Introduction
We have a couple of B660 motherboards for review and its an exciting time for anyone who wants to build a modern PC but is somewhat still caught up in the 2018 pricing of AMD’s Ryzen 5 3600. Intel’s new Alder Lake offering has opened up the entry-level market and has made it quite the interesting landscape.
In the past, the Hx70 chipset was the most consumer-forward chipset amongst all of Intel’s partner offerings. This meant that a Z/P chipset served the enthusiast market while an Hx70 answered to a multimedia audience who were probably not interested in overclocking. Then, most motherboard stack will be taken up by the B-class chipset and the lower-end H-class. That was before though, 2022’s chipset stack from Intel is quite the same but includes a very vital change, something which has proven to be the limitation of many Intel mainstream product before: memory overclocking.
With base memory support already going for both DDR5-4800 and DDR4-3200, these are fairly high already but Intel has enabled XMP on the B660 chipset which is the reason why you’ll be seeing a lot of it in mainstream boards today. A simple IO offering coupled with a partially unhindered performance and the B660 chipset completes the dream Intel mainstream motherboard.
That said, we have a couple of B660 boards to check out but we’ll start off with a fairly top-end model: the ROG STRIX B660-F GAMING WIFI from ASUS. For reference, here is the entire ASUS B660 product stack and its official SRP in Philippine Peso:
ROG STRIX B660-F GAMING | PHP 14,210 |
ROG STRIX B660-A GAMING D4 | PHP 12,640 |
ROG STRIX B660-G GAMING | PHP 12,640 |
ROG STRIX B660-I GAMING | PHP 12,000 |
TUF GAMING B660M-PLUS WIFI D4 | PHP 10,770 |
PRIME B660M-A D4 | PHP 7,750 |
PRIME B660M-K D4 | PHP 6,830 |
EX-B660M-V5 D4 | PHP 6,700 |
We’ll take a closer look at this motherboard and I’ll let you know what I feel and not feel on this motherboard especially the part where it costs nearly $300. Read on!
ASUS ROG STRIX B660-F GAMING WIFI Specifications | |
---|---|
CPU Support | Intel 12th-generation Core CPU (LGA1700) |
Power Delivery Design | 16+1 |
Chipset | Intel Z690 |
Memory Support | 4 x DIMM, Max. 128GB, DDR5-6000 (OC) |
Expansion Slots | 1x PCIe 5.0 x16 (CPU) 1x PCIe 3.0 x16 (x4 Mode) 2x PCIe 3.0 x1 |
Storage Interface/s | 3x M.2 4x SATA |
Networking | Intel 2.5GbE 2×2 WIFI6 |
Audio | Realtek S1220A |
Fan Headers | 6x 4-pin 1x AIO pump header |
Dimensions | ATX 30.5cm x 24.4cm |
Rear I/O Ports | 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 port(s) (1 x USB Type-C) 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (1 x USB Type-A) 5 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 port(s) (4 x Type-A, 1 x Type-C) 2 x USB 2.0 Gen 1 port(s) (2 x Type-A) 1 x DisplayPort 1 x HDMI port 1 x Intel 2.5Gb Ethernet port 5 x Audio jacks |
Features | Extreme Engine Digi+
ASUS Q-Design
ASUS Thermal Solution
AURA Sync
|
ROG STRIX B660-F GAMING WIFI Packaging and Box Contents
ASUS packages the the ROG STRIX B660-F GAMING WIFI in their standard ROG bundle inclusion: ROG-branded documentation with a greeting card, sticker sheet as well as a driver installation disc. ASUS also includes standard M.2 screw mounts and pads as well as a couple of SATA cables. The extras here are the ROG-exclusive keyring which used to exclusively be for true ROG products only. Other than that, ASUS also includes a magnetic WIFI/BT antenna and a bunch of plastic ties for cable management.
ROG STRIX B660-F GAMING WIFI Design and Layout
The ROG STRIX B660-F GAMING WIFI motherboard is a standard, full-sized ATX motherboard. As part of ASUS’ ROG family, it features a black on black motiff with holographic text prints breaking up the heatsink design. PCB prints consists of similar text styling on both front and back to keep a consistent look. Pulling it all together are matte black heatsink blocks running down the VRM and covering the the M.2 heatsink slots on the middle and lower part of the board.
ASUS management to fuse the main heatsink of the VRMs to blend with the I/O shroud. They didn’t go with excessively designed or over-printed heatsinks here so metal easily flowers into the overall design. ASUS uses simple lines to break-up the design on the heatsink with the busiest heatsink being the lower M.2 slot cover that covers a dual slot on the lower edge of the board.
Unlike true-ROG boards, an ROG Strix board will usually have more PCB showing through. The same is true for the ROG STRIX B660-F. While this saves cost, if you do feel you’d want something a bit more covered up, you’ll either shelling out more for a Z690 Hero or realize that a graphics card will do the same job for free.
The ROG Strix B660-F GAMING WIFI is a DDR5 motherboard which means you’ll be needing to fork out a bit for the newer modules. Stocks have since improved and there’s plenty going around now but pricing is still on the steep end.
Most B660 motherboards will have access to at least 2 M.2 slots with this board having three. ASUS maximizes the layout of the board by hiding all 3 slots under M.2 covers for improved aesthetics as well as thermal management. It also solves my biggest gripe with random M.2 slots being under GPU for no good reason.
There’s a healthy array of I/O here with IGP display options for your perusal but other than that, ASUS offers up a healthy selection of USB3.1, USB3.2, USB3.2 Gen2x2 and plenty others for most users so if you’re running portable SSDs or any other modern, high-bandwidth devices, you are very much covered here.
BIOS Walkthrough
The ROG STRIX B660-F GAMING WIFI features the standard ROG UEFI BIOS experience complete with both EZ Mode and Advanced Mode. Like all ROG boards, the UEFI BIOS options allow setting of XMP, custom fan profiles, automatic tuning based on cooling profile and setting up of boot devices on EZ Mode. In Advanced Mode, users will be given a richer array of options included performance tweaking.
Standard ASUS BIOS experience but I have to comment that this is quite full-featured for even a mid-market products, regardless if ROG or not.
Test Setup and Methodology
All tests are performed in the latest version of Windows 11. For earlier reports of AMD suffering performance issues, please refer to this update published by AMD which notes that the issue has been resolved.
All systems tested use the same version of the application and no data from previous reviews are used for this test. All games are updated to their latest version and are set to details indicated in their charts. Back2Gaming prefers running games in max details with motion blur off.
Resizable BAR is enabled for all testing, when applicable.
Test System: Intel 12th | |
CPU | Intel Core i9-12900K |
Motherboard | ASUS ROG STRIX B660-F GAMING WIFI |
RAM | Kingston FURY Beast DDR5-5200 CL40 |
GPU | ZOTAC RTX 3080 Ti AMP EXTREME |
Storage | KLEVV CRAS 920 2TB M.2 NVMe |
Cooling | NZXT Kraken X73 RGB |
Power Supply | FSP HydroG Pro 1000w |
Special thanks to ASUS, Kingston, FSP and ZOTAC for the hardware used in this test. Special thanks to Cybenetics Labs, NVIDIA, PassMark ,OCCT and CapFrameX for the testing equipment and software we use in this review.
All testing for motherboards are done with XMP enabled (DDR5-5200) except for DDR4 boards or when stated otherwise.
Storage and Network Interface Testing
As of this moment, I am still sourcing USB 3.2 Gen2x2 enclosures for testing so I have to forego testing on that port as well as Thunderbolt4. We do test the Intel 2.5GbE and USB3.2 Gen2 headers on this board.
We test the throughput of the primary I/O of our tested motherboard using various devices as follows:
- M.2 NVMe: KLEVV CRAS 920 2TB
- USB 3.2 Gen2: ROG STRIX Arion USB Enclosure + Kingston KC2000 1TB M.2 SSD
- SATA: SAMSUNG 870 QVO 1TB
- LAN: QNAP TS-932PX 10GbE NAS + WD Blue SSD 1TB x2 RAID0
All tests are done in Crystal DiskMark v8.
Performance Testing – Synthetic
SuperPI
wPrime
Cinebench R23
Blender Benchmark
AIDA64 Memory Benchmark
3DMark
Performance Testing – Gaming
All games tested with an RTX 3080 Ti.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO)
DOTA 2
Rainbow Six: Siege
The Witcher III: Wild Hunt
Shadow of the Tomb Raider
Power Draw & Temperature
For temperature testing, we use a thermal logger that capture per second readings from our VRM. Our logger captures the temperature of the VRM arrays with the left array as VRM1 and upper array as VRM2. Our 15-minute split load puts continuous load on our CPU with 5-minute in-between.
User Experience & Conclusion
There will clearly be a divide on which side of the fence users will be on when buying a B660 motherboard. In most cases, it will be the mainstream, budget audience rallying on the B660 side while the higher-end market focusing on the Z690. While anyone capable of buying a Z690 board may fully understand what they’re getting into, B660 buyers will mostly be utilitarian and will usually fall in the “I just need this to game” category and there’s nothing wrong with that. Motherboards like the ROG Strix B660-F GAMING WIFI address a segment of the market intently focused on maintaining a gaming PC for a good while, and thus providing a good return of investment over time.
ASUS and many other board makers do offer DDR4 options for B660, but that’s not something we’re going to talk about here. The ROG Strix B660-F GAMING WIFI sticks to its guns, and they are quite premium. This does make it difficult to communicate the actual value of the board when viewed thru the lens of value of features but regardless, the same can be said for many top-end Z690 boards.
For the most part, the ROG STRIX B660-F GAMING WIFI is a set-it-and-forget-it-solution. As long as you got all the parts, its going to run and its going to run very well. ASUS tunes this board to not gimp even a 12900K so that speaks a lot about the capabilities of this board. Other than that, its prohibitively not that expensive as well barring the platform cost itself, but as a motherboard alone, it justifies itself enough to pull off a decent price while serving as a creme’ de la creme’ of B660 board standards.
Ultimately, its hard to find fault in the ROG STRIX B660-F GAMING WIFI. Its a complete motherboard for building a foundational gaming PC and aside from the excessive expectations I already have for Z690 motherboards, on daily use with this board, you’ll never miss out anything.
ASUS backs the ROG Strix B660-F GAMING WIFI with a 3-year warranty. I give it my B2G Recommended Seal and a B2G Silver Award!