Will a Skylake Laptop with DDR3L safely run DDR4?

faheemrazzaq · 11 Mar 2016 at 15:10

I have ordered a new HP Pavilion laptop, which comes with i7-6700HQ Processor. The installed memory is 8gb ddr3l 1600mhz. I am planning to upgrade it to 16gb.

I know that i7-6700HQ supports the following memory modules: DDR4-2133, LPDDR3-1866, DDR3L-1600

But the laptop manual only mentions DDR3L-1600 Dual Channel Support as the supported memory. It is Intel HM170 chipset.

Can I safely upgrade ddr3l to ddr4 in my laptop? Or will this not work as ddr3l runs at 1.35v and ddr4 at 1.2v? Can I damage something by testing this?

Zefan · 11 Mar 2016 at 15:36

I'm pretty sure DDR3 and DDR4 SODIMMs are designed with their connector notch in different places, so even if they were "theoretically" compatible (of which I'm doubtful

) the module won't physically fit!

tom_e · 11 Mar 2016 at 15:38

As Zefan says the motherboard will only take the stated RAM, it doesn't matter if the CPU and chipsets support other versions.

Orcvader · 11 Mar 2016 at 16:20

As above, the pin layouts are different, you'll physically damage both the slot and the DDR4 RAM.

faheemrazzaq · 11 Mar 2016 at 21:03

Thanks for your response guys. I was not aware that pin layout is different for SODIMMS. This clears it out.

Now I am looking at HyperX Impact Black Series 16GB, which auto overclocks up to 2400MHz. Sounds interesting but anyone has any experience with these?

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/king...kit-of-2-1.35v-hx316ls9ibk2-16-my-186-ks.html

faheemrazzaq · 11 Mar 2016 at 21:06

The laptop comes with 2tb HDD but it also has an expansion slot for m.2 ssd. I am getting a 256gb m.2 ssd for OS and application install. I hope that will speed up things quite a bit.