b660 or b760

[Lunhex]

hello,
i want to buy a new pc (time to replace my 4790)...
assuming the shop that i will buy from will update my bios, i dont know what to pick, yeah obviously the newer is better but it a bit more complicated...
Gigabyte B760M GAMING X DDR4 
or
Asus TUF GAMING B660M PLUS D4  (not wifi)
the Asus is 10$ higher, i guessing that if the Asus was b760 it was a no brainer... 

i will have 13600k (i won't OC, i just wanted the new architecture, and i really liked that the 13600K is very stably at stock...)
thanks.

[Dukesilver27-]

There are only 2 choices?

Assuming your shop would update the BIOS for you, my suggestion would be MSI PRO B660M-A, or MSI MAG B660M Mortar. They are among the best B660M boards, especially the PRO one, very good value.

If only between the 2, just pick whichever has the features you need, they're both good boards.

13600K is not that power hungry enough that it will need the best VRM coolers.

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

4 minutes ago, Lunhex said:

hello,
i buy new pc (time to replace my 4790)...
assuming to shop that i buy from will update my bios, i dont know what to pick, yeah obviously the newer is better but it a bit more complicated...
Gigabyte B760M GAMING X DDR4
or
Asus TUF GAMING B660M PLUS D4

the Asus is 10$ higher, i guessing that if the Asus was b760 it was a no brainer... 

i will have 13600k (i won't OC, i just wanted the new architecture, and i really liked that the 13600K is very stably at stock...)
thanks.

The ASUS B660 has the advantage of having PCIe Gen 5 vs the Gen 4 16x slot on the Gigabyte B760. Though there would not be any advantage at this time as GPUs don't even saturate the full PCIe 4 bus yet. 

 

One thing to note that if you do go for a 13600k, you'll likely need to do a BIOS update for that B660 board and it doesn't seem like that ASUS board doesn't have BIOS flashback so you'll need a 12th gen CPU in order to flash the BIOS. 

[RONOTHAN##]

The chipset itself doesn't really matter that much, what matters is how the boards are actually implemented. Both of these boards are very similar, with only some minor differences between them. The ASUS board, for instance, will likely have better memory support than the Gigabyte board (Gigabyte's DDR4 memory topology on B660/Z690 was terrible and there's no reason they would've gone and fixed it for B760/Z790), while the Gigabyte board is cheaper and has features like BIOS Flashback. Unless you were planning on getting a rather high end kit of RAM to run memory speeds like 4000 CL16, I'd save the $10 and go with the Gigabyte board, but if you do want to do some memory overclocking or run anything faster than 3600MT/s CL18 get the ASUS board. 

[Lunhex]

27 minutes ago, Dukesilver27- said:

There are only 2 choices?

Assuming your shop would update the BIOS for you, my suggestion would be MSI PRO B660M-A, or MSI MAG B660M Mortar. They are among the best B660M boards, especially the PRO one, very good value.

If only between the 2, just pick whichever has the features you need, they're both good boards.

13600K is not that power hungry enough that it will need the best VRM coolers.

yes, im from a small country...

[Lunhex]

37 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

The chipset itself doesn't really matter that much, what matters is how the boards are actually implemented. Both of these boards are very similar, with only some minor differences between them. The ASUS board, for instance, will likely have better memory support than the Gigabyte board (Gigabyte's DDR4 memory topology on B660/Z690 was terrible and there's no reason they would've gone and fixed it for B760/Z790), while the Gigabyte board is cheaper and has features like BIOS Flashback. Unless you were planning on getting a rather high end kit of RAM to run memory speeds like 4000 CL16, I'd save the $10 and go with the Gigabyte board, but if you do want to do some memory overclocking or run anything faster than 3600MT/s CL18 get the ASUS board. 

bios flashback is kinda useless for me i think... i only care about performance.
i read that the VRM of asus is 10+1+ and GB is 8+1+1 is that a significant difference? 
again the difference is only 10$... but i also kinda more comfortable with GB because my last 2 MBs was GB... but also the Asus is look wayyy better... really hard decision for me.
i will have 3600 CL 16, do you think that this will be ok?
 

[RONOTHAN##]

9 minutes ago, Lunhex said:

bios flashback is kinda useless for me i think... i only care about performance.

Performance of both boards will be identical, hence why I was talking about other features associated with the board. It's up to you whether you value it or not, personally it's saved me more than once (granted, I was being an idiot when I corrupted the BIOS, so take that for what you will) so I try to get boards that have it if possible, but if you don't think it's important that's fair too. 

 

1 minute ago, Lunhex said:

i read that the VRM of asus is 10+1+ and GB is 8+1+1 is that a significant difference? 

Not really, especially considering how the Gigabyte uses slightly higher end VRM components. Efficiency wise they'll both end up about equal, and they both have pretty decent heat sinks on them so VRM thermals should be within about 10C of each other (practically speaking identical). 

 

5 minutes ago, Lunhex said:

but i also kinda more comfortable with GB because my last 2 MBs was GB

To be fair, brands can make some fantastic boards (my favorite AM4 board, for example, is a Gigabyte board) and then within a year make a terrible board (like most of Gigabyte's Z690 lineup). Just because you've had good experiences with them last generation doesn't mean it will be good this generation. To be clear, this Gigabyte board is fine and should do decently well, but just keep that in mind that you can't reliably think a Gigabyte board will be good or bad, same way you can't for ASUS, ASRock, MSI, etc. 

 

8 minutes ago, Lunhex said:

but also the Asus is look wayyy better...

If you think the $10 is worth the better aesthetics, go for that instead. 

 

12 minutes ago, Lunhex said:

i will have 3600 CL 16, do you think that this will be ok?

If it's single rank you should be OK, if it's dual rank it's about 50/50 whether XMP will enable and be stable on the Gigabyte board, at least without manually manipulating some BIOS settings. The later BIOS updates seem to have gotten it better, but it's still not great with decent timings at 3600. I'd probably be going for the ASUS board if that's the memory kit you've got though. 

[Lunhex]

On 1/10/2023 at 3:11 AM, Dukesilver27- said:

...

 

On 1/10/2023 at 4:05 AM, RONOTHAN## said:

..

hey,
so according to you two, those MB are pretty similar...
but i found another board with same price in my country as them, the MSI PRO B660M-A.
again assuming the shop will update my bios i better take this MB? (instead of the gigabyte ...)
CPU: 13600K
RAM: 3600 CL16

i really rather have native cpu support but if the msi is superior i think i will take the msi...
there are any danger of taking a MB that do not support natively in the 13th gen?

[RONOTHAN##]

48 minutes ago, Lunhex said:

 

hey,
so according to you two, those MB are pretty similar...
but i found another board with same price in my country as them, the MSI PRO B660M-A.
again assuming the shop will update my bios i better take this MB? (instead of the gigabyte ...)
CPU: 13600K
RAM: 3600 CL16

i really rather have native cpu support but if the msi is superior i think i will take the msi...
there are any danger of taking a MB that do not support natively in the 13th gen?

The MSI board isn't really better than the ASUS or Gigabyte, but it's usually the cheapest option. It's got good memory support though. 

 

The only real dangers of getting a board without native 13th gen support are that you'll need to do a BIOS update and that sometimes features like V/F curves are broken if you plan on undervolting. MSI does have broken V/F curves on their boards with 13th gen, but this is a B660 board anyway so it would have issues with undervolting anyway. I wouldn't avoid that board with 13th gen i5s

[Lunhex]

On 1/11/2023 at 8:17 PM, RONOTHAN## said:

The MSI board isn't really better than the ASUS or Gigabyte, but it's usually the cheapest option. It's got good memory support though. 

 

The only real dangers of getting a board without native 13th gen support are that you'll need to do a BIOS update and that sometimes features like V/F curves are broken if you plan on undervolting. MSI does have broken V/F curves on their boards with 13th gen, but this is a B660 board anyway so it would have issues with undervolting anyway. I wouldn't avoid that board with 13th gen i5s

thanks you for your help,
i hope its ok to keep queting you for help, i have another wandering...
i just saw this board GIGABYTE B660M AORUS PRO AX DDR4 in amazon that can ship to me...
its the same price as the Gigabyte B760M GAMING X DDR4 from a shop in my country...

what would you do?

[RONOTHAN##]

4 hours ago, Lunhex said:

thanks you for your help,
i hope its ok to keep queting you for help, i have another wandering...
i just saw this board GIGABYTE B660M AORUS PRO AX DDR4 in amazon that can ship to me...
its the same price as the Gigabyte B760M GAMING X DDR4 from a shop in my country...

what would you do?

It's very similar to the B760 Gaming X, pretty much just the same board but with WiFi and white. I'd be treating it as such for making the decision