0-20k Please suggest a good motherboard for intel i5 12400f.

[joy.das.jd]

As the title suggests pls suggest a good motherboard for intel i5 12400f. Budget is around 12k.
The things that i am looking for in the board is

1. SPDIF port to connect my soundbar ( i have an old ASUS XONAR DG soundcard. It's PCI and i doubt modern motherboard comes with PCI slot. If PCI slot is there then even better)

2. Onboard WIFI & BT. or else a M.2 (key E)

 

[OMEGA44-XT]

I bought Gigabyte B660M DS3H AX for 10.5k from a small seller like 9 months ago, it is more expensive these days. This one's VRM is enough for i5 12400, not for anything more, like upcoming i5 13400.

MSI B660M Pro A WiFi was 15k or lower, has much better VRMs as well. Check it out to see if it meets your requirements.

IMO cheaper to buy a WiFi mobo than to buying WiFi card later (those USB dongles will give latency issues, talking about PCIe ones).

 

[joy.das.jd]

I bought Gigabyte B660M DS3H AX for 10.5k from a small seller like 9 months ago, it is more expensive these days. This one's VRM is enough for i5 12400, not for anything more, like upcoming i5 13400.

MSI B660M Pro A WiFi was 15k or lower, has much better VRMs as well. Check it out to see if it meets your requirements.

IMO cheaper to buy a WiFi mobo than to buying WiFi card later (those USB dongles will give latency issues, talking about PCIe ones).

I have heard good things about the MSI one. But it's damn expensive at the moment. Cost is approx 17-18k. Way much more than my budget.

 

[OMEGA44-XT]

Still 15k, maybe you are looking at DDR5 version:
https://mdcomputers.in/msi-pro-b660m-a-wifi-ddr4.html

 

[singenaadam]

I have heard good things about the MSI one. But it's damn expensive at the moment. Cost is approx 17-18k. Way much more than my budget.

I bought a MSI B660M Pro wifi model last month - offline. Inbuilt wifi is better, I used to connect thru' a dongle earlier.

Gigabyte comes in with a USB-C at the rear, MSI one doesn't have that., other than that, I found MSI a bit better than the Gigabyte in terms of ports. A few extra ports will always be nice to have.

It was ~14k.

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While SPDIF headers are built into most MoBos, dedicated SPDIF-out is not usual. You can have a look at this: Asus TUF MoBo. There is no Wi-Fi though.

 

[joy.das.jd]

I bought a MSI B660M Pro wifi model last month - offline. Inbuilt wifi is better, I used to connect thru' a dongle earlier.

Gigabyte comes in with a USB-C at the rear, MSI one doesn't have that., other than that, I found MSI a bit better than the Gigabyte in terms of ports. A few extra ports will always be nice to have.

It was ~14k.

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While SPDIF headers are built into most MoBos, dedicated SPDIF-out is not usual. You can have a look at this: Asus TUF MoBo. There is no Wi-Fi though.

Thanks for your suggestion. but how do you get the SPDIF out from these headers? I was unable to get the required connector from it last time. And the ones that are available are for insane prices. Any recommendation as to where i might get the connector?

 

[singenaadam]

No immediate idea, you would need to search. It was an observation while reading a few MoBo set-up user manuals. Sometimes these non-regular items carry a heavy carrying cost which they take from us.

 

[Panda]

I have "Asus TUF GAMING B660M PLUS D4" and its the best motherboard that I have bought till date. The BIOS is great and WiFi works out of the box even in Linux (huge surprise TBH).

It has optical out too. I know its out of your budget.

Here is a tier list where you can find the board that you need.

Google doc link: All 300 Motherboard Feature Set and General Use Tier List For Intel Z690, H670, B660, H610, and AMD X570, B550, A520 Buildapc edition.
sauce:

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/syu5tp

 

[joy.das.jd]

I have "Asus TUF GAMING B660M PLUS D4" and its the best motherboard that I have bought till date. The BIOS is great and WiFi works out of the box even in Linux (huge surprise TBH).

It has optical out too. I know its out of your budget.

Here is a tier list where you can find the board that you need.

Google doc link: All 300 Motherboard Feature Set and General Use Tier List For Intel Z690, H670, B660, H610, and AMD X570, B550, A520 Buildapc edition.
sauce:

https://www.reddit.com/r/buildapc/comments/syu5tp

Thanks for the link.

 

[FlyingVadapav]

I bought Gigabyte B660M DS3H AX for 10.5k from a small seller like 9 months ago, it is more expensive these days. This one's VRM is enough for i5 12400

Hey dude, I have the same MoBo minus the WiFi. How are your VRM temps?

During a stress test in OCCT (20 minutes) The VRM's hit 72°C with the CPU package at 60°C. I have the Lian Li 216 case with two huge 200mm fans for intake and one 120mm bfor exhaust.

 

[OMEGA44-XT]

Hey dude, I have the same MoBo minus the WiFi. How are your VRM temps?

During a stress test in OCCT (20 minutes) The VRM's hit 72°C with the CPU package at 60°C. I have the Lian Li 216 case with two huge 200mm fans for intake and one 120mm bfor exhaust.

In long gaming sessions (1hr+), with a tower-style air cooler (AK400), I see VRMs at 75-80C with CPU package temp averaging at 55-60C. With stock Intel cooler, VRMs were cooler while gaming (65-70C). I didn't stress test it for long, but temps were 80C for 5-10mins of Cinebench. IMO even 90C during long stress test is fine as most people won't run their CPU at 100% load continuously.

 

[FlyingVadapav]

In long gaming sessions (1hr+), with a tower-style air cooler (AK400), I see VRMs at 75-80C with CPU package temp averaging at 55-60C. With stock Intel cooler, VRMs were cooler while gaming (65-70C). I didn't stress test it for long, but temps were 80C for 5-10mins of Cinebench. IMO even 90C during long stress test is fine as most people won't run their CPU at 100% load continuously.

Cool! I have the Deepcool 400V2 Blue CPU cooler. While playing Overwatch at 30°C ambient temp. the CPU is averaging at 54°C and the VRM at 69°C. Comparing this with your results, I guess this is pretty normal.

The stock cooler temps were abysmal for me at 80°C while gaming and 100°C while stress testing. I reseated that cooler 3 times but the results were the same. I probably broke one of the mounting mechanisms on the cooler.

PS: I power limited my CPU to 65°C when I switched to the Deepcool 400V2.

 

[OMEGA44-XT]

Cool! I have the Deepcool 400V2 Blue CPU cooler. While playing Overwatch at 30°C ambient temp. the CPU is averaging at 54°C and the VRM at 69°C. Comparing this with your results, I guess this is pretty normal.

The stock cooler temps were abysmal for me at 80°C while gaming and 100°C while stress testing. I reseated that cooler 3 times but the results were the same. I probably broke one of the mounting mechanisms on the cooler.

PS: I power limited my CPU to 65°C when I switched to the Deepcool 400V2.

With stock cooler, my CPU was running over 80C in few CPU intensive games like R6 & FIFA 23. Surely stress testing with no power limits would take it to 95C easily, but for gaming 80C was fine. FIFA 23 was actually pushing temps close to 90C, hence decided to buy the air cooler.