MSI has had a good run with their budget range of motherboards and have had special success with AMD’s B450. With AMD sadly missing in action, Intel has picked up the slack in filling the budget range and it comes at a time wherein Intel is enjoying a renaissance with Alder Lake. That said, MSI’s advantage on the budget range relies on their branding mostly offering the essentials without charging extra.
With the introduction of DDR5, that is a problem in itself. DDR5 alone costs a premium but does bring in some performance and power advantage but for most people, its usually not enough. This is the fork in the road where many board decide where they lie in the DDR4 vs DDR5 debate. In the case of most partners, they either choose one and then offer another but some brand have taken it to designing boards with absolutely similar feature set but differing memory slots.
Such is the case of the MSI MAG B660M MORTAR. Available in both DDR4 and DDR5, these motherboards are exactly the same board and offers either an upgraders path or a new build path for anyone wanting to go Alder Lake. As MSI’s most popular board class, the company is offering both variants to maximize its presence while still offering their most popular motherboard.
We have both the DDR4 and DDR5 version for review. In this review, we’ll focus on the DDR5 model. These motherboards are identical to each other so the majority of the review will be shared between the two articles. Please refer to the conclusion for specific observations about each motherboard. Read on!
| MSI MAG B660M MORTAR WIFI Specifications | |
|---|---|
| CPU Support | Intel 12th-generation Core CPU (LGA1700) |
| Power Delivery Design | 12+1 |
| Chipset | Intel Z690 |
| Memory Support | 4 x DIMM, Max. 128GB, DDR5-6200 (OC) |
| Expansion Slots | 1x PCIe 4.0 x16 (CPU) 1x PCIe 3.0 x4 1x PCIe 3.0 x1 |
| Storage Interface/s | 2x M.2 (1x CPU, 1x B660 chipset) 4x SATA 2x SATA (ASMedia ASM1061) |
| Networking | Realtek 2.5GbE |
| Audio | Realtek ALC1200 |
| Fan Headers | 3x 4-pin 1x pump header |
| Dimensions | microATX 24.4cm x 24.4cm |
| Rear I/O Ports | 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 port(s) (1 x USB Type-C) 3 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 port(s) (2 x Type-A, 1 x Type-C) 4 x USB 2.0 port(s) (4 x Type-A) 1 x DisplayPort 1 x HDMI port 1 x Intel 2.5Gb Ethernet port 5 x Audio jacks 1 x Optical S/PDIF out port |
