Two months ago, on November 4, 2021, Intel officially released the 12th generation Core Alder Lake processor, which is the first desktop processor to use Intel's 7 process process (10nm), with IPC performance increased by 19%, bringing unprecedentedly powerful single-core performance, while gaming performance is also significantly ahead of all other models of processors.
However, within 2 months of the 12th generation core listing, only high-end K/KF series models and Z690 motherboards were available on the market. For players who do not overclock, or when paired with a non-K processor, it is clear that the mid-range B660 motherboard is more suitable.
In the early morning of January 5, 2022, Intel officially released the non-K series version of the 12th generation Core, including the much-anticipated i5-12400 processor, along with the B660 motherboard.
From the specification point of view, this is not at all like a mid-range motherboard. It has a power supply scale of up to 14 phases, and is equipped with titanium inductors and 60 current DrMOS, has a full-size PCIe 4.0x16 slot and 2 M.2 SSD interfaces supporting PCIe 4.0 technology, and the network is a combination of 2.5Gbps wired network card + Wi-Fi6E wireless card.
What is even more rare is that the MAG B660M MORTAR WIFI mortar motherboard also provides a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C interface with a transmission rate of up to 20Gbps.
Second, the picture appreciation: 12 +1+1 phase 60A power supply circuit + dual PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSD interface
Kingston FURY Beast DDR5 5200MHz 16GB*2 strip, measured to easily overclock to 5800MHz C36.
This is the real box of the motherboard.
Motherboard back.
MAG B660M MORTAR WIFI motherboard power supply scale far exceeds the previous MAG motherboard, 12 + 1 + 1 phase power circuit design, each phase is equipped with a titanium inductor and a DrMOS with a conduction current of 60A, can output more than 400W of power, even if equipped with i9-12900K there is no problem.
VrM heat sinks are made into fins, which can increase the heat dissipation area.
The motherboard has a total of 2 full-size PCIe x16 slots, the upper one is CPU straight out, the support specification is PCIe 5.0x16; the following one is provided by the B660 chipset, only support PCIe 3.0x4.
There is also 1 PCIe 3.0x1 slot and 2 M.2 2280 interfaces supporting PCIe 4.0 x4, and 2 M.2 interfaces are covered with heat sinks.
4 DDR5 DIMM slots, support DDR5 6400MHz+, single maximum capacity of 32GB, support up to 128 GB of memory.
There are four EZ Debug LED indicators on the right side of the motherboard's 24Pin slot, representing the CPU, memory, graphics card, and boot device. When the computer fails and cannot be booted normally, the corresponding LED indicator will light up to tell you which part is the problem.
Back I/O interface, 1xDP, 1xHDMI, 4xUSB 2.0, 3xUSB 3.2 Gen 2, 1xUSB 3.0 Gen 2x2 20GbpsType-C, 2.5Gbps network port, 2x Wi-Fi antenna port, 5*3.5mm, 1x optical audio port.
fittings.
Third, BIOS introduction: equivalent to the Z690 that adjusts the CPU multiplier
After clicking "Fan Information" on the main interface to enter the fan setting page, we can see that a total of 2 4Pin CPU fans and 2 4Pin chassis fan interfaces are designed for a total of motherboards.
Each of the four fans can be individually programmed based on the CPU, MOS, motherboard, or chassis internal temperature.
Press F7 to enter advanced mode.
The advanced mode interface provides the CPU, chipset, power supply, storage, network, USB interface and other motherboard function adjustment functions.
Launch the settings interface.
Above 4G option capable of supporting AMD SAM and NVIDIA Resizable BAR technologies.
The OC interface can adjust the CPU multiplier (only downscaling, not overclocking), memory frequency, CPU and memory voltage, and so on.
In the professional OC operation mode, there will be an additional option for digital voltage settings, which can be set to prevent fallout voltage and various overclocking protection strategies.
Memory controller, support Gear 1, Gear 2 and Gear 4, for DDR5 memory, try to choose Gear 2 mode.
Voltage setting interface.
In "Memory Try It! The frequency and timing of DDR5 memory can be directly selected, and the current maximum can be up to 6400MHz, and subsequent BIOS updates will support higher frequencies.
Memory timing settings interface.
Anti-drop pressure setting, for i5-12400, with the default anti-fall pressure rating is good.
Fourth, performance test: DDR5 easily overclocked to 5800MHz C36
1. Memory overclocking test
We used the Kingston FURY Beast DDR5 5200MHz 16GB*2 socket for memory overclocking testing,
This memory has 2 sets of XMP parameters, namely 4800MHz 38-38-38-70 and 5200MHz 40-40-40-80, the former voltage is 1.1V, the latter voltage is 1.25V.
When XPG 4800MHz 38-38-38-70 is turned on, the read, write, and copy bandwidths of the memory are 69353MB/s, 68229MB/S, and 66531MB/s, respectively, while the memory latency is 85.7ns.
When XPG 5200MHz 40-40-40-80 is enabled, the read, write, and copy bandwidths of the memory are 73173MB/s, 73158MB/S, and 70711MB/s, respectively, and the memory latency is reduced to 82.6ns.
We directly overclocked the memory to 5800MHz, timing 36-38-38-77, and adjusted the voltage to 1.4V, and the system can run stably after setting.
The measured memory read, write and copy bandwidths were 81413MB/s, 81114MB/s, and 79243MB/s, respectively, but the latency was greatly reduced to 74.3ns, which was more than 11.4ns when it was 4800MHz C38.
2. i5-12400 roaster test
Using the AIDA64 FPU for the grill, after 9 minutes, the processor has a voltage of 1.064V, a full-core frequency of 4.0GHz, a power consumption of 75W, and a temperature of only 51 degrees.
V. Summary: It is not impossible to carry the i9-12900K
Unlike the previous B460 and B560, the biggest benefit of the B660 motherboard is that it can support memory overclocking, and you can set the frequency and timing of the memory as you want.
The DDR5 memory that operates at the 5800MHz C36 Gear 2 is no less than or far exceeds the DDR4 3600C14 Gear 1. Of course, with the subsequent popularization of DDR5 memory, MSI MAG B660M MORTAR WIFI motherboard can also support higher frequency DDR5 memory.
In addition, the 2.5Gbps wired network card plus the Intel AX210 Wi-Fi6E wireless network card is basically the best network combination that the B660 motherboard can use.
In fact, for players who do not like toss, the B660 is not only the best car for the 12th generation i5, even if it is equipped with i9-12900K, it will not be much weaker than the Z690.