Final Words & Conclusion

Final Words 

A lot can be said and stated about Z690 versus B660, but for a B series motherboard, you'll get plenty of features as long as you do not plan to tweak your processor a lot. BTW you can still tweak it, but with a different approach. That said, any non-K model processor will be absolutely brilliant on B660. Even the 200 USD Core i5 12400 processor hauls ass in gaming performance. The Mortar on the other end has a sophisticated power phase design, you could add in a Core i9 12900 processor just as well and be done with it. So what will you be lacking with B660 then? Well, tweaking support, most manufacturers will drop PCIe 5.0 support in favor of PCIe 4.0, and then the interconnect bandwidth is halved from x8 towards x4 lanes. That latter one however still is a PCIe Gen 4.0 bi-directional link, which will offer the chips a truckload of bandwidth. So really, even with B660, you're 95% there for all your common needs and requirements. I mean sure, 5 M2 slots are nice, and multiple Ethernet links as well, but do you really need it? The tradeoff as such can be nicer, this motherboard is expected to retail just over 200 USD, pair it with the Core i5 12400 as shown today and you'll still be amazed by the performance. The caveat, however, will be DDR5 memory, it's hard to get and thus expensive, making the platform overhaul perhaps too expensive. Being on the lookout for a DDR4 board would be my advice.

DDR5 Memory

Memory compatibility should not and likely will not be an issue as long as you stick to QVL supported DIMMs. The sweet spot will be 5200 MHz DDR5 CL40. The more expensive kits will reach CL38. Check out Corsair's, TeamGroup, and G.Skills offering to start with, as they'll have impressive stuff to offer. Nice to see is the new XMP 3.0 profile support. Manufacturers can apply three SPD profiles with more minor changes like latency. Then, the end-user can store another two profiles, so you can tweak that memory and store it directly into the DIMM profiles. Support for this is announced but not yet implemented. 

Overclocking

The Core i5 12400 / B660 cannot be overclocked in its traditional sense. But of course, you can always tweak a thing or two. All cores to its max multiplier of 44 will help you get there. Also, you should not forget the long-duration power consumption that you can enable for the processor. if that PL2 state of 117 can be extended from say 57 towards 400 seconds, that's where you'll see again in performance for long-duration threaded application runs.

The conclusion

The vast majority of budget-conscious do-it-yourselfers will consider the B660 chipset. In comparison to the Z690, it lacks the ability to overclock the CPU but retains the ability to overclock the RAM. But go max on the all-cor, and extend the PL2 limit to max, and there you'll see a big tweak. Due to the 4x speed advantage of the DMI link over the Z690 or H670, board manufacturers are unlikely to provide more than two or three M.2 slots. Although there are fewer USB ports, they are still plentiful. B660 appears to have a specification set that will fulfill the market's lion's share. You can use a high-performance CPU like the Core i5 12600K and any GPU you like, together with a fast NVMe SSD or two or more hard disk drives for storage. We anticipate that premium B660 boards will be more expensive than entry-level Z690 boards, particularly those equipped with a robust VRM, enough heatsinks, and Wi-Fi 6E. Always keep this in mind. Additionally, the motherboards offer technologies such as 2.5 GigE ports and WIFI6E (AX) network solutions, ensuring that you're prepared for something truly fast and future-proof. Overall, the platform felt stable and refined; we can't add anything else here because that is a true fact. MSI has created an attractive product here; nonetheless, the price tag will be the deciding and driving factor. However, as a platform motherboard, the Mortar checks all the appropriate boxes and is well-built.

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