Question is i7 6700 (non K) able to address a RAM of 3466 on Z170A-X1/3.1 - is it 'locked'?

[djsticmatic]

Hey there. I plan on getting a new mainboard for my i7 6700 along with some 32 GB DDR4-3466 - will it work on the ASRock Z170A-X1/3.1? Do I need to activate XMP ?
Should I rather safe 200 bucks and buy the DDR4-2400 or even less? Can the CPU even handle it? (I know that it'll be generally out of spec)

I'm upgrading GPU from 960 to 1080 as well as fast SSD and a capable Noctua AirCooler... that's why I want to safe money by NOT upgrading to 9th gen / more cores / newer mainboard...

2nd question is: Can I even expect to overclock a little? I was imagining to delid the 6700

 

[Dunlop0078]

I'll start of by saying I think getting a new motherboard and ram kit for faster ram speeds is a rather large waste of money just for a few percent better performance in games. I would recommend you save up for a more meaningful upgrade rather than spending so much money on the skylake platform.

Maybe. The 6700 is not locked to any memory frequency on a Z170 board but I cant guarantee the memory controller in a 6700 is going to play well with ram that fast. You need to activate XMP or set the rated speed, timings, and voltage manually. The RAM will run at 2133mhz or whatever the mobo sets by default if you don't.

3466mhz ram should not be 200 dollars more than a 2400mhz kit, that's absolutely ridiculous. What kit are you looking at?

Overclock the non k 6700? I wouldn't recommend it. You might be able to get a bit more out of it with a BLCK overclock. But that will also change the speeds of other things, memory for example. It's harder to get stable than a simple multiplier overclock on a k cpu.

 

[djsticmatic]

1st of all thanks for the detailed answer.

I'll start of by saying I think getting a new motherboard and ram kit for faster ram speeds is a rather large waste of money just for a few percent better performance in games. I would recommend you save up for a more meaningful upgrade rather than spending so much money on the skylake platform.

No, to make that clear: My main upgrade money goes into: GPU from 960 to 1080 (500€), RAM from 8 GB to 32 GB (400€) and a fast Samsung SSD (120€) Then, some additional stuff like new case, cooling, mainboard. I'm running a crappy complete-system by HP from 4 years ago. And a new CPU isn't really worth it, even though I heard that my game of choice, Star Citizen, is recruiting as many cores as you give it oO

3466mhz ram should not be 200 dollars more than a 2400mhz kit, that's absolutely ridiculous. What kit are you looking at?

G.Skill DIMM 32 GB F4-3466C16D-32GTZR, Trident Z RGB is 419,- € while same at 2400 is 220,-€