Budget 0-20k Recommended B660M Motherboard?

Digigear · Apr 7, 2022

So I'm about to build an intel i5 12400 build and overall the MSI PRO B660M-A WIFI DDR4 Intel Motherboard is the best value for money and the reviews are super favorable. But I've received several warnings from people online and also one vendor who just asked me to stay away from MSI and just go for ASROCK, ASUS or Gigabyte.

I checked out other B660M motherboards and none of the alternatives to the MSI Pro one are close to being as appealing as that one.

So I'm trying to find others who may have purchased it and see what you've got to say.

Please share your experiences and anything else that might help me make a decision about which B660M board to go for.

I like the MSI Pro one becasuse it comes with 2 HDMI and 2 DP ports and also has a nice heat sink for the M.2 slot and has PCI gen4 support on both the m.2 slots. And has a lot of VRM heat sink support. Love all of that and the nice I/O ports on the back.

intruderfps · Apr 8, 2022

There are a few videos out now related to how different B660M motherboards perform. You can check those reviews if you are worried about performance differences (I do not go deep into stuff like these, it only makes the decision difficult for me).
If you are not going to upgrade your cpu in the near future then i would suggest pick a mb based on what feature set you require and whichever has the best/less hassle rma process.

I had built a system around 12400f recently and got the gigabyte b660m ds3h not only because it is cheap but it also has the features I needed. I knew I could have waited for a bit longer for the mb reviews to come out and then decide but in the present situation it works for me. I do not intend to only upgrade the CPU if we're talking about the future. I am planning to upgrade when ddr5 prices get stable (which will be years), and by then I'll have to upgrade mb with ddr5 support anyway. In the meantime gigabyte b660m ds3h is perfectly fine for a cpu like 12400 and i only play games on this system.

I am not trying to give any mb suggestions but another perspective of choosing one based on your needs.

nRiTeCh · Apr 8, 2022

MSI sucks for ASS is pretty true. You can opt for Asus as they are leaders and mfg robust mobos.

Digigear · Apr 8, 2022

intruderfps said:
There are a few videos out now related to how different B660M motherboards perform. You can check those reviews if you are worried about performance differences (I do not go deep into stuff like these, it only makes the decision difficult for me).
If you are not going to upgrade your cpu in the near future then i would suggest pick a mb based on what feature set you require and whichever has the best/less hassle rma process.

I had built a system around 12400f recently and got the gigabyte b660m ds3h not only because it is cheap but it also has the features I needed. I knew I could have waited for a bit longer for the mb reviews to come out and then decide but in the present situation it works for me. I do not intend to only upgrade the CPU if we're talking about the future. I am planning to upgrade when ddr5 prices get stable (which will be years), and by then I'll have to upgrade mb with ddr5 support anyway. In the meantime gigabyte b660m ds3h is perfectly fine for a cpu like 12400 and i only play games on this system.

I am not trying to give any mb suggestions but another perspective of choosing one based on your needs.

Thanks for your inputs.

nRiTeCh said:
MSI sucks for ASS is pretty true. You can opt for Asus as they are leaders and mfg robust mobos.

Personal experience?

Can you share details?

nRiTeCh · Apr 8, 2022

Digigear said:
Thanks for your inputs.

Personal experience?

Can you share details?

Nope but lots of people here and few people outside forum..
I was always scepticalabout msi and gigabyte so never owned any of their products and probably nor will..

yash891 · Apr 10, 2022

Digigear said:
So I'm about to build an intel i5 12400 build and overall the MSI PRO B660M-A WIFI DDR4 Intel Motherboard is the best value for money and the reviews are super favorable. But I've received several warnings from people online and also one vendor who just asked me to stay away from MSI and just go for ASROCK, ASUS or Gigabyte.

I checked out other B660M motherboards and none of the alternatives to the MSI Pro one are close to being as appealing as that one.

So I'm trying to find others who may have purchased it and see what you've got to say.

Please share your experiences and anything else that might help me make a decision about which B660M board to go for.

I like the MSI Pro one becasuse it comes with 2 HDMI and 2 DP ports and also has a nice heat sink for the M.2 slot and has PCI gen4 support on both the m.2 slots. And has a lot of VRM heat sink support. Love all of that and the nice I/O ports on the back.

MSI B660 series motherboards have been universally praised. B660-A PRO has been called the best budget motherboard, and B660M Mortar has also been critically acclaimed due to excellent VRM. The RMA support of Asus is better than MSI but the boards of MSI are simply better than Asus this time. I myself am deciding between A PRO and Mortar for my 12400 based build.

Digigear · Apr 10, 2022

yash891 said:
MSI B660 series motherboards have been universally praised. B660-A PRO has been called the best budget motherboard, and B660M Mortar has also been critically acclaimed due to excellent VRM. The RMA support of Asus is better than MSI but the boards of MSI are simply better than Asus this time. I myself am deciding between A PRO and Mortar for my 12400 based build.

I backed out of the 12400 and went with the 12600k instead. I'm not strapped for budget and I would most certainly appreciate more future-proofing for an added 8k.

I was seriously impressed with the value for money that the 12600k offers. It's up there against the 5800x and even beats it in some metrics.

Plus it comes with the UHD 770, which is somewhat better than the UHD 730.

For the motherboard I got the B660M Mortar wifi. I don't really care too much about overclocking at the moment. The Z690 mobos are too expensive and even the stock 12600k is overkill for my needs at the moment. I'm getting it more for the next few years when that may not be the case. I could slap on a Z690 later if they come down in price, otherwise I probably wouldn't even need it.

yash891 · Apr 10, 2022

Digigear said:
I backed out of the 12400 and went with the 12600k instead. I'm not strapped for budget and I would most certainly appreciate more future-proofing for an added 8k.

I was seriously impressed with the value for money that the 12600k offers. It's up there against the 5800x and even beats it in some metrics.

Plus it comes with the UHD 770, which is somewhat better than the UHD 730.

For the motherboard I got the B660M Mortar wifi. I don't really care too much about overclocking at the moment. The Z690 mobos are too expensive and even the stock 12600k is overkill for my needs at the moment. I'm getting it more for the next few years when that may not be the case. I could slap on a Z690 later if they come down in price, otherwise I probably wouldn't even need it.

Hey, can you share your complete build?

Digigear · Apr 10, 2022

yash891 said:
Hey, can you share your complete build?

#	Component	Brand	Item	Amount (₹)
1	CPU	Intel	Intel Core I5-12600k Desktop Processor	25,000
2	Motherboard	MSI	MSI MAG B660M MORTAR WIFI DDR4 Intel Motherboard	17,000
3	Memory	Crucial	Crucial Ballistix MAX 32GB Kit (2 x 16GB) DDR4 4000 Memory - Black (BLM2K16G40C18U4B)	11,890
4	Storage	Western Digital	WD_BLACK 1TB SN750 SE NVMe Internal Gaming SSD Solid State Drive - Gen4 PCIe, M.2 2280, Up to 3,600 MB/s - WDS100T1B0E	8681.25
5	Cooler	Arctic Freezer	ARCTIC Freezer 34 Esports Duo Tower CPU Cooler with BioniX P-Series case Push-Pull 120 mm PWM Fan for Intel and AMD Socket - Red	3,549
6	Cooler Mount	Arctic Freezer	LGA 1700 Mounting KIt	0
6	Power Supply	ASUS	ASUS ROG Strix 650W Gold Power Supply (ROG heatsinks, Axial-tech Fan Design, Dual-Ball Fan Bearings, 0dB Technology, 80 Plus Gold Certification, Fully Modular Cables, 10-Year Warranty)	8,600
7	Cabinet	ASUS	ASUS TUF Gaming GT301 ATX mid-tower compact case with tempered glass side panel, honeycomb front panel, 120mm AURA Addressable RGB fan, headphone hanger and 360mm radiator support	5,999
8	GPU	ASUS	ASUS TUF Gaming GeForce RTX 3060 Ti V2 OC Edition 8GB GDDR6 with LHR Graphic Card TUF-RTX3060TI-O8G-V2-GAMING	???
	Total		Fully functional build	80,719

If I had to redo this, I would change a couple of things.

1. 650W is enought but I would get at least 750w. But I got the PSU already and at a good bargain too. So not interested in returning. It should work but it is better to have some headroom.

2. I would get the Deepcool Assassin III instead but it won't fit this case, which is also something I had already gotten. So basically I would get a case that offers a much taller CPU cooler clearance (let's say over 180mm or so).

But I got the case at a bargain and also I like it. And the Arctic Freezer should do the job just fine. It's been shown to work great even with like 12900K, although the temps can get a little too hot if pushed to full throttle in hot ambient temps. But should work much more manageable for the 12600k.

Hachune · Apr 10, 2022

I haven't seen benchmarks but is the price difference between 12400f and 12600k (almost 10k) justifiable? Userbenchmark says around 13% improvement. :/

Also, does the B series motherboard support overclock now?

Digigear · Apr 10, 2022

Hachune said:
I haven't seen benchmarks but is the price difference between 12400f and 12600k (almost 10k) justifiable? Userbenchmark says around 13% improvement. :/

Depends on what your budget is and what your needs are. If you're JUST gaming then no. 12400 is quite sufficient. Much better value. But for me gaming is kinda secondary. I code and I have 4 displays and have multiple applications operating simultaneously. Multiple browser windows with multiple tabs, IDE, compiling and VM happening in the background while listening to music etc. Sometimes video rendering too.

Note that for me the difference is between the 12400 (which comes at 17k) vs 12600K because I want the iGPU because:-
1. I don't have a discrete GPU right now.
2. When I do get the discrete GPU I would prefer to connect a couple of my additional displays to the iGPU so that not all of the video output is burdened on my discrete GPU. I believe that could hurt the gaming performance, esp when you have 3 additional displays connected.
4. Having the iGPU alongside the discrete GPU offers added advantage when you're rendering videos because the tasks get divided between the two.
5. In the future if I get more displays than just 4, I can connect upto 6 with my current motherboard (theoretically 8 in total for this cpu, with the right motherboard).

So for me the question of price to performance is 8k, not 10k. And I make my living off my computer and investing 8k more is not a big deal if I'm getting more firepower.

The 12400 is actually quite sufficient for now. But the 12600k would just offer more future proofing for my needs. The 12700k would be overkill and more power hungry. But that might be the better value for someone who has the needs.

Which you get has to ultimately depend on your budget and needs.

Like I said, if you're just gaming the 12400 is the most bang for the buck.

But if productivity is important, the additional performance that the 12600k offers for added 8k is a no brainer.

Hachune said:
Also, does the B series motherboard support overclock now?

It doesn't. Again, this choice has to depend on whether you're actually going to overclock or not. For me, I'm sure that the 12600k is actually overkill for my needs. And i won't need to overclock for a while. I don't find the Z690 boards that appealing at that price point.

By the time I would need a better system i will upgrade to a much higher end system. Probably the Ryzen 7000 series or the one next to that or maybe the next gen of intel. Depending on which is more appealing. At the time i would upgrade my PSU, MOBO and cooler along with the CPU.

But for now this build will serve me well for the next 2 years at least.