Is the cure to RAM pricing a motherboard that supports multiple generations? That's what ASRock seems to be betting on with its latest release on the last-gen LGA1700 socket — a new Intel motherboard based on the H610 chipset that fulfils the company's original announcement from three years ago, at last. The "H160M Combo" features support for both DDR4 and DDR5, while being the first consumer offering to do so in dual-channel mode.
a new lga1700 h610m mobo that supports ddr4 and ddr5 (not at the same time), from asrock!6dimm mobo = 2 for d4 and 4 for d5, both in dual channel modethe first release bios dated jun 2025, asrock is saving our ass!asrock h610 combohttps://t.co/2SFDEOP1xzthe last h610m… pic.twitter.com/pRe2ONBNjXDecember 4, 2025
It has 6 DIMMs in total, two reserved for DDR4 at a maximum speed of 2,666 MT/s, and the other four reserved for DDR5 at 4,800 MT/s. Keep in mind that those speeds can't be increased with XMP, since H610 motherboards don't allow memory overclocking. Previously, a similar H610 motherboard was released by ONDA, but it had only two slots in total, one for either DDR4 or DDR5, so ASRock is still one-upping it in a big way.
The rest of the motherboard is pretty ordinary, sporting basic functionality that should get your Alder Lake or Raptor Lake processor off the ground, but don't expect flagship commodities. Unlike the aforementioned ONDA board that had PCIe Gen5 support, ASRock's H610M Combo is limited to PCIe 4.0, like every other H610 out there. You do get speedy USB-C at the rear, though, and decent VRMs.
Even though this board can accept both DDR4 and DDR5, it can't do so at the same time; you have to run either DDR4 sticks or DDR5 on their own. Still, this sort of convenience can help alleviate some of the pressure from the ongoing memory crisis, where DDR5 prices have skyrocketed. If you were stuck with DDR5 and wanted a motherboard that can roll back to last-gen memory, you're in luck now.
On the contrary, if you have DDR4 lying around or can source it more easily, the hybrid support means you could opt for a DDR4 build now and pivot to DDR5 later without replacing your motherboard. That being said, the H610M Combo isn't readily available at the moment since it was just announced. It's not even listed on the global website right now, so you might have to wait to get your hands on it.
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