Finally some good news for any folks out there trying to build a PC on a budget. An accidental early listing has given us a look at how much the upcoming line of Intel’s B660 chipset motherboards are going to be, and the prices didn’t even make me cry a little.
Once again, we have the reputable leaker momomo_us on Twitter to thank for this new glimpse into what could be a new, more affordable PC gaming future. The account shared some of the early specs for cheaper Alder Lake mobos, and now shares the listings for some of MSI’s range of Intel’s B660 motherboards which range from as cheap as €148.29 up to €186.87, which is great news for anyone looking to dip their toes into Alder Lake.
In the tweet, the prices are shared in an image, but here it is in text form to make it a little easier.
MSI Mag B660M Mortar WiFi DDR4 — €186.87 Euros
MSI Mag B660M Mortar DDR4 — €172.14 Euros
MSI Pro B660M A WiFi DDR4 — €162.32 Euros
MSI Mag B660M Bazooka DDR4 — €155.44 Euros
MSI Pro B660M A DDR4 — €148.29 Euros
Currently if you’re building an Alder Lake PC you’re using a Z690 board, like the ASRock Z690 Taichi. Good Z690 mobos absolutely pack a bunch of features in, but they also lean on the more expensive side thanks to this. Even the cheaper (relatively speaking) MSI MPG Z690 Carbon Wifi motherboard isn’t really cheap. MSI’s upcoming Godlike is going to be one epic example of an absolutely not cheap Alder Lake board, so it’s nice to see the B660s priced so reasonably.
This is going to pair especially well with one of Intel’s new lower powered 12th gen chips coming up soon. The i5 12400 is looking particularly special for a budget CPU, and momomo_us even leaked prices for these for us just recently too.
B660s are quite stripped down when it comes to connectivity options when you compare them to a Z690 board. There’s only one PCIe Gen 5 slot, for example, but for most gamers it’s still more than enough, and there are far fewer sacrifices than other budget options. Cheap PCs seem possible again, all you’d have to do is find a graphics card, somehow.