Here you can see the area around the socket, and DDR DIMM slots, without heatsinks obstructing the view. The contrast in clutter between the area immediately around the socket and sections beyond the DIMM slots speak volumes about the lengths GIGABYTE have gone to it keep this zone clear.

Quad-Channel memory is once again the order of the day, but unlike X79 we now need to move to DDR4. These slots aren’t backwards compatible with DDR3 but unique keying will prevent you from using the wrong RAM. GIGABYTE make use of the standard retention clip for RAM DIMMs, so you’ll need to use a little bit of dexterity to install them properly.

Commercial DDR4 DIMMs are currently restricted to 8GB per DIMM and so consequently most consumer motherboards support a maximum of 64GB. 16GB DIMMs are in the works however, and whilst the RAM is currently costly prices will fall over time.



GIGABYTE specify support for DDR4 3000MHz (O.C.), with 2133MHz as the base. In the future DIMMs up to 4000MHz may be possible, but as it stands the listed compatibilities will be more than sufficient for the vast majority. Note also that most X99 motherboards make use of non-ECC, unbuffered DDR RAM and support Extreme Memory Profiles (XMP); the X99-SOC Force can also utilise Registered DIMMs (RDIMM) in non-ECC mode.