Closer Look
The Biostar B660GTA motherboard arrived in a retail package which is a well-described flat box. The front is the Racing series logo and the interesting-looking graphics. On the back, we can find key features and specifications of the motherboard. The package looks similar to that of the previous generation motherboards. It’s clean and straightforward but eye-catching.
Inside the box is a well-protected motherboard, SATA data cables, user’s manual, and driver’s DVD. It’s enough for the installation, and it’s about the same as in other Biostar motherboards.
The motherboard’s design is for sure unique. Only Biostar Racing motherboards have similar colors and a graphic style. IO cover and chipset heatsink have semi-transparent windows with LED backlight to see a Racing sign and logo. Everything else is painted on solid heatsinks. All M.2 sockets are also covered with heatsinks which is already standard in higher gaming series motherboards but not a rule for cheaper products. Biostar isn’t expensive but still gives us these additional features.
There are no fans on the B660GTA, and VRM heatsinks are pretty large. During the tests were no problems with i5-12600K and i9-12900K processors. The VRM temperature wasn’t too high in both cases, and everything was fully stable.
The motherboard layout is just perfect. Everything is where it should be, and there is easy access to PCIe slots. On some motherboards, it’s very hard to remove a graphics card or other cards when oversize M.2 heatsinks are just next to the PCIe slot. There is also no problem with huge CPU coolers. Our tests were performed with the Noctua NH-P1 cooler, which was enough to keep i5-12600K cool. Photos of the test rig are on the following pages of this review.
A robust power design shouldn’t cause problems while overclocking. On the other hand, we will be faster limited by the cooling than the motherboard as typical overclocking results are not much higher than the turbo frequency of available processors.
On the next page, we will look at the BIOS/UEFI.
