TUF Vs Prime: Asus TUF B660M-E and Asus PRIME B660M-A Reviewed and compared

[@fredo4989]

underrated channel, I appreciate your effort man.

[@fractera]

This is one of the best channels for this kind of content. One of these days I hope you'll get millions of subscribers.

[@amitkrupal1234]

Finally someone explaining motherboard in a little bit of detail, liked shared & subscribed thank you for uploading these videos. They are helpful.

[@dokho1981]

i have the asus prime B660M-A wifi D4 + i7 12700 + 3200Mhz CL16 xmp + hyper 212 cooler. i have no issues, the system runs smoothly but while benchmarking i can notice it sometimes hit 90°C but never above 65°C while gaming and enjoying the full potential either on workloads or anything else! supreme combo :) (i bought the motherboard for 170€ and the 12700 for 400€ here in Belgium)

[@BuildPicker]

Yes, for gaming the Prime is ok with an i7. However I still wouldn't trust it with sustained all core workloads. CPU temperature isn't the issue, VRM throttling is, and the PRIME doesn't report MOS temps so it's hard to get a handle on how close to the limit you are running. Our experience with other boards with equivalent VRMs configurations is that they'll do ~150W but not the 200WE an unlimited i7 will draw continuously.

[@dokho1981]

@@BuildPicker i understand that, i run the 12700 non K, all the workloads i do is like : watching streams, surfing, watching youtube, gaming, discord, mails, watching a movie in 2K, other things like that with 2 monitors. Do you think the vrm's are so bad i'll have to change the motherboard or all the system in a 5 yearsish near future? i changed the i7 4790k because the thermals were getting me bluescreens doing all that

[@BuildPicker]

@@dokho1981 No, it should be fine. It's more like doing sustained all core rendering, computation, that will trip it up! Things where the CPU actually needs 190W continuous. IF you want to protect it, stick to the stock power limits: It limits to 65W Power Level 1 for long term use, which is fine.

[@arindammukhopadhyay4359]

Your CPU Cooler is weak. If possible replace it with MA612. Tweak your BIOS. There is an option 'AS PER INTEL SPECIFICATION'. Enable this.

[@Jeymez]

if it's the non k version of the i7, then it'll work, but the 12 core i7 12700k pulls twice as much power. so you would need a Rog Strix or Gigabyte's Aorus Pro series on the Z690 platform.

[@Aksinghgzp]

Father of motherboards. 😊 👍👍👍 Very detailed and to the point. Helps a lot.

[@notGX1-]

Really good video though, you invested much time and work for those benchmarks and comparisons. Thank you!

[@arindammukhopadhyay4359]

Yesterday received complete list of Asus B660 Chipset Boards from Asus Regional Manager - Eastern India. The below listed boards are available at Kolkata market: EX-B660M-V5 PRIME-B660M-K PRIME-B660M-A PRIME-B660-PLUS TUF-G-B660M-E TUF-G-B660MPLUS TUF-G-B660MPLUSWF PRO-B660CREATOR If available in your location please review TUF Gaming B660M Plus with or without WiFi as sensible buyers will query more about this particular model. Regards

[@CyberPsychGaming]

Your videos are very informative, would you be able to test Asus TUF Gaming B660M-PLUS board? Keep up the good work..

[@BuildPicker]

I'd love to, but we can't afford every board out there! We'll be sure to give the TUF and Prime ranges good consideration in our overall roundup video, using the information we've gained from this testing.

[@CyberPsychGaming]

@@BuildPicker okay, thank you

[@treyquattro]

another great review and comparison packed with useful info. I found ASUS's offerings very confusing also, to the point that I pretty much gave up on ASUS after starting with them at the top of my list. Another thing that I think is clouding the issue of an Alder Lake build is the rapid development of Raptor Lake and Meteor Lake: Raptor Lake is supposedly arriving perhaps as soon as Q3 this year, with Meteor Lake following along about 12 months after that. This competition between AMD and Intel is great for consumers, except that with the knowledge something better is very close it makes it difficult to pull the trigger on a build now. I've also read that Intel are attempting to make Raptor Lake DDR5-only which means that although DDR5 is twice as expensive as DDR4 now and doesn't provide any performance advantage, that may well change with the next generation of chips. I think DDR5 is the way to go, but I don't want to pay twice the price for the privilege. Raptor Lake should fit in an Alder Lake board with LGA-1700 socket without issue however, so there's some future-proofing with the CPU if not RAM or the PCH, which will probably just strengthen the move to 5th gen RAM and PCIe already under way in Alder Lake. I'm looking forward to the full roundup.

[@igknighte]

Wow best reviews out there

[@leeolivieri]

great video, but the title has an error. Its the "Asus PRIME B660M-A", not the "Asus PRIME B660M-E"

[@BuildPicker]

Many thanks for pointing it out! Fixed now. just goes to show how confusing the range is when I'm not sure which boards I actually own...

[@puneetmathur]

Thank you! Another fantastic review. Did look at your MSI B660m-a Pro as well. Tossing between these two (I have always used ASUS boards), running an i5. Which one do you recommend?

[@BuildPicker]

Honestly if you're used to the Asus BIOS/way of doing things, you may as well go Asus Prime/TUF. You'll likely just feel more at home with it. Fora n i5, they're equivalent.

[@puneetmathur]

@@BuildPicker Thank you so much. Was just worried a bit about the weaker VRM on the ASUS. And MSI is around $30 cheaper than TUF. 😀

[@niccoflores5546]

Hi! Thank you for the great review. I also want to ask as I'm planning to get l i5 12400f with the Prime B660M-A. Is it fine to with the 16GB 3600Mhz ram and gtx 1650 as well. It's mainly going to be used with gaming, streaming and programming as well. Thank you!

[@BuildPicker]

The GPU is fine, just watch the RAM: Plenty of reports of 3600Mhz not being stable on the alder lake platform, 3200MHz for a guaranteed easy life. 3600Mhz May be fine at XMP, if not you can run it gear 2, or clock it down to 3200MHz.

[@federico339]

@@BuildPicker Is this still the case? Planning to get 3600Mhz RAM

[@BuildPicker]

@@federico339 YEs, it is, just down the the locked system agent voltage on non K CPUs and B660 boards. If you're confident you can return the RAM, I'd buy it and try it out. It's just luck of the draw what works and what doesn't.

[@kingthree193]

Thank you for mentioning the boot LED for the ASUS Prime through the case I was getting no display and based on led not detecting Ram hopefully just have to switch slots but was installed based on guide

[@harolddasynth795]

Hi bud,i just bought the asus prime B660M-A D to pair it with an I5 12600 non k version,i don't overclock,i i mostly do light gaming,casual video editing,photoshop and sometimes rendering,do you think the board will be fine long term?if not,i still have an option to return it,thanks

[@thunderp1719]

Under-rated channel

[@flashy2651]

Asus Prime B660 Plus D4 or Asus TUF B660M-Plus D4. Which one should i buy for my i5 12400f?

[@pccoldwar9160]

was wondering if on the asus motherboard feature in the video if you got option to choose preferencial voltage saw that on a z690m prime d4 and tendancy to drop voltage by quite reasonnable amount giving quite good effencicy to a i5 12400 and still was holding well in cinebench r15 multi-core and single core for what it worth.Very difficult also make nuance between different board and brand as so many variable when come to bios option certainly got very nice coverage one best i saw so far well done.

[@georgidimitrov8234]

Great info.Can you tell me if the Asus prime h610m-a and b660m-a have the same vrm's ?

[@Jeymez]

no the H610M-A has less vrm's than B660M-A H610 is more for a low energy kinda build.

[@chivytieu698]

Sooo good video. Thank you so much. Love u❤️❤️

[@Mike7064]

So should i leave the APE option on if I'm running an i3 with stock cooler??

[@theuniverseisalie1642]

with Asus TUF b660m-e d4 will the 12600k be maxed out ?( not talking about overclocking)

[@MickyThunderV]

What does the "M" stand for? Micro ATX?

[@BuildPicker]

Yes, Micro-ATX.

[@mr.longfield7880]

Can't make my B660M-A Prime to work with 3200mhz RAM, only (3100)? Previous msi mobo b660m-e ran 3200mhz no problem.

[@BuildPicker]

That's bizarre, 3200MHz is within official spec for CPU and motherboard and should present no problems. You are using slots 2 and 4? (A2,B2?)

[@mr.longfield7880]

@@BuildPicker yeah, I switched from 1-3 to 2-4 slots and it worked like a charm, even on 3600mhz on another ram -_-

[@BuildPicker]

@@mr.longfield7880 Slots 2 and 4 are at the 'end' of the signal traces on the motherboard, so ram properly terminates them. If you use 1 and 3, with 2 and 4 empty, you get bad reflections from the empty traces that destroy the signal integrity.

[@kimax9985]

Could the prime board handle 13600k

[@shovelyjoe4788]

bro how do you have only 10k subs

[@serkantosun5613]

Hi is asus tuf gaming b660m-E good to run intel i9 qnd rtx 3080? Thanks

[@Hooppy582]

What gpus can I use for this motherboard?? Any 40 series?

[@thunderp1719]

4060 ti is OK but better check in pc benchmark like sites. Though this motherboard can support 4090 too

[@darkman5732]

Hi, I am looking for a motherboard for core i5 12500. If I am not mistaken, both of these motherboards support it equally, despite the difference in VRM. I am more interested in the Prime B660 Plus D4, but I don't understand if it has the exact same VRM as the version you tested or is it better. Thank you.

[@BuildPicker]

Yes, either of these boards or the Prime B660 Plus are perfectly good for a 12500.

[@darkman5732]

@@BuildPicker Thank You ! In the bios post, it says to disable the APE. Did you activate it or is it so by default?

[@BuildPicker]

@@darkman5732 I treat it as activated by default, because the first boot screen activates it, and you have to specifically deactivate it in BIOS if you don't want to run with lifted power limits.

[@darkman5732]

@@BuildPicker One last thing. How do I set Intel's suggested power limits? Should I press F1?

[@BuildPicker]

@@darkman5732 You'd go back into BIOS and disable 'Asus Performance Enhancement 3.0' in the advanced > AI tweaker menu.

[@arungoldbeta]

2024 still great video ❤❤❤

[@arrow1island]

This guy is saying that a M.2 drive being PCIE ony is a bad thing.. doesnt mention that pcie is way faster than sata

[@sahilashraf8150]

Which one would be a better choice for i5 12400 Asus tuf b660m or Msi pro b660m?

[@BuildPicker]

Either are fine, choose the cheapest or the one with the features you like better.

[@hcjet]

I bought a prime B660M-A wifi D4 cost 1390 kr, i won't buy it if original price was 1890 kr

[@johnnymac3263]

i am new to building a pc. i have a question that i can't seem to find answers to so maybe somebody can answer. the 2 m.2 storage that is below the cpu is that what runs the startup processes or can i just use my older Digital western ssd and hdd which currently holds my os and everything else?

[@BuildPicker]

You can boot off of your older SSD no problem. There's no requirement to use the m.2 slots or NVMe SSD if you don't want to. Sata is fine.

[@deViant14]

This is definitely the tuff/tough gaming line 😂

[@shari_8410]

its a realy poor way from Asus , that their new TUF ( Incl Plus Model ) Boards dosn't Matter if Intel or AMD Foundation , no longer comes with the useful Bios Flashback Feature as the pre Chipset Versions B450 /B550 -X570 and B560/Z590 still have this important Feature .. now only the way more expensive Rog Strix boards do have this Feature .. for a Price Range where i was payed one year ago for a Upper Class Board Asus Rog Strix X570 E-Gaming of 250 Euros ...lol now you have to pay the double up to a 3rd more Price for the same Amount of Features and Specs where my Upperclass X570 E-Gaming Board was ... just unbelivable ..

[@champizthename8513]

Hi can anyone confirm if the MSI PRO B660M-E DDR4 can support 13th gen i noticed on the MSI page it says it supports 13 but on the box it says 12 not sure if the Bios update allows this now would appreciate it if someone replied. I'm looking to get one soon?

[@BuildPicker]

It will need a bios update, most likely. That's made harder by the lack of bios flashback - you'd need a 12th gen CPU to update it.

[@champizthename8513]

@@BuildPicker Hi thank you I've been told to avoid the board because I want to build a i7 13 Gen system and its not good at all for high demand CPU's

[@jponz85]

@ChampIzTheName that's the mistake I made. Bought this mobo B660m for $120 and have a 13700k for it but can't update it without a 12th gen cpu. Now I might have to downgrade to a i9 12900k just so it can fit it.

[@champizthename8513]

@@jponz85 I would buy a brand new board for the 13700k Instead because this board is really horrible for I7 and up... I would say try sell the B660m board and get something between $250-$350 you won't regret it.

[@jponz85]

@ChampIzTheName well I have someone who would trade me for a i9 12900k OR I found a computer store that would update my bios for $120 which is what I paid for the mobo lol. Why is this board bad for i7s?