Hi,
yes, 40MHz is the one giving best clock quality (i.e. direct path from HSE to PLL, meaning lowest jitter) for PCIE/USB SuperSpeed 5Gbits/s generation while allowing flexibility for other clocks (Ethernet Gigabit, USB high-speed, etc..).
It should be noted that the trend of crystal size shrink to smaller packages mean higher frequency are 'easier' for crystal manufacturer (and so might give slightly better high volume pricing).
Nevertheless, 24 MHz is supported too. Be careful that changing default HSE frequency need many changes in the DTS frequencies and clock tree.
For USB boot, BootROM is able to autodetect 16, 20, 24, 28, 32, 36, 40 or 48 Mhz. 19.2, 25 or 26 MHz is even possible with OTP settings.
Unless absolutely needed (e.g. network companies often want to use 25MHz of their network chipset), we recommend to stick to ST recommendation of 40 MHz.
Regards.
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