One of the main reasons to purchase a motherboard with Intel's flagship Z170 chipset is support for memory overclocking, which all other 100-series chipsets aren't supposed to allow. However, if you're an owner of a non-Z170 board from ASRock, you might just be able to get around these restrictions

ASRock has unveiled a feature that allows users to overclock DDR4 memory on their H170, Q170, B150, and H110 motherboards, essentially subverting Intel's chipset limitations. The company describes their technology as "sorcery", and understandably hasn't described exactly how it works.

Overclocking DDR4 memory on non-Z170 motherboards happens automatically and in a similar fashion to Z170 boards. First, you have to insert a stick of DDR4 with a memory speed higher than 2,133 MHz, the maximum speed typically supported by these boards. ASRock implies you'll need Samsung or Kingston memory for this, and it's not clear whether other memory brands are supported.

After you insert supported memory, a hidden menu called DDR4 Non-Z OC appears in the BIOS' OC Tweaker tab. Changing this option from 'Comfort' to 'Sport+' will automatically overclock the memory up to 2,800 MHz, and on the next boot, the ASRock logo during POST should appear to be glowing.

This isn't the first time ASRock has managed to get around Intel's overclocking restrictions. The company announced a similar feature for their non-Z87 motherboards a couple of years ago, increasing the value of these lower-cost boards.

If you have one of ASRock's supported motherboards, you'll have to update the BIOS to gain access to this new DDR4 overclocking feature. And if you want to overclock beyond 2,800 MHz, you'll still have to purchase a Z170 motherboard, which officially supports memory overclocking.