Gigabyte B660M DS3H AX DDR4 Unboxing & Overview - Great Budget Intel B660 Motherboard!

[@ALKtech]

UPDATE AS OF 2024: This motherboard now supports Intel's 14th Gen "Raptor Lake Refresh" and 13th Gen "Raptor Lake" processors with a BIOS update available for download from Gigabyte's website! Check out the article version of this overview here: www.alktech.co/articles/gigabyte-b660m-ds3h-ax-ddr4-unboxing-overview

[@arwennstory1013]

have this with i7 12700, works great :)

[@StephenSwargiary]

Any problem till now with heating lagging issues?

[@SuixdeCity]

is there any issues cuz i’m thinking of building a pc with the i3 12th

[@YoungMinistry351]

​@@SuixdeCity did you, if so how did it go?

[@SuixdeCity]

@@YoungMinistry351 no i don’t even have the money for it i was thinking of saving up tho

[@philippechautems5629]

7:26 ''Legacy features surch as DDR4''. I didn't know I was building a retro PC.

[@aitouchiha7112]

As new, unstable and overpriced ddr5 was when this video came out, people make it sound like ddr4 is ancient. There weren't many motherboards available with ddr5 support either, atleast at sensible price. Pretentious fucks.

[@zimizi]

if there is a graphics card in it already which option would be the easiest to add more hard drive space? do i have to remove graphics card to add a second m2 drive to the board? or would you recommend just plug in sata? i dont really wann rip out the graphics card...

[@ALKtech]

Given how big graphics cards tend to be, it's almost a given that you'll have to remove your graphics card to gain access to the second M.2 slot. Adding a SATA SSD drive is one other option, but SATA drives tend to be slower than their M.2 counterparts...

[@mxrko7167]

I even paired this Board with an i7 12700 (non K) Working well for Now. (Needed to change the Bios version for the i7, wasnt that compicated)

[@ALKtech]

Great to hear - what BIOS version did your board ship with, if you wouldn't mind sharing? The 12700 was released alongside the B660 chipset - were you able to boot with the 12700 right outta the box?

[@mxrko7167]

@@ALKtech You wear able booting everything up, but I had to install the Drivera for Wlan and Bluetooth from an other computer. I also saw, that for every CPU there is a different Bios Version you can put on. Still It was able to boot up, but I did NOT have Wlan and Bluetooth out of the Box. I needed to install the drivers first

[@ALKtech]

@@mxrko7167 Oh yes of course - Windows usually wouldn't have the drivers for WIFI and Bluetooth fresh from installation - always good to download the latest ones anyway. Enjoy your new PC build!

[@philippechautems5629]

Have you ran some benchmarks to know if you CPU performs as well as intended ? This is mobo has quite weak VRP and your CPU will perform much better if you put fan that blows air directly on the VRM.

[@mxrko7167]

@@philippechautems5629 I didnt do any Benchmarks yet, but I have 2 Fans topmounted, 3 in the Front (on the two upper fans I have the Radiator for the CPU watercooler) and 1 Fan in the back of the Case. Do you know some fans which I can mount directly at the vrp?

[@АлексейАлексеевич-х4в]

GIGABYTE B660M DS3H DDR4 motherboard network card connector when connecting an Internet cable, only one indicator flashes yellow, the second indicator does not light at all, what is the reason? the Internet is working at the same time

[@parikhasan6]

What is the deference in b660 x gaming vs b660 ax ds3h. And is b660 ax ds3h a gaming motherboard?

[@tonyl9636]

Hello. I appreciate the review I've just put together my first PC yesterday! Super sweet. Can you tell me, does the antenna help with Bluetooth connection? Because I'm unable to play with my Xbox controller because it keeps disconnecting for a few seconds every five minutes. Sorry if it's a dumb question, no clue how Bluetooth works haha

[@ALKtech]

Congrats on your new build - what specs are you running, out of curiosity? That said, the WIFI antenna should indeed help with your Bluetooth signal strength, so I'd recommend using it since you're facing connection issues with your controller. Might be worth checking you have the latest Intel Bluetooth & WIFI drivers installed too.

[@tonyl9636]

@@ALKtech thanks! Im running a 12400f with a 6gb 2060 on a B660 motherboard wifi version. I was playing on an fx8350 and a 1050 ti with a computer I got from a buddy last year and prices are reasonable now so I just went for it and so happy I did. I can finally play elden ring 🤣

[@ALKtech]

@@tonyl9636 nice! Yeap, prices (especially for GPUs) are getting better - a good time to be building a new PC indeed. Enjoy your new rig!

[@tonyl9636]

@@ALKtech thanks I will haha

[@tonyl9636]

@@ALKtech the antenna solved the problem 🙏

[@franzzzy4627]

Hello, I bought this mobo but is it okay to use 2 NVME M.2 SSDs? Can this affect negatively to the performance of my PC? I am still new to PC building. Thanks.

[@ALKtech]

Absolutely - its totally fine to use both slots concurrently for 2 NVMe SSDs, you won't experience any performance issues. What SSD(s) are you intending to use with this board, out of curiosity?

[@franzzzy4627]

@@ALKtech Thank you for answering! Well, I am planning to buy either the TForce Cardea Z44L or Samsung 980. I like your contents tho, hope to see more of these. Thanks again.

[@ALKtech]

@@franzzzy4627 no worries, thanks for the kind words. Hope you'll have a great PC building experience!

[@massfusion]

Sold my i5 7400 can’t wait to upgrade to the 12100f with this board but the non wifi version

[@ALKtech]

Nice - actually why not wait till Jan 2023, where the lower-end 13th Gen Raptor Lake Core i3 parts should be launched? Prices for the 12100F may drop post-announcement too!

[@software2171]

i have this mobo with Cooler Master K501L, 12v RGB header is not working have any settings available in Bios on/off rgb light

[@ALKtech]

Just to check, have you tried using the RGB Fusion app to enable the RGB device connected to the header?

[@software2171]

@@ALKtech tnx for your reply, i resolved open and closed the front cabinet door

[@Badlama18]

How do you use the wifi

[@_Potato_]

I’m really new to pc building and I got a 1tb nvme and I was planning to get more storage later. Do I just install the other ssd without a heat sink?

[@ALKtech]

No worries, it's perfectly fine to install the second M.2 SSD without a heatsink. Heatsinks for M.2 SSDs are a good-to-have if anything - depending on what brand and model of M.2 SSD that you purchase, some brands may even include stick-on heatsinks as part of the included accessories for their M.2 SSDs. Hope this helps!

[@Jorqan6]

Would this work with tye i5 12400 and xfx radeon rx 6700 swft?

[@ALKtech]

It'll work great with such a combo!

[@enfantterrible4868]

Are screws provided? I want to buy this board, but i'm so stupid that i sold my old one with the screws. Or do the screws come with a Case?

[@ALKtech]

Hello, are you referring to the motherboard mounting screws? If so, motherboards do not come with such screws - however, if you're buying a new case, the new case should come with motherboard mounting screws included, so you don't have to worry. Hope this helps!

[@notdozo8192]

For the rev 1.2 boards, where would you download the wifi drivers?

[@ALKtech]

Head over to Intel's website to download the latest drivers under the Download Center>Intel WIFI 6E Products!

[@waltinho2000]

It seems to me that it does not support a gpu with 3 fans, there are sata connectors in the direction of the pci-e

[@ALKtech]

It's been awhile since I've last handled this board, but I believe there should be sufficient clearance from the SATA port stack for a full-length graphics card...manufacturers tend to factor this in when designing boards! Happy to hear from other folks who own this board if this is indeed the case!

[@burgir9029]

@@ALKtech ye i have a 3 fan 3060 from asus and it blocks a ton of stuff on this mobo a 2 fan gpu wont probably block this stuff tho

[@tanmeshnayak4774]

Is le500 240mm liquid cooler good with this ?.. please reply

[@ALKtech]

It should work fine with this board! What processor will you be using?

[@dusanstepovic4116]

Hey will it be problem to run 2 ssds on this motherboard, kingston's(on a cpu 1tb ) and on a chipset 250gb?

[@ALKtech]

Are these drives NVMe M.2 SSDs? If so, you'll be fine. The board's M.2 slots do not support SATA M.2 SSDs!

[@dusanstepovic4116]

@@ALKtech 2 nvme m.2 kingston ssds one of 1tb and one of 250gb, im planning to put them on board

[@ALKtech]

@@dusanstepovic4116 yup they'll work just fine, as long as they're NVMe!

[@moc_yt]

Can I use this motherboard with Intel I7 12700F + RTX 3070? Will there be bottleneck? Usage type: Gaming only

[@ALKtech]

Yes you can, the 12700F will pair up nicely with a RTX 3070 for gaming. Do note to ensure good airflow for your case, seeing as the B660M DS3H AX DDR4 doesn't come with beefy heatsinks for its VRMs!

[@moc_yt]

@@ALKtech 3 fans in front, 2 above, 1 back & i7 12700f stock cpu cooler. Is that enough?

[@ALKtech]

@@moc_yt The case fan setup seems good - if you have extra budget, I'd suggest upgrading the stock CPU cooler if possible to a tower cooler instead!

[@moc_yt]

Plz Suggest me one. I'll use stock cooler for 2-3 months then I'll upgrade.

[@ALKtech]

@@moc_yt I recently did a review of the ID-COOLING SE-226-XT and really liked it - not sure if it's available where you are but you could check the coolers from ID-COOLING out!

[@Mew-Raptor]

Do I need a ethernet cable or can this motherboard connect to wifi wireless

[@ALKtech]

This board comes with built-in WIFI and can also connect to the internet via a wired Ethernet connection!

[@Mew-Raptor]

@ALKtech I have the same one and I've tried almost everything and the wifi won't work

[@ALKtech]

@@Mew-Raptor is the WIFI adapter detected within Windows? Are you facing issues with connecting to a wireless network?

[@Mew-Raptor]

@ALKtech no never I fixed it all I did was download the amd wifi drivers and it worked thanks man

[@synaxedits]

Does this support i5 12400f out of the box? without bios update?plz tell me 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

[@ALKtech]

Yes it should have support for the 12400F right out of the box!

[@LiegeMaximo]

@@ALKtech an i512400 non F?

[@ALKtech]

@@LiegeMaximo it should support the non-F out of the box too!

[@LiegeMaximo]

@@ALKtech great. ill be going for the non wifi version as its cheaper and i doubt ill be using wifi much [ might just buy a wifi card if i ever want to] or do you think i should go for this AX version? its around 25-30$ more.

[@ALKtech]

@@LiegeMaximo if you already have a wired internet connection readily available where your PC will be placed, I see no need to get the AX version - you could always buy a PCIe WIFI/BT card or USB dongle further down the road, which might even be cheaper than the $25-$30 you mentioned!

[@alysperia]

great vid gonna pair this with a i5-13600KF just needed to know if it had rgb/argb headers and an io shield which it does so im defo gonna be picking this up

[@NoName-nn8lj]

Does it work properly?

[@geraldh.8047]

@@NoName-nn8ljextremely unlikely to work properly, the b660m ds3h cannot handle the power draw of a 13600k.

[@Decimus_owns]

I dont think the VRM design of this board is terrible per se, what is causing the VRM overheating is the lack of the second VRM heatsink. Such a shame Gigabyte haven't included it and cheaped out. For reference, I do own this board and i5-13600KF. When running Cinebench R23 multicore, I was scoring something around 17 500 points. Which is of course terrible. Throughout the test, CPU was dropping wattage and GHZ like crazy, even to 60W. Needless to say, I was rly disappointed with the results. Tried every single setting/power limit option in a BIOS, nothing really helped. I was about to buy another board, but told myself i need to try one more thing. Bought a quite chonky SSD aluminum heatsink off aliexpress (70x22x20mm) and a thermal heatsink plaster glue (both of these costed me like 6 dollars in total). I glued the heatsink on the exposed row of VRM and let it dry for 24 hours. After that, I tried Cinebench again. It worked like a charm! Now I'm scoring around 22 600 points, some tests are even approaching 23 000 mark. Massive step up from 17 500 points. Wattage/GHZ is no longer dropping during the test. So yeah, just wanted to say with a little modding this board can be salvaged to perform quite nicely. Ofc this process will likely void the warranty, however I dont rly mind lol. @@geraldh.8047

[@geraldh.8047]

@@Decimus_ownsThat's a great modding tip. What exactly did you glue this on? The small chips at the very top of the board, above the 5 silver blocks?

[@Decimus_owns]

@@geraldh.8047 Yeah exactly, i glued it onto the small chips (VRMs) at the very top of the board. The heatsink i bought fits there perfectly. I even glued it (from the side) to the 5 silver blocks - for better stability. It’s holding there really well and it looks nice too. Thermal glue is strong as hell haha. Also safe to use, it's not electrically conductive However i made sure the heatsink is not touching the big capasitors on each side. Now with everything set on stock (auto) in BIOS, i5 13600kf is pulling constant 160 watts in Cinebench R23 multicore. No more VRM overheating. Though I didn‘t mess with BIOS power limit settings since the heatsink mod, because I am quite happy with the cinebench scores now.

[@nicemarex5]

is it possible I use one graphic card two m.2 pcie and 1 HDD on this board?

[@ALKtech]

Yes you can! The board comes with two M.2 slots and four SATA III ports.

[@nicemarex5]

@@ALKtech it will have enough lane right I use i5 12400f Thx man!!

[@ALKtech]

@@nicemarex5 yup it will, no worries on that!

[@drumkid8395]

im planning on getting this motherboard along with an intel core i5 12400f and rtx 3060 combo, would this be a good combo for gaming?

[@ALKtech]

This combo would work great for a mid-range 1080p gaming rig!

[@drumkid8395]

@@ALKtech thanks! :)

[@AshokKumar-ry7pz]

Very nice information for me (I am Indian)

[@Prometheus574]

Actually for the pricing, Amazon SG sell much lesser than Sim Lim Square at SGD, not USD.

[@kiranbabu5206]

Gigabyte b660m gaming ddr4 or b660 Ds3H ddr4 which one is best ?

[@ALKtech]

Is there a price difference between both boards where you're from? The B660 DS3H DDR4 is an ATX board, while the B660M GAMING DDR4 is a micro ATX board - the DS3H has a better VRM setup than the GAMING, but the GAMING has 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet versus normal Gigabit Ethernet with the DS3H. It'd really depend on the pricing of both boards, and which features that you value the most.

[@TopGun2478]

hi just wanted to know if this is an MATX mobo?

[@ALKtech]

Yes it is!

[@TopGun2478]

@@ALKtech thank you

[@eprohoda]

broth, how you doiing?~like, nice sharing!📹

[@Valid1168]

Is this compatible with rgb fans?

[@ALKtech]

Yes it is - the board comes with a 5v aRGB header and a 12V RGB header as highlighted in 6:20 of the video. For example, you can hook your fans to an aRGB fan hub if you have multiple fans, and connect the fan hub to the aRGB header on the board!

[@tawaf5744]

can i use it with 13400 after 1-2 years i'll add a 8gb gpu purpose : productivity, mid level gaming , server hosting

[@ALKtech]

Yeah it'll handle a 13400 and its integrated graphics just fine, till you get a discrete graphics card in the future! Just gotta make sure you've got the latest BIOS installed on this board so that it'll support 13th Gen CPUs such as the 13400.

[@adarshshah23]

Gigabyte B660M DS3H AX DDR4 Wifi OR Asus prime B660M-A D4 Motherboard Which is better for i5 12400f And rx6600 Gpu.

[@ALKtech]

Is there a price difference between both boards? The ASUS board that you mentioned does not have built-in WIFI - the B660M-A WIFI D4 model has built-in WIFI, so you may want to take note of that. In any case, I would say that both boards (the versions with built-in WIFI) are very similar to each other, and I'd probably make a decision based on which motherboard turns out to be the cheapest!

[@adarshshah23]

@@ALKtech Both are at same price 4 to 5 dollar difference but gigabyte comes with wifi and asus prime don't But in amazon reviews of gigabyte motherboard is not good some says that it crashesh when xmp turned on? And will it handle the load of i512400f and rx6600 gpu will it vram can easily handle it & give full performance (gigabyte motherboard)

[@ALKtech]

@@adarshshah23 I see, do you need WIFI? If not, the ASUS might be the better pick of the two, at least based on VRM performance alone, although not by much - there's a great budget B660 motherboard article by Techspot which compares the VRM performance of ASUS and Gigabyte B660 boards, along with several other motherboards too, which could make for good reading to help you in the decision making process. Ultimately, given that the i5-12400F isn't that power hungry a processor, a 12400F+RX 6600 combo should do fine without any bottlenecks in both boards. Hope this helps!

[@JacobSkatezz]

I just got mine today and it has this black substance on the motherboards idk what it is its supposed to be a brand new motherboard I posted a KZbin short can anyone tell me what it is and if it's supposed to be there or how to get it off if it's not?

[@ALKtech]

I can't really tell that there's a black substance from the short that you posted - the board actually looks okay from what I see. Have you tried rubbing it off with a paper towel or something?

[@bo55lob42]

Does it work out of the box with the i3-12100F?

[@ALKtech]

Yes it does!

[@bo55lob42]

@@ALKtechThank You!

[@vevvvvv]

Does the mobo support 3600mhz ?

[@ALKtech]

Yup it supports DDR4 3600 memory if that's what you're referring to!

[@tiago_carvalho777]

Does this card support the i5 12600?

[@ALKtech]

Yes it does!

[@georgesmith5201]

It technically does, but it doesn't run it at full frequency. It's a bad combination, but it works fine for the i3-12100

[@ALKtech]

​@@georgesmith5201 are you facing thermal throttling issues with a similar setup?

[@adarshshah23]

@@georgesmith5201 and with i5 12400f and rx6600 will this Motherboard Run at full frequency?

[@matifeder]

I5 13400f 3060 12 Gb Twin Zotac 2x8 Hyperx Fury beast 3200mhz 1tb nvme m.2 kingston nv2 B660M DS3H AX DDR4 GIGABYTE - [1700] DDR4 M-ATX 750w 80+ Gold RM750E Corsair Full Modular Dk360+3 fan rgb Cooler s21 argb white Darkflash Is OK?

[@ALKtech]

Yup this seems like a decent set of specs if you're intending to build say, a 1080p gaming PC. Do note that you'll need to do a BIOS update first before this motherboard will support the 13400F!

[@4q4]

Is it better than asus prime b660 plus?

[@ALKtech]

The ASUS board you are referring to is full-sized ATX and does not have built-in WIFI, so it won't be a direct apple to apple comparison. That said, both boards are very similar in terms of specs (2.5 Gigabit LAN, PCIe 4.0 etc), but the ASUS has better rear I/O USBs (more USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports) vs the Gigabyte. Other factors to consider are pricing, as well as how high-end of a processor that you intend to use with the board - both boards will likely struggle with a higher-end processor such as an i7-12700 due to their VRM performance. Hope this helps!

[@priteshnaik7972]

i have 4400mhz DDR 4 can I use them on any b660 motherboard with 12100 apu?

[@ALKtech]

Absolutely - your RAM will just clock down in speed (e.g. to 3200) so as to match what is supported by the 12100 APU!

[@AintPopular]

does matx version has wifi

[@ALKtech]

Yes this board. the B660M DS3H AX DDR4 has WIFI built-in. Do note that there is a version of this board WITHOUT WIFI, called the B660M DS3H DDR4!

[@andynguyen6670]

@@ALKtechhow do you use the Wi-Fi? And is it supposed to increase download speed?

[@ALKtech]

​@@andynguyen6670 you either connect to the internet via a wired connection (using an Ethernet cable) or wireless connection (WIFI). Connecting via WIFI requires that you install the relevant WIFI drivers first, before connecting to the wireless network of choice via Windows.

[@andynguyen6670]

@@ALKtech is it supposed to show a separate network I can connect to or does it just let me able to access Wi-Fi? I don’t have ethernet

[@ALKtech]

@@andynguyen6670 if you've got the drivers installed properly, there should be a WIFI icon in the bottom right hand corner of your screen within Windows that allows you to connect to a wireless network.

[@ChillStation247]

Asus prime b660m ad4 or this ??

[@ALKtech]

I would choose the Gigabyte due to the fact that it has WIFI 6E vs WIFI 6 on the ASUS! But you'd have to factor in the price differences too - is the ASUS more expensive than the Gigabyte where you are from?

[@ChillStation247]

@@ALKtech gigabyte is more expensive but only like 5-10$!

[@ALKtech]

@@ChillStation247 I see, would you have the need for WIFI 6E, seeing as there's a price difference here? If no, I'd probably get the ASUS instead! Also, do you mind sharing what processor are you intending to use with these boards? This is because based on tests done by other reviewers, it seems the Gigabyte's VRM performance may not make it well-suited for higher-end processors like Core i7s!

[@NoName-nn8lj]

Can I use it with i5 13600kf?

[@ALKtech]

Yes you can with a BIOS update. Do note though, that you won't be able to overclock the 13600KF with this board. That said, it's worth noting too, that this board is pretty entry-level and doesn't have a powerful VRM setup, you MIGHT encounter CPU throttling issues especially if you've got poor airflow in your PC case...

[@geraldh.8047]

This board has horrible VRMs and will NOT be able to handle the 13600k.

[@ALKtech]

@@geraldh.8047 thanks for sharing. Were you getting poorer-than-usual CPU performance scores with this board+a 13600K?

[@geraldh.8047]

@@ALKtech I have a 13700K on this board and had to limit power usage to ~115W to get rid of the CPU throttling to ~1GHz every few seconds while running the Prime95 maximum power/heat test. 13600K has 181W/125W TDP, so that won't work either. Tried setting those TDP limits on the 13700K and it was still happening. And that was on a cold day in a well ventilated case, so not worst case at all.

[@ALKtech]

@@geraldh.8047 damn, thanks for sharing. Not unexpected of an entry-level mobo though. Are you gonna upgrade your mobo to something that can handle the 13700K better?

[@xItschii]

hey, i want to use this board for my i5-12600KF but not overclock the cpu. in combinaton with a rx6800xt, does it run at its best performance or do it get problems like only 10FPS?

[@ALKtech]

You'll do fine with this board, the 12600KF and a RX 6800 XT! Just make sure you have adequate cooling - from what I see from other reviews, the VRMs for this board can get toasty and could result in thermal throttling if there's poor airflow in your PC case.

[@xItschii]

@@ALKtech i have the be quiet pure loop 2fx 240mm and the be quiet pure base 500fx case with good airflow, does it work?

[@ALKtech]

@@xItschii you should be all good with the be quiet! PC case and AIO!

[@waltinho2000]

Did your board fit 6800XT?