Sandy Bridge and DDR3 TriChannel Kit

[karlp]

I'm trying to put together a Sandy Bridge build on extremely tight budget, hence trying to use some existing parts. I have Kingston HyperX DDR3 6GB (3 x 2GB) CAS 9 1600 Mhz kit. I'm planning on pairing the memory with either i5 2500k or i7 2600k on a ASRock Z68 Extreme3 Gen3 LGA 1155 board.

Given that it's a 1600 Mhz and 1.65V and a trichannel kit would I be able to use it with this setup?
1600Mhz: I think it's compatible with the motherboard, although Sandy bridge calls for 1033/1333 Mhz, I think these modules would either downclock to 1333 mhz by default or I can overclock by changing the memory multipler and I think the motherboard supports this. Please confirm.
1.65v: I was told that for Sandy Bridge 1.5v or under is preferred, is this true?
Trichannel kit: this is my main concern as I'm not sure if i would able to use it in 3x 2gb configuration on this board and whether SB would have any problems with it. I know most boards are able to interleave the odd stick but I couldn't find any mention of that in this board's documentation. Please comment.


So please let me know if the trichannel kit will work for me or I should got with the acquiring the fourth stick with similar specs such as this Kingston HyperX Blu 2GB DDR3 1600Mhz.

 

[k1114]

It will work but you'll be in single channel unless you put in just 2 sticks. 1.5v is preferred, there are the rare cases where 1.65v has caused issues. It will most likely be downclocked to stock 1333 and 1.5v but you can overclock it to 1600.

 

[jitpublisher]

You will just have to try on the overclock back to 1600, at 1.5 volts it might not be stable. It won't really make a noticeable difference you ever notice anyway.
If you are concerned about running dual channel mode, you could always just buy 1 more stick of the same memory and populate all 4 slots for 8gb in dual channel.