Skylake question

[N64CUBE]

If I was to buy skylake, would getting a board with ddr4 be worth it (and then having to buy ram), or could I save my ddr3 and go for a ddr3 board. And if so, at that point, is skylake even worth it or should I go haswell?

[don_svetlio]

your RAM won't work as Skylake needs DDR3L. Go for a 4690K + Z97

[FatPenguin]

skylake uses ddr3L on ddr3 boards I would say just go for the ddr4 because it has drastically come down in price recently

[App4that]

your RAM won't work as Skylake needs DDR3L. Go for a 4690K + Z97

Not accurate. Skylake works with DDR3 just fine.

OP, if you want to save money, sure you ca re use your RAM. But it's worth the jump to DDR4 to have the added performance.

And @MageTank

[Imakuni]

If I was to buy skylake, would getting a board with ddr4 be worth it (and then having to buy ram), or could I save my ddr3 and go for a ddr3 board. And if so, at that point, is skylake even worth it or should I go haswell?

One of the main reasons to go Skylake is to get DDR4 in the first place.

 

If you CAN afford an i5 6400 / 6500 + z170 + 8gb of DDR4, then there's pretty much 0 reason to go for Haswell, unless you'll be doing heavy video editing (in which case, a 4790 is a better choice).

[N64CUBE]

Not accurate. Skylake works with DDR3 just fine.

OP, if you want to save money, sure you ca re use your RAM. But it's worth the jump to DDR4 to have the added performance.

And @MageTank

Why the conflicting answers?

 

skylake uses ddr3L on ddr3 boards I would say just go for the ddr4 because it has drastically come down in price recently

 

your RAM won't work as Skylake needs DDR3L. Go for a 4690K + Z97

Out of curiosity what is ddr3l

[AverageHardware]

It's

 

Why the conflicting answers?

 

 

Out of curiosity what is ddr3l

 a smaller formfactor of DDR3. Laptop RAM.

[FatPenguin]

 

 

Out of curiosity what is ddr3l

DDr3 that uses lower voltages. 

[A Guy Eating Cereal]

If I was to buy skylake, would getting a board with ddr4 be worth it (and then having to buy ram), or could I save my ddr3 and go for a ddr3 board. And if so, at that point, is skylake even worth it or should I go haswell?

As said above, if you can afford to go skylake then go for it with DDR4 otherwise don't bother. So YES its worth it with DDR4!!

[MageTank]

Sigh, this again.

 

DDR3 works on Skylake. vDIMM comes from power phases on the board, not from the CPU. VCCIO(A+D) is the voltage path in and out of the IMC, VCCSA is the IMC and PCIE subdomain voltages. These can kill the IMC, not VDIMM. DDR3 will work fine as long as you dial in the vDIMM, and manually dial in the VCCIO/SA voltages as allowing the board to do this on auto could fry your IMC after a period of time.

 

DDR3L is low voltage DDR3, typically 1.35V. 

 

Saving $40 to reuse DDR3 might be useful in the short term, but it will ultimately hold your system back in the future. Go surf the couch cushions for the change and save up.

[don_svetlio]

Why the conflicting answers?

 

 

Out of curiosity what is ddr3l

DDR3 low voltage - found mostly on laptops

[kameshss]

your RAM won't work as Skylake needs DDR3L. Go for a 4690K + Z97

Nope, You can run DDR3 RAM just fine.

 

 

Out of curiosity what is ddr3l

It's a low voltage of DDR3.

[FatPenguin]

It's

 

 a smaller formfactor of DDR3. Laptop RAM.

no not necessarily there are desktop variations of ddr3L 

[typographie]

Why the conflicting answers?

 

The conflicting answers stem from the fact that Skylake's official memory support is for 1.3 V DDR4 and 1.35 V DDR3L, not the typical 1.5 V DDR3 we've been using for several years.

 

There's been some concern (concern that didn't just come from me) that DDR3 over 1.35 V could be harmful over the long-term, but I honestly don't know if there's anything to that. I've never heard of it actually causing an issue. I would recommend DDR4 if you're going to go with Skylake, though.

 

If it makes it any more palatable to think of it this way, chances are good that your next system after Skylake will still use DDR4. Memory tends to last years.

[Sid Manly]

I'm running on an Intel i7 6700K, Maximus Viii Hero with 16GB DDR4 @2400.

The RAM is running at a whopping 1.184 volts.

I have had the CPU all the way up to 4.7GHz.

 

The lower voltage on the ram is worth it IMO if I can sit at 1.184 volts with no overclocking.