The Integrated Memory Controller (IMC) on Intel"s 12th Gen Alder Lake CPUs supports both DDR4 and DDR5 memory and hence the accompanying socket LGA1700 600-series chipset motherboards come in two different flavors. While some of these motherboards take the next-gen DDR5 RAM, there are others that are compatible instead with DDR4 kits only. We made a handy guide for determining which memory type could be the better buy for your next Alder Lake PC depending on the kind of tasks you"d perform.
However, there is a new motherboard by a Chinese vendor called Onda that can do the best of both worlds. Spotted by Twitter user momomo_us, this Onda 610M+ motherboard is a two-DIMM slot board. While one of its slots takes a DDR4 RAM, the other one has the notch placed differently and is meant for a DDR5 stick. The two DIMMs are colored separately and the black one is for the DDR5 RAM while the other one is for DDR4.
You can view the motherboard DIMM slots in the image below on the right.
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That"s because despite both DDR4 and DDR5 having the same 288 pin count, the module key is different for both the memory types and they are not compatible with the same DIMM slot.
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In related news, Asus also made an interesting product of its own where it designed a DDR4 to DDR5 adapter for Alder Lake-S systems as DDR5 was quite expensive to buy when it first launched.
Source and images: Onda