The cheapest ASUS board that passed us was the B660-Creator D4 with a price tag of 235 euros. ASUS is known to be a bit more expensive, and we can understand that in part as their bios and software experience is generally just a bit better than the rest. But B660 boards in this segment struggle with mid-range Z690 boards that often go a bit further with features.
Read more @ Tech Testers (Dutch)
Asus Apex motherboards have always been designed specifically for overclocking. The Z690 version is no different and with only 2 DIMM slots, the focus is on maximum RAM performance, both for daily gaming operations and for record hunting with alternative cooling methods. Only here, according to various user reports and also in our tests, there are big differences from board to board, keyword Silicon Lottery.
Read more @ Igor’s Lab (German)
Asus ROG Strix B660-F Gaming WiFi is aimed at gamers who do not need the most powerful “hardware”, but for whom standard modern support for peripherals is important. According to the used chipset B660, it is clear that the board is more designed for mid-range processors, but it works fine even with the top Intel Core processors of the 12th generation. It has 16 USB ports, including 2 USB 3.2 Gen2 and 1 USB 3.2 Gen2×2 Type-C, 7 USB 3.2 Gen1 ports, a PCIe x16 slot connected to the processor by PCIe 5.0 lines, “long” PCIe x4, and 2 PCIe x1.
Read more @ iXBT (Russian)
Aside from the clean minimalistic ‘creator’ look, ASUS has equipped the ProArt B660-CREATOR D4 with 2 x Ethernet ports for connectivity redundancy or connection to a NAS if needed, a handful of USB ports ( 4x USB2, 4 x USB3.2 gen1, 1 x USB 3.2 gen2 Type-C), 3 x M.2 slots with M.2 Q-Latch ease of installation and your high-speed storage needs, and of course, the PCIe 5.0 x16 slot for the upcoming supported devices.
Read more @ Tech Critter
The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme features a powerful 18+2 VRM solution with 20 Texas Instruments power stages rated for 90 A. The jaw-dropping specifications do not stop there, either. Built upon ASUS’s excellent BIOS, the included EZ mode provides an optimal, stress-free experience for configuring the system. The Crosshair VIII Extreme also offers great connectivity with not only WiFi 6E and 10 Gb/s Ethernet, but Thunderbolt 4, and five M.2 slots round out this list. There is just too much to list in a single paragraph. ASUS has even outdone themselves and placed a 2″ LiveDash OLED screen on the motherboard.
Read more @ TechPowerUp
The motherboard has a nice matte-black finish, and you can see and well as feel the excellent overall build quality. There are no diagnostic LEDs or onboard power on/off or reset buttons, but it does come with several large heatsinks located around the processor socket and this helps cool the VRM/Mosfets. There’s also 2 RGB design feature on the right-side of the board (top and bottom) and this is controlled via Asus’s AURA Sync software. For extra RGB confogurations, there’s 1 x 4-pin RGB header and 3 x 3-pin RGB headers.
Read more @ FunkyKit
Connectivity is stacked for an OC-focused platform, PS2 for keyboard mouse, four Gen1 and four Gen2 give plenty of USB 3.2, and an additional USB-C is added on for Gen2x2 connectivity. We have the typical Intel network suite with 2.5Gbe LAN and AX211 for WiFi6e. Audio comes from the ALC4080 from Realtek with a Savitech amplifier.
Read more @ TweakTown
This motherboard is intended for use with 12th generation Intel Alder Lake-S processors. Indeed, we are here on a new LGA 1700 socket and only this generation of motherboard (600 series chipset) is compatible. Thus, we can for example place an i9-12900K , i7-12700K or even the i5-12600K on it to quote the references with unlocked coefficient, but this motherboard will be more suitable for non-K CPUs like the i5-12400 or why not the i9-12900. Although the B660 chipset does not allow CPU overclocking, memory OC is still possible.
Read more @ HardwareCooking (French)
The Asus ROG Maximus Z690 Extreme is packed with various features and an impressive spec list, including DDR5 memory support and Thunderbolt 4. Keep in mind that it’s an extended size, or E-ATX, meaning it’s larger than a typical ATX motherboard and may not fit in all cases. You’ll get an integrated I/O shield, too—no worries about forgetting this step of the build process!
Read more @ PCWorld
Although the Strix B660-A is available with the DDR5 option, we’re looking at the more affordable setup here. The price of DDR4 is significantly lower than its newer cousin, and when coupled to our Intel Core i5-12400 should give you all the performance you require for a good gaming setup that doesn’t bust the bank. You still get all the high bandwidth elements with plenty of USB ports and PCI Express 5.0, just without the outlay.
Read more @ OC3D