Which budget motherboard for a 13600K?

[laptopnoob678]

Hi everyone,

I bought a 13600K and I'm not sure which motherboard to get for it

 

I do know I want the cheaper B660M chipset and DDR4 though.

 

I watched this video here

 

 

 and it seems like the MSI Pro B660M-A is the best, but unfortunately it doesn't allow updating the BIOS without a supported CPU (which I don't have)

 

Also, I've always been a laptop user so I didn't even know VRM was a thing that mattered, or that motherboards could limit CPU performance

 

So which is the best motherboard I can get that will allow me to update the BIOS and support the 13600K, and not limit performance?

 

The CPU cooler is a Deepcool AK620 WH and the case is a Corsair 275R Airflow if that matters

 

Thanks

[RONOTHAN##]

B660 Gaming X in any of its variants (ATX, mATX, WiFi, non-WiFi, and any combination of those) is probably your best bet then. Solid VRM, BIOS flashback (or more accurately Gigabyte's version called "Q-Flash"), and a pretty good feature set. The B660M-A Pro does have the better memory topology if you want to run high speed DDR4, but at the same time if you're gonna be getting a high enough speed kit to where it would make a difference (>3600MT/s), you really should be going for a kit of DDR5 instead anyway, so that doesn't really matter. 

[laptopnoob678]

34 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

B660 Gaming X in any of its variants (ATX, mATX, WiFi, non-WiFi, and any combination of those) is probably your best bet then. Solid VRM, BIOS flashback (or more accurately Gigabyte's version called "Q-Flash"), and a pretty good feature set. The B660M-A Pro does have the better memory topology if you want to run high speed DDR4, but at the same time if you're gonna be getting a high enough speed kit to where it would make a difference (>3600MT/s), you really should be going for a kit of DDR5 instead anyway, so that doesn't really matter. 

Thanks!

 

Is it worth paying a little extra £20/$30 for the ATX version of the mATX?

 

I will have 2 sticks of RAM (3200 or 3600) and 2 NVMe SSDs and a 6800 XT in it

[RONOTHAN##]

28 minutes ago, laptopnoob678 said:

Is it worth paying a little extra £20/$30 for the ATX version of the mATX?

 

It's mostly just an aesthetic difference, so it's up to you. The ATX revision does have a couple extra things (an extra M.2 slot and slightly better rear audio from the looks of it), but nothing whether the aesthetic difference and the ability to run 3 NVMe drives instead of 2 is worth the extra money. I probably would spend it, but that's more because I like really big cases where mATX boards look really out of place than for anything else. 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

Well if you can make sure that pro b660m-a has an updated bios or you are willing to use a cheap bios programmer like the ch341a + some dupont male to female jumper wires to flash the bios chip via the jtpm header (its an spi header, pinout can be found here) then sure save a few $

 

1 hour ago, RONOTHAN## said:

B660 Gaming X in any of its variants (ATX, mATX, WiFi, non-WiFi, and any combination of those) is probably your best bet then. Solid VRM, BIOS flashback (or more accurately Gigabyte's version called "Q-Flash"), and a pretty good feature set.

Only one available on us pcpp is the crappy b660m gaming x, doesnt even have a rear usbc when boards this pricerange have a typec on the rear i/o

[RONOTHAN##]

2 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Only one available on us pcpp is the crappy b660m gaming x, doesnt even have a rear usbc when boards this pricerange have a typec on the rear i/o

How is it "crappy"? It doesn't have a Type C, sure, but it's got a decent amount of type A, and who actually uses rear Type C anyway? It's a relatively solid VRM, a decent price, a pretty decent feature set all things considered. Only boards in that price range that have the Type C (again, waaaay down on the priority list IMO) either are lacking BIOS flashback so it's a lot more annoying to get a 13th gen chip to work in them, have a pretty weak VRM, or both. 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

18 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

How is it "crappy"? It doesn't have a Type C, sure, but it's got a decent amount of type A, and who actually uses rear Type C anyway? It's a relatively solid VRM, a decent price, a pretty decent feature set all things considered. Only boards in that price range that have the Type C (again, waaaay down on the priority list IMO) either are lacking BIOS flashback so it's a lot more annoying to get a 13th gen chip to work in them, have a pretty weak VRM, or both. 

10$ more and you get a z690a pro and im pretty sure that has far beefier vrms

 

Annoying to get working but thats assuming if it dont come with the bios update for 13th gen, also if you are buying in a physical store i think you can get em to update the bios for you, otherwise theres flashing the bios via spi but that one may be a tad tedious cause matching the pinouts between the bios flasher and spi header, third option is with a 12th gen chip but its expensive and again spi flashing is cheaper (<10$) and even lets you crossflash if you want

 

Also has high freq hynix a die (8000+) defeated samsung bdie yet? frame chasers made a vid i think quite a few months ago and showed that 7000c32 ddr5 still performs the same as bdie 4100c15

[laptopnoob678]

I guess I could buy a G6900 and then re-sell it eBay for pretty much the same amount

 

Will be a little bit of hassle but if the MSI Pro is worth it, that could be an option

 

[RONOTHAN##]

7 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Also has high freq hynix a die (8000+) defeated samsung bdie yet? frame chasers made a vid i think quite a few months ago and showed that 7000c32 ddr5 still performs the same as bdie 4100c15

I'd assume so, since A die does the same latency but significantly higher bandwidth than M die does, though haven't yet gotten my hands on A die to test it with (currently trying to source some) and the rest of my 13th gen gear (13700K and Z690 Unify-X) doesn't arrive till tomorrow, so haven't been able to check yet. 

 

12 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

10$ more and you get a z690a pro and im pretty sure that has far beefier vrms

Didn't realize they put it back on sale, could've sworn earlier today it was up at ~$180. Yeah, that does make a little more sense. 

 

13 minutes ago, Somerandomtechyboi said:

Annoying to get working but thats assuming if it dont come with the bios update for 13th gen, also if you are buying in a physical store i think you can get em to update the bios for you, otherwise theres flashing the bios via spi but that one may be a tad tedious cause matching the pinouts between the bios flasher and spi header, third option is with a 12th gen chip but its expensive and again spi flashing is cheaper (<10$) and even lets you crossflash if you want

Odds of it coming with a 13th gen BIOS update are pretty small though, and not everyone lives close enough to a physical store to get one. 

[Somerandomtechyboi]

2 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

Odds of it coming with a 13th gen BIOS update are pretty small though, and not everyone lives close enough to a physical store to get one. 

Hmm yea i should put up a tutorial on spi flashing, havent tried it yet but looks very simple, just match the pinouts between header and programmer and boom now you can flash the bios and better yet you can flash the bios to whatever you want so crossflashing go brrrr

 

Once i get my hands on a working b75/85 or h77/87/97 ill test my crossflashing shenanigans to flash a z series bios and overclock on a non oc chipset, heck it might even work on these newer platforms though i will not test that for quite awhile cause still no money from flipping pc parts

[laptopnoob678]

I looked up the Z690-A Pro here and it's quite a bit more. £200 compared to the B660M GAMING X which is £130

I don't care about a USB-C port, so other than that, am I going to experience other issues?

 

Can I trust that the CPU performance won't be limited by the motherboard? I don't think I'll be overclocking it any time soon

 

Also there's the AX version which is a little more expensive, but it seems like that is just the same thing with wifi

[clockcycle]

Personally, I went with the MSI Pro Z690-P since I already have a gen 12 to post and update the BIOS with.