What is the best Micro-ATX motherboard?

[TimRayder]

Here are my specs:

Intel Core i5-6600K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor

Corsair H100i GTX 70.7 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler

XFX Radeon R9 280X 3GB Black Edition Double Dissipation Video Card

Corsair Vengeance Pro 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory

Corsair RM750i PSU

It has a 250gb SSD also.



Thanks in Advance for your help.

Tim

 

[RCFProd]

That's difficult, since DDR3 memory is not officially supported on Skylake D3 motherboards. It's potentially dangerous.
http://wccftech.com/skylake-does-not-support-ddr3-damage-ddr3l-only/

So I would suggest DDR4 memory along with a new motherboard.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($132.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($69.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $202.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-20 16:06 EDT-0400

 

[TimRayder]

That's difficult, since DDR3 memory is not officially supported on Skylake D3 motherboards. It's potentially dangerous.
http://wccftech.com/skylake-does-not-support-ddr3-damage-ddr3l-only/

So I would suggest DDR4 memory along with a new motherboard.

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z170MX-Gaming 5 Micro ATX LGA1151 Motherboard ($132.98 @ Newegg)
Memory: Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-3000 Memory ($69.88 @ OutletPC)
Total: $202.86
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2016-04-20 16:06 EDT-0400

I have not purchased the Processor yet, but I have the memory already, I'm upgrading from an AMD system.

is there any way to keep the memory?

 

[Eximo]

Hmm. I've not encountered anyone who has actually tried. You can get 8GB of DDR4 for only about $35 if you don't go for extremes. DDR4-2400 is commonly in that price range.

If I were going to risk it, I would probably pick up an ASUS motherboard with Mem-OK. It will cycle through all kinds of memory settings until it boots, then you can see what it came up with that worked.

The problem is that DDR3 is technically 1.5volt and DDR4 is 1.2 with a max rating of 1.35 volt. Thus they support DDR3L at 1.3 volt. Some DDR3 is 1.65 volt which is way too much. If your memory will run at 1.35 volt at 1600Mhz maybe, but I don't think it is worth it. You can fiddle with your current setup and see what it will do.

You can keep your DDR3 with your old CPU and motherboard and maybe find a use for it.