Uncertainty regarding the best motherboard choice for a 12400f.
Uncertainty regarding the best motherboard choice for a 12400f.
Hi guys my brother just gifted me a i5 12400f and he want to gift me a motherboard for that cpu and i have big doubts about which one should i get. My options are these: https://www.pccomponentes.com/msi-pro-z690-a-ddr4 https://www.pccomponentes.com/asus-prime-z690-p-d4 https://www.pccomponentes.com/asus-prime-b660-plus-d4 I will pair it with 16gb 3600mhz CL18 memory. I have an gtx 970 right now waiting for rtx 4000 series to upgrade. I have a soundblaster AEx soundcard. I know the z690 its more overclock oriented (for K processors) but i am not sure about de b660 chipset limitations and if worth it to pay like 50€ more for the MSI one. I am using a sata sdd and a hdd and i want to buy 2 nvme ssds in the future. Another doubt i have with these motherboards is that z690 suports pcie 5.0 while b660 doesnt so i am not sure if that can affect future gpu upgrade. Thank you guys. EDIT: MSI one has more usb ports that is an interesting thing.
Consider purchasing a z690 board for its solid VRM design, which prevents thermal throttling of your CPU. The MSI board is a solid choice even for high-end models like the i9 12900k. The B660 board is recommended here: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards-Compon...S-WIFI-D4/
The latest chipsets were just revealed this week. It’s not surprising that supply hasn’t been great yet. You won’t need to worry about anything major—just grab a Z690, but be ready for people to ask why you chose it for your 12400F in the future.
The Asus Prime B660-Plus stands out as a superior choice compared to the Prime H670-plus. It offers faster performance, more internal USB and I/O options, and the same VRM configuration. The B660 supports triple M.2 PCI-E 4.0 slots, matching the H670 in capability, though the H670 provides more PCI-E ports and lanes. Overall, the B660 delivers better value with additional I/O options. The B660 also differs from earlier models, offering less restriction than the H670 while excelling in certain areas. Notably, the Asus Prime H610 VRM appears more robust than other VRMs in this line, including TUF models, and supports 3200MHz memory. For a detailed comparison, see the analysis on the provided link, and consider that modest I/O M.2 NVMe users can get more from mid-range boards like the H610 or B660 if they meet the necessary specifications.
In practice for this generation, it seems to be the opposite compared to previous generations. H610/B660 has been lifted up so much towards the more expensive boards. As long as you choose how much I/O, Lanes you need, there is not reason to get more expensive boards. Heck cheapest Prime H610 has better VRM on paper (64A Mosfets), than all Prime B660/H670 < TUF range (if not all B660/H670 boards period below 160 eur range). And almost all the boards seem to be 4 layers, so yeah. ASUS Prime B660-Plus D4 for 145eur has everything anyone will need feature/port wise until a whole platform switch years down the road. (It has 3x M.2 slots, it has 20Gb/s USB-C 3.2 !!! And any comparable board, like the Asrock DDR5/PCI-E 5.0 + 5.0 NVme boards offer more stuff for probably the same 150 eur range. It's the perfect storm, 12400F is more power efficient than 5600x, H610 boards have beefy heatsinked VRMs (of which comparable ones ran 12/16 core AMD cpus, without over-heating). more than 3200MHz does not give enough benefits, for Alder lake (due to IMC). 12100 beats ryzen 3600, ... Again as i mentioned, the only uncertainty atm is whether MCE and unlocked TDP is supported on H610 boards (specifically the incredible Prime H610M-K, as that will make or break the best-buy option being cheapest H610 or cheapest B660.
The issue with the B660-Plus D4 is this link: https://dlcdnwebimgs.asus.com/gain/a7bfd...7e4//fwebp. H670 provides additional ports on the back of the PC: https://dlcdnwebimgs.asus.com/gain/fb882...e9f//fwebp. Currently I have two USBs for the keyboard, one for the mouse, one for the microphone, one for Xbox wireless, one for charging devices, and I’m considering adding more. I don’t like having USBs on the front because they’re hard to access when I shift positions. Regarding the PCIe, I’m not an expert and want to understand if the B660 can support a future NVIDIA 4000 series, soundcard, and two NVMe drives. I’m also curious about how PCIe lanes function.