Intel's H670, B660 and H610 chipsets are rumored to launch in January 2022. However, hardware leaker momomo_us provided us with a sneak peek of the specifications for the trio of unreleased chipsets.
H670, B660 and H610 motherboards will arrive in DDR5 or DDR4 flavors, similar to flagship Z690 products. If you plan to overclock your processor, the more expensive Z690 route is the only option, though. Memory overclocking, however, is spread across the Z690, H670 and B660 chipsets. Unfortunately, the H610 chipset lacks that capability, meaning consumers are stuck with the default memory speed supported on Alder Lake.
Meanwhile, PCIe 5.0 support, which comes from the Alder Lake processor, is present on all four chipsets. Nevertheless, it's important to mention that not all vendors will slap PCIe 5.0 support on their Intel 600-series motherboards. For Z690 and H670 motherboards, you can expect to find one or two PCIe 5.0 expansion slots. A single slot runs at 1x16, whereas dual slots will drop to a 2x8 configuration. B660 and H610 motherboards, on the other hand, are limited to one PCIe 5.0 expansion slot. Alder Lake provides four PCIe 4.0 lanes for M.2 storage, and only the H610 chipset lacks this functionality.
Intel doubled the DMI connection's throughput on Alder Lake. While previous generations of Intel processors had an x8 DMI 3.0 pipeline (7.88 GBps) to the chipset, Alder Lake enjoys an x8 DMI 4.0 pipeline (15.66 GBps). According to momomo_us' information, this is true for the Z690 and H670 chipsets. The B660 and H610 chipsets are restricted to an x4 DMI 4.0 connection. A narrower DMI interconnection obviously constrains the number of connectivity options on B660 and H610 motherboards.
H670, B660 and H610 Specifications
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Z690 | H670 | B660 | H610 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Memory | DDR5 / DDR4 | DDR5 / DDR4 | DDR5 / DDR4 | DDR5 / DDR4 |
| CPU OC | Y | N | N | N |
| MEM OC | Y | Y | Y | N |
| CPU PCIe 5.0 | 1x16 / 2x8 | 1x16 / 2x8 | 1x16 | 1x16 |
| CPU PCIe 4.0 | 1x4 | 1x4 | 1x4 | - |
| DMI 4.0 Lanes | 8 | 8 | 4 | 4 |
| PCIe 4.0 | 12 | 12 | 6 | 0 |
| PCIe 3.0 | 16 | 12 | 8 | 8 |
| USB 3 (20G) | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| USB 3 (10G) | 10 | 4 | 4 | 2 |
| USB 3 (5G) | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 |
| USB 2.0 | 14 | 14 | 12 | 10 |
| SATA 3.0 | 8 | 8 | 4 | 4 |
In terms of high-speed IO (HSIO), Z690 delivers 12 PCIe 4.0 lanes and 16 PCIe 3.0 lanes. H670 features a 12+12 setup, while B660 has a 6+8 configuration. H610, however, only supplies eight PCIe 3.0 lanes. Motherboard vendors have the freedom to play around with the connection options.
Connectivity-wise, the Z690 chipset is the most generous, offering up to four USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C (20 Gbps) ports, 10 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports, 10 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps), and 14 x USB 2.0 ports. Logically, the remaining chipsets will arrive with a reduced number of USB ports. H610 is the only chipset that won't come with USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C ports.
Conventional storage options also vary between the different chipsets. Z690 and H670 come equipped with up to eight SATA III ports, while B660 and H610 are down to four ports. Unless you have a lot of secondary storage drives or plan to run a RAID array, four SATA III ports should suffice for regular users.
