Gigabyte’s B660I Aorus Professional DDR4 goals to be the ITX answer of alternative for these in search of a compact B660-chipset baord. However priced at $245.99 (opens in new tab) as of this writing, it’s the costliest B660 Mini ITX motherboard accessible. It’s arguably the best-looking board of the bunch, and it has built-in RGBs, which its rivals lack. However appears and lights apart, Asus’ ROG Strix B660-I Gaming WIFI checks off a couple of extra bins and prices much less.
The B660I Aorus Professional DDR4 implements a surprisingly strong VRM, with 90A MOSFETs, together with 4 SATA ports, a single M.2 socket, 2.5 GbE and built-in Wi-Fi 6. In all, it’s a reliable and full Mini ITX motherboard, however an costly one which emphasizes aesthetics over extra substantive options.
On the efficiency aspect, the B660I Aorus Professional DDR4 did effectively general, however had some struggles in sure assessments. It did effectively in our Procyon Workplace testing, however the Picture and Video Enhancing assessments had been on the slower aspect of common, together with the x264 a part of Handbrake. Outdoors of that, efficiency was common amongst its DDR4-based friends, together with gaming and reminiscence bandwidth assessments. General, you’d be hard-pressed to discover a distinction in most assessments with out wanting on the benchmarks.
We’ll dive into the board’s full function set and efficiency under. Spoilers although: As you might need guessed if you happen to’ve learn this far, this board doesn’t earn a spot on our greatest motherboards. However earlier than we delve into the complete particulars of the B660I Aorus Professional DDR4, right here’s an inventory of its specs, direct from Aorus.
Specs: Gigabyte B660I Aorus Professional DDR4
| Socket | LGA1700 |
| Chipset | B660 |
| Type Issue | ITX |
| Voltage Regulator | 10 Part (8+1+1, 90A SPS MOSFETs for Vcore) |
| Video Ports | (1) HDMI (v2.0) |
| (1) DisplayPort (v1.4) | |
| USB Ports | (1) USB 3.2 Gen 2 Sort-C (10 Gbps) |
| (1) USB 3.2 Gen 2 Sort-C (10 Gbps) | |
| (4) USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) | |
| (2) USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) | |
| Community Jacks | (1) 2.5 GbE |
| Audio Jacks | (2) Analog + SPDIF |
| Legacy Ports/Jacks | ✗ |
| Different Ports/Jack | ✗ |
| PCIe x16 | (1) v4.0 (x16) |
| PCIe x8 | ✗ |
| PCIe x4 | ✗ |
| PCIe x1 | ✗ |
| CrossFire/SLI | ✗ |
| DIMM Slots | (2) DDR5 6200+(OC), 64GB Capability |
| M.2 Sockets | (1) PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) / PCIe (as much as 80mm) |
| U.2 Ports | ✗ |
| SATA Ports | (4) SATA3 6 Gbps (Helps RAID 0/1/5/10) |
| USB Headers | (1) USB v3.2 Gen 1, Sort-C (5 Gbps) |
| (1) USB v3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) | |
| (1) USB v2.0 (480 Mbps) | |
| Fan/Pump Headers | (3) 4-Pin (CPU, Watercooling CPU, System Fan) |
| RGB Headers | (1) aRGB (3-pin) |
| (1) AURA RGB (4-pin) | |
| Diagnostics Panel | ✗ |
| Inside Button/Swap | ✗ |
| SATA Controllers | ✗ |
| Ethernet Controller(s) | Intel I225-V (2.5 Gbps) |
| Wi-Fi / Bluetooth | Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 (2×2 ax, MU-MIMO, 2.4/5/6 GHz, 160 MHz, BT 5.2) |
| USB Controllers | Through Labs VL817-Q7 |
| HD Audio Codec | Realtek ALC897 |
| DDL/DTS | ✗ / ✗ |
| Guarantee | 3 Years |
Contained in the Field of the Gigabyte B660I Aorus Professional DDR4
Gigabyte features a few equipment together with the board. You get the Wi-fi Antenna, an RGB extension cable, SATA cables, and extra. My overview pattern didn’t include a driver disk/USB stick. If yours arrives the identical means, get the drivers from the web site. Beneath is the complete checklist of included equipment.
- (2) SATA 6Gb/s cables
- (2) 4-pin to 4-pin fan adapters
- RGB extension cable
- Wi-Fi antennas
- M.2 SSD screw packages
- Consumer guide
Design of the B660I Aorus Professional DDR4
After eradicating the tiny board from the field, we get a better have a look at a number of the design parts. The B660I Aorus Professional has a 10-layer black PCB with a matte end. The VRMs, chipset and M.2 socket get cooled by three heatsinks linked by a warmth pipe. Like many Aorus Z690/B660 motherboards, the heatsinks are all a contrasting grey colour, together with some design parts and the Aorus branding on the M.2 portion of the heatsink. Beneath the precise edge are a number of RGB LEDs that produce a shiny glow. General, it is a handsome board and the one one on this class with RGBs.
With bigger boards, we break up the function dialogue into halves, however since there isn’t a definite prime and backside right here, we’ll cowl the options transferring clockwise across the board. The left VRM heatsink is as tall because the rear IO plate, which covers a lot of the left aspect. On prime is a required 8-pin EPS to energy the CPU, whereas subsequent to it’s one (of three) fan headers.
Shifting proper, previous the highest VRM financial institution, are two extra 4-pin fan headers. Nonetheless, these are smaller to avoid wasting house and require the included 4-pin to 4-pin adapters to suit commonplace fan connectors. Every header helps PWM and DC followers, with output as much as 2A/24W.
The VRMs are, by far, essentially the most strong we’ve seen on a B660 ITX board. Whereas not essentially the most by part rely, Gigabyte used 90A SPS MOSFETs on this board, similar to the Z690I Aorus Extremely Plus. Some will have a look at this as a very good factor, and in some methods it’s. Nonetheless, utilizing overkill energy elements on a platform that doesn’t assist overclocking the processor simply drives up the worth. So, kudos to Gigabyte, however that is seemingly the principle purpose why competing boards price much less. That mentioned, energy comes from the 8-pin EPS connector to a Renesas RAA229130 controller and onto eight 90A Intersil ISL99390 SPS MOSFETs. The 720A accessible is loads to energy our Intel Core i9-12900K.
We spy two unreinforced DRAM slots to the precise, with latching mechanisms on either side. Gigabyte lists assist for 64GB at speeds as much as DDR4 5333(OC). The board ran each kits (DDR4-3600, DDR4-4000) with out challenge. Simply watch out to not slip off the underside locking mechanism. I did that, and the entrance panel headers punctured my finger.
Alongside the precise edge, working our means down, we run into the 24-pin ATX connector to energy the board, plus 4 SATA ports (supporting RAID0/1/5/10 with sharing). Beneath this are two USB headers, a Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Sort-C and Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Sort-A. Disappointingly, this board doesn’t have a 20 Gbps port as its lower-prieced rivals do. Additionally on this space is a 4-pin RGB header for extra RGB lighting. Beneath that’s the entrance panel header, together with a USB 2.0 header.
Alongside the underside edge is the full-length bolstered PCIe 4.0 x16 slot. The audio codec (Realtek ALC897) and a few Chemicon model audio caps are to the left. The audio part right here is dated, however most ought to discover it ample. Additionally on this space is the entrance panel audio header (white) together with the 3-pin ARGB header.
The rear IO space sports activities a pre-installed IO plate matching the Aorus theme (black and grey). The black background offers strategy to Aorus branding and labels for the ports in a darkish grey. Whereas it’s good these are labeled, the darkish grey doesn’t distinction as a lot as white, so the legends are troublesome to learn, particularly in low-light conditions.
In complete, there are eight USB ports: One USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Sort-C, one USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps), 4 USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) ports, and two USB 2.0 (480 Mbps) ports. Seven Sort-A ports must be sufficient for many customers–particularly these constructing a compact PC. Video outputs for the iGPU consist of 1 HDMI and one DisplayPort. You’ll additionally discover the Intel-based 2.5 GbE port and the Wi-Fi 6 antenna connections right here. To entry the Q-Flash performance (BIOS flashing with no CPU), there’s a tiny button between the video outputs and USB ports. Final right here is the audio stack, consisting of two analog plugs and an optical SPDIF port.
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