Verdict and Conclusion
All said and done, I was quite impressed with the overall performance of the ASRock B660 Steel Legend. I originally thought that this motherboard was aimed at the low-end/budget market, but the performance it offers says otherwise. Howerver, it does lack some features that you might find on the more higher-end enthusiasts boards, such as the diagnostic LED, onboard power on/off and reset buttons, lightning gaming ports, a large I/O hood, and extra PCIe 4.0 x16 slots.
Although the B660 has limited PCIE 4.0 lanes, it’s still a very capable chipset, and allow manufacturers to produce an affordable motherboard suitable for Intel’s latest 12th Gen Alder Lake processors, while at the same time supporting DDR4 ram.
I do like the distinctive black/white/silver camo design of the ASRock’s Steel Legend series, which I think goes well with most PC project builds. What’s more the LEDs you get on the ASRock Polychrome RGB Sync is bright, attractive and really makes the board stand out.
We used an Intel Core i9-12900KF processor during our test, and we managed to get really good scores in all of our benchmarks. It produced Cinebench R23 scores of 26,674 (multi core) and 2,044 (single core). For PCMark 10, we got a score of 7,949 with a score of 10,428 for PassMark9.
For UL’s latest Procyon Photo Editing Benchmark, we got a score of 8,548 and 3,397 for the Video Editing suite. And finally, for Timespy and Firestrike, we got decent scores of 5,371 and 13,289 respectively.
When it come to expansion slots, the ASRock B660 Steel Legend has plenty. You get 1 x PCIe 5.0 x16 Steel slot for graphics card, 1 x PCIe 3.0 x16 slot, as well as 2 x PCIe 3.0 x 1 slot. For storage, there’s a total of 6 x SATA3 ports, 2 x Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen4 x4) and 1 x M.2 (PCIe Gen3) for SSDs, as well as 1 x M.2 Key-E for WiFi module (unoccupied). Other connectors on the I/O panel include the 2 x USB 2.0, S/2 keyboard and mouse, HDMI port, DisplayPort, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C, clear CMOS button, 4 x USB 3.2 ports, Dragon 2.5G LAN, as well as an array of audio connectors.
But wait, there’s more. You also get ASRock’s 9 Phase power, Dr. MOS, 6-layer PCB and of course, the 7.1 CH HD Nahimic Audio, as well as PolyChrome RGB.
You can buy the micro ATX version – the ASRock B660M Steel Legend
Pros:
- Good performance
- Intel B660 Chipset
- Memory overclocking
- Supports Intel’s 12th Gen Alder Lake processor
- Supports PCIE 5.0
- Supports DDR4 5000+ (O.C.)
- Dragon 2.5G LAN
- Great value for money
Cons:
- Limited PCIE 4.0/3.0 Lanes
- No CPU overclocking
- No PCIE RAID support
Final Words:
If you’re after an affordable motherboard based on the B660 chipset, and you’re not considering CPU overclocking, then the ASRock B660 Steel Legend is definitely worth a look. It offers decent performance and supports all 12th Gen Alder Lake processors from Intel, plus you can use your existing DDR4 ram. However, if you’re after CPU overclocking and want more PCIE lanes … then the ASRock Z690 Steel Legend or the Z690 PG Riptide would be a better choice.
You can buy the micro ATX version – the ASRock B660M Steel Legend
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