MSI is set to launch a new B660 motherboard. Why mention it when there are already a hundred or more B660 boards on the market? This is configured to include an external clock generator. This means that you should be able to happily overclock your 12th generation Alder Lake processors with a locked base clock.
The news comes from Twitter user chi11eddog (opens in a new tab). via Tom’s Hardware (opens in a new tab) with a post showing a still unreleased MSI motherboard. The MAG B660M Mortar Max WiFi DDR4 includes a Renesas external clock generator that will allow BCLK overclocking on non-K CPUs. This is a big problem. The board will also include PCIe 5.0 and DDR4 support. These features are configured to make this board a very smart choice for users looking to build a high-performance system at an affordable price.
Right now, if you want Intel’s best-performing CPU, you’ll have to pay a lot. An i9 12900K (opens in a new tab) will allow you to return the amount of about $ 600 (£ 580 / AU $ 850). If you combine it with a high-end GPU, you will have an excellent gaming system. But with the overclocking of the base clock, you can grab something like one of our favorite CPUs, the i5 12400 (opens in a new tab) or the i5 12400F 6C / 12T processor without PGI and overclock it to over 5.0 GHz and enjoy almost every gaming performance from a much more expensive CPU. For reference, the i5 12400 sells for less than $ 200 (£ 100 / AU $ 300). You could even go with an i3 or a Pentium if you have a tight budget.
The inclusion of an external clock generator allows the base clock to be decoupled from other system bus clocks. This allows you to increase the CPU clock without interfering with other devices. At 100 MHz, everything is designed to work in harmony, but as it goes beyond that speed, other devices, such as PCIe and SATA devices, will stop working, causing the system to crash.
We’ve talked about BCLK overclocking in the past. It has been shown to work (opens in a new tab). I’ve personally tried it on an Asus Maximus Z690 Apex, but this is a high-end board and one of the few expensive boards that includes an external clock generator. It is unlikely to pair a high-end board with an economical CPU, which has so far relegated the locked OC CPU to hardcore overclockers only.
More than a few old-school players will remember the days of taking locked multiplier chips and overclocking them to iconic performance levels. It was a great way to get top notch performance without spending a lot. But in recent years, overclocking has become a single high-end “feature.” This MSI board should recover some of that frugal overclocking spirit.
The WiFi MSI MAG B660M Mortar Max mostly includes DDR4 support, so you’ll save a lot of money compared to the still high cost of good quality DDR5. Combine the board with a good set of DDR4-3600, an i5 12400F and you have the core of a very powerful and affordable little system. Overclock it to 5.2 GHz, choose your GPU and you should be a happy gamer.
If and when MSI launches this board, we’ll look for a sample and look forward to testing it. An overclock of 12400 vs a 12900K in a series of games seems like an interesting little experiment!