some reason filling all 4 DIMM slots in the G74 causes the BIOS to force the IMC to run at 1333. I've been trying to figure out why ASUS did this purposefully...my guess is for thermal management (4 banks of RAM puts more of a voltage load on the IMC than 2, and perhaps ASUS figured their thermal solution for the CPU wasn't good enough to additionally overclock the IMC at the same time, which would generate even more heat).
Haven't we seen some around here though running 2 stix (2x8GB=16GB) of the Corsair 1600 Vengeance stuff successfully at 1600MHz?
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G74SX-CST1-CBIL, i7 2630QM 2GHz
32GB DDR3 RAM @1333MHz
GTX560M 3GB DDR5 (192 bit)
17.3" LED 1920x1080
Sentelic TP, BIOS 203
Debian Linux Wheezy (Testing) Kernel 3.2, NVIDIA 295.40
