Should I buy a ddr3 motherboard for the i7 6700k?

[ProPlayerGR]

Hey guys. So I have an AMD FX 9370 and I'm planning on getting the i7 6700k. I was wondering if a ddr3 motherboard would be good (I have ddr3 ram that's why I don't want to get a ddr4 motherboard). Thanks in advance.

 

[Matt_150]

The only DDR3 that is supported on some of the 6700K capable board is DDR3L which is not the same as your current DDR3.

 

[anti-duck]

Bollocks^

The best option would be to get a DDR4 capable motherboard and some DDR4 RAM, I would really suggest you spend, or save up the extra as it's only going to be DDR4 from now on until DDR5. That being said DDR3 can be used with Skylake (yes, 1.5v).

 

[Ziga Stupar]

nope there are boards that support DDR3, but According to Intel it will reduce the cpus life expectancy

 

[Matt_150]

He is actually right the more I look I can find some that support DDR3.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813132574

 

[anti-duck]

nope there are boards that support DDR3, but According to Intel it will reduce the cpus life expectancy

That's a misenterpreation. There's no "It WILL reduce the CPU's life expectancy", it's "It MAY reduce the CPU's life expectancy", meaning that the CPU's IMC might degrade because of too much VCCIO/SA applied by loading an XMP/AMP profile.

Here's my VCCIO/SA voltages from my 1.65v 2400Mhz DDR3 RAM -

The max for both with Skylake is 1.25v though I wouldn't go past 1.15v on each. No DDR3 is gonna come close to 1.15v on VCCIO/SA unless you have something like 2666Mhz DDR3 with low timings or possibly some cheap 1.65v 1333/1600MHz. Intel's warning is a sensible precaution.

 

[synphul]

According to intel it may damage the integrated memory controller. The motherboard manufacturers don't have anything to do with the memory controller since it's on the cpu itself so not sure they can say what is or isn't safe. Especially if they're not willing to warranty a cpu should the memory controller be damaged. Some are using ddr3 with their skylake cpu's, it is 'possible' though not sure I'd recommend it. Erring on the side of caution is it worth damaging a $200-300 cpu over $40 worth of ram? There are also folks who choose to oc their skylake cpu using nearly 1.6v core voltage, doesn't mean I'd recommend it. It might be fine, it might be a $300 'whoops'.

I'm not entirely sure how well the comparison works between an lga1150 and 1151 motherboard when it comes to memory and system agent voltages and things. Haswell's memory controller was part of the pch and an entirely different setup controlled by different hardware than the imc of skylake. All future systems are ddr4 based, whether skylake, kaby lake, cannon lake, ryzen. May as well make the upgrade.

 

[anti-duck]

Another thing is that it's similar with Haswell. Intel never came out and said 1.65v (for instance) VRAM may damage the IMC, but any performance memory is not supported and Intel only state support for 1333/1600 DDR3L and 1333/1600 DDR3 @ 1.5v, yet we know for a fact that we can go way beyond 1.5v 1600Mhz DDR3

To be fair, Intel aren't going to do testing with anything beyond what they say their CPU's support, it's the motherboard and RAM vendors that do; there has been absolutely zero evidence for rapid IMC degradation, yet (not forgetting that all components degrade over time regardless). Yes, the safest thing would be to go for 1.35v DDR3L or DDR4 and not overclock the memory at all (even using the XMP profile) and leave your CPU at stock. I would just suggest staying within reasonable bounds; don't bang your i7 6700k at 1.8v and try for 7Ghz for instance, but I would say that 1.5v DDR3 is perfectly reasonable.

 

[madmatt30]

You'd be going with a cheap b150 or h110 because they're the only chipsets that have ddr3 variants.

If I were buying an unlocked i7 I'd sure as s**t be putting it in a decent z series board & pairing it with 2400mhz ddr4 at least.
You're undercutting its possible performance otherwise.

If you can afford a $330 CPU don't skimp on the rest if it or you'll be left disappointed IMO.

 

[anti-duck]

You'd be going with a cheap b150 or h110 because they're the only chipsets that have ddr3 variants.

If I were buying an unlocked i7 I'd sure as s**t be putting it in a decent z series board & pairing it with 2400mhz ddr4 at least.
You're undercutting its possible performance otherwise.

If you can afford a $330 CPU don't skimp on the rest if it or you'll be left disappointed IMO.

Na, some Z170 boards do support DDR3, Gigabyte Z170-HD3 DDR3 for instance.

 

[J_E_D_70]

^ that - don't cheap out.

 

[synphul]

There was 1.65v ram for haswell which officially went to 1.5v for the ram. It was .15v over. The ddr4 spec is 1.2v and 1.35v ddr3L is already .15 over ddr4. To go with plain ddr3 at 1.5 would place it .3v over and no one to my knowledge was running 1.8v ram with haswell. Dual ram support worked much better when older boards supported newer lower voltage ram rather than supporting older higher voltage ram.

The cost of potentially having to replace a $330 i7 wouldn't thrill me if it were mine. I'm not sure of too many folks who get excited 2-3yrs down the road that they save $40 on ram either. Just my personal reasoning and thoughts on it. Some folks even go so far as to buy a 'temporary' ddr3 board with plans to upgrade to ddr4 later and a new motherboard. Aside from the time spent installing windows again, some people would rather buy 2 boards and new ram than just buy the new ram in the first place. Most times people on a restricted budget aren't considering a top tier mainstream cpu.

Hanging onto the old ram may work, may get through unscathed but then after that anything else intel or amd is going to require ddr4 so at some point it will have to be upgraded. Just like we left edo, sdram, ddr and ddr2 with the older tech. Unless keeping the 9370 and the motherboard for something else it might be worth selling it off to recover some of the cost of it. May as well sell the ddr3 with it. If keeping it, will you buy new ddr3 to use with it since you're using your existing ddr3 for skylake? Then the existing 9370 won't have any ram. Just commenting on various options.