B660 Motherboard Pricing Listed, Significantly Cheaper Than Z690

Courtesy of a premature listing, we now have our first look at board pricing for some of Intel's upcoming B660 chipset motherboards from MSI (via @momomo_us). The models listed include the B660M Mortar, B660M Bazooka, and B660M-A featuring much lower prices than most motherboards equipped with Intel's flagship Z690 chipset. This should make building a cheap Alder Lake system much easier on the budget, with budget-friendly B660 motherboards coming as an option in the near future.

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MSI B660 Motherboard Pricing - Without Tax
Model:PricePrice Converted to USD:
MSI Mag B660M Mortar WiFi DDR4186.87 Euros$211.42
MSI Mag B660M Mortar DDR4172.14 Euros$194.75
MSI Pro B660M-A WiFi DDR4162.32 Euros$183.64
MSI Mag B660M Bazooka DDR4155.44 Euros175.86
MSI Pro B660M-A DDR4148.29 Euros167.77

The listing includes three micro-ATX offerings from MSI, including the Mortar, -A, and the Bazooka. The B660M-A DDR4 is the cheapest board of the bunch at $167.77, while the B660M Mortar WiFi DDR4 is the most expensive at $211. 

The low prices can be attributed to B660's large reduction in connectivity options compared to its higher-tiered Z690 brethren. B660 motherboards are limited to just a single PCI-e Gen 5.0 interface on the primary x16 slot and take a large hit to USB port connectivity and DMI lanes routed between the CPU and chipset, which have been reduced from eight lanes to four.

Intel cut the total number of PCIe 3.0 and 4.0 lanes and SATA 3 ports for B660 in half compared to Z690 motherboards. As a result, B660 has just six 4.0 lanes, eight 3.0 lanes, and four SATA 3.0 ports. Intel also cut the USB ports down significantly to just two USB 3 20Gbps ports, four 10Gbps ports, and six standard USB 3.0 5Gbps ports. Like the PCIe lanes, this means USB 3 connectivity is roughly cut in half for B660 boards compared to Z690 offerings. USB 2.0 connectivity is the only part of B660 that wasn't significantly downgraded, with a reduction from 14 ports to 12.

But for most people, B660 should have more than enough connectivity for standard use cases like gaming or basic work environments where mass connectivity isn't a concern. Most importantly, it also cuts down on motherboard prices and gives customers a lower barrier to entry for building a new Alder Lake system.

Despite B660's competitively low prices, there are DDR4 Z690 motherboards on the market that are as cheap as $180. But there are often a lot of sacrifices to reduce the pricing of these types of motherboards, such as cutting features and sometimes connectivity, especially around the rear I/O.

With B660 motherboards, we can expect more features and possibly more connectivity options for the same price as Z690's cheapest options, especially when it comes to audio. The only thing you'll be missing out on with B660 is CPU overclocking support, but with how cheap the power delivery systems are on sub-$200 Z690 motherboards, you probably wouldn't want to overclock on those boards anyway. You can overclock the memory to your heart's content, though. 

With prices ranging from $167 to $211 for MSI's B660 motherboards, there's a good chance these prices are representative of most future B660 boards from all of Intel's partners. We hope to see some DDR5 options and PCIe Gen 4-only motherboards in the future, which could drive the cost down into the $120 range.

Aaron Klotz
Contributing Writer

Aaron Klotz is a contributing writer for Tom’s Hardware, covering news related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.

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  • korekan
    is this supposed to be the entry level or what?
    Reply
  • King_V
    korekan said:
    is this supposed to be the entry level or what?

    I was about to ask the same question.... it could be because I'm a cheap SOB, or but these don't seem like "entry level" prices at all.
    Reply
  • larkspur
    H610 is entry-level.
    The microATX Mortar and Bazooka variants are typically aimed at gamers and are comparable to the B550 microATX Mortar and Bazooka variants. Looking at current prices from PCPartPicker for the AMD equivalents, the Intel versions of these are theoretically cheaper if the prices listed hold up. I would also expect the AMD boards listed below to come down in price. These are the current prices though:
    The B550m Mortar Wifi is actually more expensive @$227
    The B550m Bazooka is also more expensive @$222
    The B550m-A Pro is much cheaper @$91
    Of course none of that really matters right now. We'll need to wait and see street prices when the Intel boards actually release. Keep in mind PCIe 5 isn't cheap to implement.
    Reply
  • Alvar "Miles" Udell
    We hope to see some DDR5 options and PCIe Gen 4-only motherboards in the future, which could drive the cost down into the $120 range.

    PCIe 4 yes, but until late next year at the earliest will it be beneficial from a budget perspective to have DDR5.
    Reply
  • Co BIY
    Comment counts on articles don't seem to be updating? And many articles lack comment fields when first issued ?

    I look forward to the reviews of these boards.

    I would really like a technical article on what a "chipset" actually is. How many chips ? How many have to be sourced from Intel and how many from third parties. Are the chips being increasingly consolidated ? If so is that consolidation why Intel skipped H670 ?

    DDR5 boards could be cheaper now since the Memory Power Control hardware is now on DIMM. But they require better traces and that actually raises costs ?
    Reply
  • VforV
    korekan said:
    is this supposed to be the entry level or what?
    King_V said:
    I was about to ask the same question.... it could be because I'm a cheap SOB, or but these don't seem like "entry level" prices at all.
    Not only are these expensive, but they also lack CPU OC-ing features. You can only OC the memory, not the CPU as opposed to AM4 motherboards, the B450s/550s where you can.
    Scummy intel as usual. Pathetic.

    The only thing you'll be missing out on with B660 is CPU overclocking support, but with how cheap the power delivery systems are on sub-$200 Z690 motherboards, you probably wouldn't want to overclock on those boards anyway.
    Just look at that reasoning for a missing feature! LMAO, this is the pinnacle of journalism. Making excuses for a **** product.

    I got my MSI B450M Mortar Max for $120 and it's one of the best motherboards of it's generation with top of the line VRM, especially good VRMs that I can put and also OC any Ryzen CPU of any generation and it will also support the upcoming Zen3D with ease...

    This kind of shilling that this article promotes is absolutely disgusting.
    Co BIY said:
    Comment counts on articles don't seem to be updating? And many articles lack comment fields when first issued ?
    It's an issue for some time now and frankly I'm not sure it's not a deliberate "issue"...
    Reply
  • Co BIY
    VforV said:
    Co BIY said:
    Comment counts on articles don't seem to be updating? And many articles lack comment fields when first issued ?

    It's an issue for some time now and frankly I'm not sure it's not a deliberate "issue"...

    Possibly although I don't see how that could be advantageous. It also seems random, some missing the comment threads/prompts, some with no count but a thread.

    Also Reviews don't get posted to the "Front Page" which seems crazy to me.
    Reply