MSI might launch first Intel B660 DDR4 motherboard that supports BCLK overclocking

[Tudor Cibean]

Why it matters: If the MAG B660M Mortar Max WiFi DDR4 launches at a decent price, it could become the new value champion as it'll allow non-K Intel CPUs to be overclocked without having to use expensive DDR5 memory.

According to a new leak, MSI might soon release the MAG B660M Mortar Max WiFi DDR4 motherboard with an external clock generator made by Renesas.

A few months ago, der8auer discovered that motherboards with an external clock generator unlock BCLK overclocking of Intel's non-K (locked multiplier) Alder Lake CPUs. With the right settings, even a Celeron G6900 could be overclocked from 3.4 GHz to over 5.3 GHz.

#MSI MAG B660M MORTAR MAX WIFI DDR4#B660M
PCIe Gen5 clock generator from Renesas
BCLK OC = MSI OC Engine
DDR4😉 pic.twitter.com/7l24NFN4yT

— chi11eddog (@g01d3nm4ng0) May 27, 2022

The problem is that, up until now, all motherboards equipped with such a chip supported only DDR5 memory, which is still far too expensive to pair with a budget CPU.

The MAG B660M Mortar Max WiFi DDR4 changes that, as can be inferred from its rather-lengthy name. Another advantage of the external clock generator is that it adds PCIe 5.0 support for the first expansion slot, something all of the other B660M Mortar models lack (confusingly, there are already four variations out with DDR4/DDR5 and each with/without WiFi).

Pricing for the board is currently unknown, but the non-Max version can currently be had for $160. The only other B660 motherboards that are known to support BCLK overclocking are the ASUS ROG Strix B660-G Gaming WiFi and the B660-F Gaming WiFi, both of which cost over $200 and require significantly more expensive DDR5 memory.

In our B660 motherboard roundup, we found that the vanilla B660M Mortar WiFi has a very good VRM for its price class. That means the new Max version could become a great budget option as you could overclock your non-K CPU today and have the option to upgrade to something more powerful next generation.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/94755-msi-might-launch-first-intel-b660-ddr4-motherboard.html

 

[Kam7r]

I remember overcloking Pentium or Pentium 2 on B440bx motherboards like this... it was a shitty way to do it, coz so many things could go wrong, like very wrong... I don't know if it's still the case, but if yes, I humbly advise you to really think about it... if things are now less "dangerous" then ignore my post.

 

[hahahanoobs]

It's cool if you like messing around with overclocking, but nothing I'd ever touch.
Even with official OC'ing support it's almost not worth doing with X and K SKU parts, let alone with unofficially supported budget parts. I only do it, because it stays below 1.275v under heavy load using PBO2, Curve Optimizer, +200MHz and a -30 negative offset to get 4.85GHz. 4.65GHz in CB20 and CPU-Z and 4.85GHz in a few games.

 

[Lew Zealand]

This seems tailor made for the i5-12400, taking an already very good CPU which has lower clocks than its more expensive brothers, and giving it the option to clock up to match them.

If I was in the market for another PC, I'd buy this combo. Easy decision.

 

[AlaskaGuy]

This seems tailor made for the i5-12400, taking an already very good CPU which has lower clocks than its more expensive brothers, and giving it the option to clock up to match them.

If I was in the market for another PC, I'd buy this combo. Easy decision.

This ^^

 

[Vanderlinde]

I remember overcloking Pentium or Pentium 2 on B440bx motherboards like this... it was a shitty way to do it, coz so many things could go wrong, like very wrong... I don't know if it's still the case, but if yes, I humbly advise you to really think about it... if things are now less "dangerous" then ignore my post.

Overclocking is considered dead if you dont play with exotic cooling such as going subzero (vapochill, dryice, LN2 etc). The reason why is that CPU's these days can simply choose the most optimal clock depending on workload, temperature and power consumption.

There was a company named Silicon lottery that would "bin" the best clocking CPU's and sell them at a price stake. It's useless now since both AMD and Intel both bin their CPU's even better. If you overclock a CPU these days you can get some margin on multithread or all core overclock at the expense of single thread speeds / clocks. thats what it comes down to.

 

[Kosmoz]

This seems tailor made for the i5-12400, taking an already very good CPU which has lower clocks than its more expensive brothers, and giving it the option to clock up to match them.

If I was in the market for another PC, I'd buy this combo. Easy decision.

Although I like AMD more, I do agree with this.

12400 with this MB from MSI and a nice 5Ghz+ OC would nullify the entire Alder Lake lineup in gaming, at bargain pricing.

I would buy it too if I needed a new PC, which I don't.

The only major issue I have with intel now is their **** design flaw that bends all Alder Lake CPUs under then IHS shield after a few months and you also loose about 10 degrees cooling efficiency. That is pathetic and unacceptable.

Especially for an OC-ed CPU, that is very very bad.

 

[Kam7r]

Overclocking is considered dead if you dont play with exotic cooling such as going subzero (vapochill, dryice, LN2 etc). The reason why is that CPU's these days can simply choose the most optimal clock depending on workload, temperature and power consumption.

There was a company named Silicon lottery that would "bin" the best clocking CPU's and sell them at a price stake. It's useless now since both AMD and Intel both bin their CPU's even better. If you overclock a CPU these days you can get some margin on multithread or all core overclock at the expense of single thread speeds / clocks. thats what it comes down to.

I know , I meant overclocking by FSB or BCLK as we call it now , overclock the Pcie ports and Ram too, you should understand where the problems can come from, at the time you could kill even you "gpu" like this coz it messed up the frequency of the agp port itself ... and don't worry I know well that OCing these days are close to useless

 

[DukeJukem]

This seems tailor made for the i5-12400, taking an already very good CPU which has lower clocks than its more expensive brothers, and giving it the option to clock up to match them.

If I was in the market for another PC, I'd buy this combo. Easy decision.

I've similar thoughts. If my budget allows it I'd be putting a 12600 non k in there since it's their best chip that doesn't include e-cores and has a better igpu than the 12400 for quicksync things if you need it. The only "overclocking" I want is the ability to remove all power limits and to manually set the clock speeds to the cpus' advertised max boost speed and never let it fall below that clock speed unless it thermal throttles. If this board provided me the ability to run a 12600 at 4.8 ghz all core 24/7 I'd be satisfied but I've found my request/needs to be hard to achieve unless I buy a high end board which I find very....stupid.