ASRock B660 Steel Legend or the cheapest motherboard in tests

ASRock B660 Steel Legend in detail

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Pricing is even below the Asus TUF Gaming B660 Plus WiFi D4, which is the cheapest motherboard on the LGA 1700 platform we’ve tested so far. We also awarded it the “Smart Buy!” award and in a way it is the benchmark for the ASRock B660 Steel Legend. However, these are boards that are different in many ways. In short, ASRock is aiming at a slightly different target group.

ASRock B660 Steel Legend

The board is based on the Intel B660 chipset and supports DDR4 memory. At the same time, it is a cheap enough design that you will probably consider it when building a mid-range computer, or at the very least, it will make it into the wider selection.

The B660 Steel Legend’s format is ATX. The PCB geometry with dimensions of 305 × 244 mm differs from the conventional ones only by sharper corners. These are practically cut at a 45-degree angle instead of the typical rounding.

Otherwise, the shape of the PCB does not deviate from the usual, and a full number of mounting holes are also present, which ASRock tends to reduce differently from the right side for various visual elements (think, for example, of the B365 Phantom Gaming 4). These are not missing here either, but ASRock has managed to keep the standard layout. That is, except for the 24-pin connector, which is dipped inside more prominently. This is in order to fit the illuminated “Steel Legend” sign next to it.

   

The position of the DIMM slots is not affected by the above, and the distance between the contacts of the first and the center of the CPU socket is the traditional 56 mm. This means that memory support with CPU coolers is maintained as well as on other boards. Only the voltage regulators, capacitors and the coil of the RAM power delivery are in a smaller gap (between the last spot and the ATX connector) than it usually is.

In the axis of the ATX connector, i.e. at a greater distance from the edge of the PCB, there are also internal USB connectors (3.2. gen2 × 2 and 3.2 gen. 1) and 3-pin connectors for connecting ARGB LED peripherals. On this right side, the motherboard also has its own lighting. There are seven RGB LEDs next to the DIMM slots, and then below that, there are four next to the SATA connectors. They are placed on the back of the PCB so that they don’t shine directly, but so that the light is dimly reflected from the PC case sheet metal. The lighting effect is thus, evenly dispersed around the outline of the motherboard.

Since this is a cheaper board where various savings are possible, we measured the PCB thickness. This is no different from more expensive (and pricey) motherboards with 1.6 mm.

However, ASRock no longer denies saving on SSD heatsinks. There is only one, on the first M.2 slot. The board would be naturally better off with a second one (as the TUF B660 Plus WiFi D4 has, for example), on the third slot, which is also high-speed with four PCI Express lanes connected.

One more fact is worth commenting on the first M.2 slot or the SSD mounting. If you don’t use the heatsink supplied with the motherboard because the SSD has its own, the spacers need to be replaced for stable mounting. The pre-installed one has a tapered neck and counts with the thickness of the supplied heatsink. Without it, the SSD will have some play on one side. But the solution to this situation is quite simple – the post is just screwed on and you just need to swap it with one from another, free position.

Worse is when you use all the slots. For such cases, it would therefore be convenient if ASRock would supply an extra standard post as part of the accessories. After all, there are quite a few SSDs that have their own heatsink and specially among those with PCIe 4.0 support.

Some more important information about PCI Express. The first PCIe ×16 slot supports the 5.0 standard. The second is already PCIe 4.0 and only four-lane. The remaining two PCI Express slots are single-lane with support for the 3.0 standard.

Exceedingly slow is one of the three M2 slots here. For SSD. The middle one is only connected by two PCIe lanes and only supports the 3.0 standard. However, it is worth praising at least the placement of this slowest M.2 slot under the first PCIe ×16 slot.
As you know from our tests, SSD cooling can be worse here due to the more intense heating of the air by the graphics card, but combined with the lower performance (and therefore power draw and temperatures) of the SSD, the occurrence of critical scenarios is minimized. In other words, an SSD controller bottlenecked by two PCI Express interface lanes is unlikely to just climb to very high temperatures even in harsh environments. By the way, this M.2 slot is the only one that also supports SATA SSDs.

The board has plenty of SATA SSD connection options, even within the inch storage. This via up to six connectors, none of which share lanes with PCI Express connectors. This means that you can eventually use all connectors (M.2 and SATA) at the same time. The two SATA connectors, meanwhile, are connected from the ASMedia ASM1061 external controller.

There is also a fourth M.2 slot on the board, but this one is already with a key type E, i.e. for connecting the RF module WiFi and Bluetooth. It’s just a pity that the back panel of the board has no SMA connectors for external antennas and does not even count on their mounting. ASRock hasn’t reserved a position for them on the rear panel, although they would fit comfortably alongside this port equipment. Some of the connectors (HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort 1.4a, USB-C) as well as the BIOS flashback button are inefficiently distributed in only one row. It would have been enough to put the DP connector above the HDMI connector, as is commonly done, and space for antenna connectors would have been found.

However, this is probably a deliberate saving and the reactive space between the external I/O ports was created on purpose. Compared to the TUF Gaming B660 Plus WiFi D4, however, the B660 Steel Legend pulls the short end of the stick in this one. There could perhaps have been more USB ports as well. Of the ones that are, though, most are of the 3.2 gen. 1 (4) standard. The USB Type-C connector is 10-gigabit (3.2 gen. 2), and there are also two USB 2.0 ports typically for connecting peripherals (keyboard and mouse) that don’t need higher transfer speeds. There’s also a PS/2 connector on the rear panel and, unlike the Biostar B660GTA, there are audio connectors in the full lineup, including an S/PDIF optical output. The audio adapter is weaker though, the Realtek ALC897. This is the one that the ASRock board shares with the TUF Gaming B660 Plus WiFi D4.

The power delivery is “only” 9-phase. However, it is important to take into account what processors this board expects to use. It can comfortably handle 65 W TDP models even in boost with higher power draw, and it has been treated to avoid VRM overheating even when using the most powerful Core i9s, including the 12900KS. But we’ll look at that in the next chapter with the BIOS analysis.

Now let’s focus on what the CPU and SOC power delivery consists of. At the beginning is a two-channel PWM driver Richtek RT3628AE, which, in addition to one phase (SOC) with SinoPower SM4508NH and SM4373NAKP, mainly manages the Vishay SiC654 voltage regulators (Vcore). The maximum current loads in the specs have 50 A, for a total of 450 A (since there are nine of them).

   

However, the highest efficiency is usually around 30 % and up to 50–60 % can be comfortably cooled with simpler profiles, which are used in this case. These are aluminium monoliths weighing 69 and 85 grams. In order to achieve a larger radiation area, ASRock has created a few fins and notches on the passives.

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

What it looks like in the BIOS

Traditionally, we start going through the BIOS settings on the EZ mode splash screen. There, in addition to the traditional overview of the connected components, you can activate the memory profile (XMP), but also enable or disable the power limits recommended by Intel, for example. From the perspective of other manufacturers’ interfaces, this is rather unusual but useful. After all, manually adjusting power limits is already one of the more advanced settings. And these are at least beyond the scope of beginners or users who are not that interested in hardware and such an “on/off” button will make their life much easier.

ASRock knows that the power delivery is on the edge of what the most powerful processors in boost may require and therefore will not allow limit settings above 241 W. Entering a higher value is evaluated as an erroneous input. Meanwhile, the factory settings of the power limits vary depending on the processor used. For example, with the Core i9-12900K, both PL1 and PL2 are set to 241 W (i.e. the upper limit for boost). Thus, clock speeds and power will be constant regardless of load duration.

However, lowering PL1 to the TDP value (125 W) is naturally possible, even with the “Load Intel base Power Limit Settings” button, which we have already written about. Such behaviour will probably apply to all K(F) processors, where the user is expecting a stable high performance.

   

The pattern is different for more power-efficient processors without an open multiplier. With these, on the other hand, if you don’t want to limit the achieved clock speeds by 65 W (or lower) you have to turn off Intel’s default limit loading. Otherwise, maximum CPU performance will only be reached during the first 28 seconds of load.

In the “OC Tweaker” section, you can also customize the memory settings, including detailed timing options. For 3600 MHz memory, the board still automatically sets Gear 1, which means that it does not reduce the memory controller (IMC) bandwidth in the processor.

ASRock calls the ReSizable BAR technology C.A.M (Clever Access Memory). Unlike other manufacturers’ boards, it is enabled by default. In order for everything to work (and result in the desired higher graphics performance), there must also be support on the BIOS side of the graphics card. Radeon RX 6000s all have it, GeForce from RTX 3060 upwards also have it, but older models (typically RTX 3090, 3080, 3070 or 3060 Ti) may require a newer graphics card BIOS.

What is also remarkable in the case of ASRock is the interface for updating the BIOS. Firstly, it is possible to update directly via the Internet (Internet Flash), and we are still in UEFI, and secondly via Instant Flash with a quick find (and instant update) of the BIOS on a flash drive. With other manufacturers everything is a bit more tedious.

The lighting management interface – ASRock Polychrome RGB – is also integrated into the UEFI. An application of the same name also exists for Windows operating systems. Here or there you can set the effects and RGB LED colors for each of the connectors (3× ARGB LED/5 V and 1× RGB LED/12 V) or RGB LEDs that are part of the PCB (we talked about them in the previous chapter) or the chipset cooler. The selected effect can be set synchronously for all illuminated elements, including the speed of the color passes. In the case of a static color, it is possible to adjust its hue continuously. However, the possibility of adjusting the brightness is missing.

   

The temperature sensor for the chipset, or its south bridge, is also missing. In addition to CPU temperatures, the B660 Steel Legend also has an overview of the “motherboard” temperatures. However, it is hard to guess where this sensor is located. It will not be in the power delivery circuit, because even under high load the CPU always reports a very low temperature, below 30 °C. It is possible that it will be located somewhere between the PCI Express slots, because under gaming load the temperature on it rises a bit (probably along with higher air temperature around it).

Anyway, this is one of the two points according to which you can adjust the fan speed curve. The first is traditionally the temperature sensor in the processor. Compared to most other boards, it lacks a DC/PWM switch. However, a wide range of linear voltage regulation is possible for fans with three-pin connectors.

   

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Gaming tests…

The vast majority of tests is based on the methodology for processors and graphics cards. The choice of games is slimmer for motherboards, but that’s in order to be able to run all the tests with two different processors as promised. Each board will always be tested with a more powerful processor from the top end, but also with a weaker, average one. The more powerful variant on the LGA 1700 platform is the Core i9-12900K and the mid-range one is the Core i5-12400.

Based on tests with processors from different classes, you’ll be able to easily decide whether a more expensive motherboard for a cheaper processor makes sense for you or, conversely, how good of an idea it is to skimp on a cheaper motherboard while using a more expensive and more powerful processor, which naturally also has higher power draw and places higher demands on the overall quality of the motherboard.

We’ve selected five titles from the games and we’re testing them in two resolutions. There are significantly fewer games than in the CPU or graphics card tests, but there is just enough for the motherboard tests. Few people consider performance in a particular game when choosing a motherboard. But an indicative overview of how a motherboard shapes gaming performance (compared to other motherboards) is a must. To avoid significantly skewing the result over time, we reached for relatively older titles that no longer receive significant updates.

These are Borderlands 3, F1 2020, Metro Exodus, Shadow of the Tomb Raider and Total War Saga: Troy. For newer games, there might be some performance changes over time (with updates) and especially in high resolutions with high details. This is one of the test setups (2160p and Ultra, or the highest visual detail but without ray-tracing) that focuses on comparing performance, for which the bottleneck is the graphics card. In other words, it will be clear from these tests which motherboard and to what extent can impact the graphics card’s performance for some reason. In contrast, a setup with Full HD resolution and with graphical details reduced to “High” will also reflect the CPU’s influence on the final gaming performance.

We use OCAT to record fps, or the times of individual frames, which are then used to calculate fps, and FLAT to analyze the CSV. The developer and author of articles (and videos) for the GPUreport.cz website is behind both.
For the highest accuracy, all runs are repeated three times and average values of average and minimum fps are displayed in the graphs. These multiple repetitions also apply to non-game tests.

… Computing tests, SSD tests, USB ports and network tests

We test application performance in a very similar way to the processor tests. Almost all tests are included, from the easier ones (such as those in a web environment) to those that push the CPU or graphics card to the limit. These are typically tests such as 3D rendering, video encoding (x264, x265, SVT-AV1) or other performance-intensive computing tasks. As with processors or graphics cards, we have a wide range of applications – users editing video (Adobe Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve Studio), graphic effects creators (Adobe Premiere Pro), graphic designers or photographers (Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom, Affinity Photo, AI applications Topaz Labs, …) will find their own in the results, and there are also tests of (de)encryption, (de)compression, numerical calculations, simulations and, of course, tests of memory.

SSD performance tests are also important for motherboards. Therefore we test the maximum sequential read and write speeds on an empty Samsung 980 Pro SSD (1 TB) in the well distributed CrystalDiskMark, in all slots. We approach the USB port tests in the same way. We use a WD Black P50 external SSD to test them. It supports fast USB 3.2 gen. 2×2, so it won’t be a bottleneck for even the fastest USB controllers. We report only one result for each USB standard. This is calculated from the average of all available ports.

We won’t deprive you of network bandwidth tests either. We move large files in both directions within a local network between the motherboard network adapters and the Sonnet Solo10G 10-gigabit PCIe card. This from the aforementioned Samsung 980 Pro SSD to the Patriot Hellfire (480 GB), which is still fast enough to not slow down even the 10 Gb adapter.

   

The results of all performance tests are averaged over three repeated measurements for best accuracy.

CPU settings…

We primarily test processors without power limits, the way most motherboards have it in factory settings. For tests that have overlap with power, temperature and CPU clock speed measurements, we also observe the behavior of boards with power limits set according to CPU manufacturers’ recommendations. We set PL1 to the TDP level, respecting also the tau timeout (56 s) for Intel CPUs. The upper power limit (PL2/PPT) is also set according to the official CPU specifications. Technologies for aggressive overclocking, such as PBO2 (AMD) or ABT (Intel), MCE (Asus) and the like, are not dealt with in our standard motherboard tests.

… and application updates

Tests should also take into account that over time, individual updates may skew performance comparisons. Some applications we use in portable versions that do not update or can be kept on a stable version, but for some this is not the case. Typically games get updated over time, which is natural, and keeping them on old versions out of reality would also be questionable.

In short, just count on the fact that the accuracy of the results you are comparing with each other decreases a bit as time goes on. To make this analysis easier, we’ve listed when each board was tested. You can find this out in the dialog box, where you can find information about the date of testing. This dialog is displayed in the interactive graphs, next to any result bar. Just hover over it.

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Methodology: How we measure power draw

Motherboard “power draw” analysis is an extremely attractive topic if approached methodically. What does it mean? Measuring the electric current and voltage directly on the wiring that powers the motherboard. Naturally, the processor, or the processor power supply, has the most significant draw, which we measure separately – just as in processor tests.

In addition to the EPS cable, there is also a 24-pin ATX cable with multiple voltages, which is good to keep track of. The key ones are +3.3 V (from which the chipset is typically powered), +5 V (memory) and +12 V, from which the PCI Express slots are powered, and the biggest draw will be in the case of our test configuration on the graphics card. All of these wires are closely monitored. But then within the ATX connector there are also a few relatively unimportant branches that are no longer even used in modern computers (that is, -12 V and -5 V) or are relatively unimportant in terms of power draw. For example +5 VSB (power supply for USB or ARGB lighting even when the computer is switched off; this can usually be switched off in the BIOS) or PG (Power Good), which is only informative and during operation it is only “an also-run”. These branches (-12 V, -5 V, +5 VSB and PG) always have only one wire and often with a smaller cross section, which is also a sign of always very low power draw.

The 24-pin wires on which we measure the power draw are always connected in parallel and are at least in pairs (+12 V) or greater in number. For example, the +3.3 V branch uses four conductors to increase the cross section and the +5 V branch has up to five. However, this branch is quite oversized from today’s point of view, as historically it was intended to power more HDDs or their logical part (+12 V is used for the mechanical part).

We use a shunt of our own making to measure the draw from the 24-pin. This is built on a very simple principle and consists of very low-value resistors. The value is set so low that the voltage drop is not higher than the ATX standard. Based on the known resistance in the circuit and the voltage drop across it, we can calculate the electric current, and once the output is substituted into the known formula to calculate the power, the mathematics is easy. Samples during the course of the tests are recorded using the Keysight U1231A multimeter array via a service application that allows the recorded data to be exported in CSV. And that’s the final destination for creating line graphs or counting averages (into bar interactive graphs). That’s how simple it is.

For completeness it is good to add that the current clamps for measuring the current draw from the EPS cables (power supply to the processor) are Prova 15. These will soon be replaced by a more practical solution for desktop use, namely a similar shunt we use for the ATX connector. The only reason it is not yet in circulation is its more complex design (as it has to account for very high currents) and the need for thorough testing, which we are yet to get to. Since we place a high emphasis on accuracy in our tests, all measuring devices are properly calibrated.

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Methodology: Temperature and frequency measurements

By far the most critical part in terms of temperatures on the motherboard is the power delivery (VRM) for the CPU. This is where we return to the Fluke Ti125 thermal imager, which produces temperature maps that can be used to locate the average temperature, as well as the hottest point. We record both these values (average and maximum temperature on the Vcore) in graphs, and we will later evaluate the efficiency of the VRM heatsinks based on the maximum one. However, we lack a suitable thermometer for that yet. Of course, the thermovision is implemented without a heatsink, and a thermocouple needs to be installed on the hottest MOSFET to detect the reduction of temperature with a heatsink. This will be added soon.

Thermovision always relates to operating with the more powerful of the pair of test processors. With it, the differences and possible limitations or impending risks (for example, even from thermal throttling) become more apparent. In order to have a good view of the VRM, we use an Alphacool Eisbaer 360 liquid cooler with the fans fixed at full power (12 V) instead of a tower cooler (from the CPU tests). The temperature tests also include CPU temperatures for completeness, and we also test the efficiency of the supplied SSD heatsinks as part of the motherboard tests. These are already included with virtually all better motherboards, and so the question naturally arises whether to use them or replace them with other, more finned ones. We will test these heatsinks on a Samsung 980 Pro SSD during ten minutes of intense load in CrystalDiskMark. Finally, the temperature of the chipset’s southbridge and the cooling efficiency in this direction is noteworthy as well.

All tests are conducted in a wind tunnel, so full system cooling is provided. This consists of three Noctua NF-S12A PWMs@5V (~550 rpm) . Two of which are intake, one is exhaust. But the three fast AIO fans also function as exhaust fans, so there is a vacuum in the case.

The temperature at the entrance to the tunnel is properly controlled and ranges between 21-21.3 °C. Maintaining a constant temperature at all times during testing is important not only for the accuracy of the temperature measurements, but also because a higher or lower ambient temperature also affects the eventual behaviour of the processors’ boost. And we also properly monitor and compare the clock speeds, whether under all-core load or even single-threaded tasks. We use the HWiNFO application to record the clock speeds and temperatures of the cores (sampling is set to two seconds).

Maintaining a constant temperature at the intake is necessary not only for a proper comparison of processor temperatures, but especially for objective performance comparisons. The clock speed development, and specially the single core boost, is precisely based on the temperature. Typically in summer, at higher temperatures than is normal in living quarters in winter, processors can be slower.

Temperatures are always read as maximum (both from the VRM thermovision and average, but still from the local maximum values at the end of Cinebench R23). For Intel processors, for each test we read the maximum temperature of the cores, usually all of them. These maxima are then averaged and the result represents the final value in the graph. From the single-threaded workload outputs, we extract only the recorded values from the active cores (there are usually two of these, and they alternate between each other during the test). For AMD processors it is a bit different. They don’t have temperature sensors for each core. In order to make the procedure methodically as similar as possible to the one we apply on Intel processors, we define the average temperature of all cores by the highest value reported by the CPU Tdie (average) sensor. However, for single-core workloads we already use the CPU sensor (Tctl/Tdie), which usually reports a slightly higher value that better corresponds to hotspots of one or two cores. However, these values as well as the values from all internal sensors should be taken with a grain of salt, the accuracy of sensors across CPUs varies.

Clock speed evaluation is more accurate, each core has its own sensor even on AMD processors. However, unlike the temperatures, we write the average values of the clock speeds during the tests in the graphs. We monitor the temperatures and clock speed of the CPU cores in the same tests in which we also measure power draw. Thus, sequentially from the lowest desktop idle load in Windows 10, through audio encoding (single-threaded load), gaming load in Shadow of the Tomb Raider to Cinebench R23.

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Test setup

Note: Graphics drivers used at the time of testing: Nvidia GeForce 466.77 and OS Windows 10 build 19043

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

3DMark

We use 3DMark Professional for our tests and from the tests, Night Raid (DirectX 12), Fire Strike (DirectX 11) and Time Spy (DirectX 12). In the graphs you will find the CPU sub-scores, the combined scores, as well as the graphics scores. From this you can see to what extent a given CPU is limiting the graphics card.

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The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Borderlands 3

Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: None; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

   

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

F1 2020

Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: off, Skidmarks Blending: off; test scene: built-in benchmark (Australia, Clear/Dry, Cycle).

   

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: TAA, Skidmarks Blending: off; test scene: built-in benchmark (Australia, Clear/Dry, Cycle).

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Metro Exodus

Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Extreme; API DirectX 12; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider

Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: off; test scene: built-in benchmark.

   

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Highest; API DirectX 12; extra settings Anti-Aliasing: TAA; test scene: built-in benchmark.

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Total War Saga: Troy

Test environment: resolution 1920 × 1080 px; graphics settings preset High; API DirectX 11; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

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Test environment: resolution 3840 × 2160 px; graphics settings preset Ultra; API DirectX 11; no extra settings; test scene: built-in benchmark.

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

PCMark

Geekbench

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Speedometer (2.0) and Octane (2.0)

Test environment: To ensure that results are not affected by web browser updates over time, we use a portable version of Google Chrome (91.0.472.101), a 64-bit build. Hardware GPU acceleration is enabled as well, as it is by default for every user.

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Note: The values in the graphs represent the average of the scores obtained in the subtasks, which are grouped according to their nature into seven categories (Core language features, Memory and GC, Strings and arrays, Virtual machine and GC, Loading and Parsing, Bit and Math operations, and Compiler and GC latency).

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The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Cinebench R20

Cinebench R23

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Blender@Cycles

Test environment: We use well distributed projects BMW (510 tiles) and Classroom (2040 tiles) and the renderer Cycles. Render settings are set to None, with which all the work falls on the CPU.

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LuxRender (SPECworkstation 3.1)

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Adobe Premiere Pro (PugetBench)

Test environment: set of PugetBench tests. App version of Adobe Premiere Pro is 15.2.

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The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

DaVinci Resolve Studio (PugetBench)

Test environment: set of PugetBench tests, test type: standard. App version of DaVinci Resolve Studio is 17.2.1 (build 12).

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The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Graphics effects: Adobe After Effects

Test environment: set of PugetBench tests. App version of Adobe After Effects is 18.2.1.

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The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

HandBrake

Test environment: For video conversion we’re using a 4K video LG Demo Snowboard with a 43,9 Mb/s bitrate. AVC (x264) and HEVC (x265) profiles are set for high quality and encoder profiles are “slow”. HandBrake version is 1.3.3 (2020061300).

x264 and x265 benchmarks

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Naposledy sme sa zaoberali základnou doskou, ktorá, ktorá je aj vďaka nižšej cene vhodná najmä na použitie s lacnejšími procesormi. Teraz tu máme o zhruba 50 eur drahšiu Gigabyte B660 Aorus Master DDR4. Príplatok tu má jasné opodstatnenie a odzkadľuje sa na lepších vlastnostiach. Napájacia kaskáda je výrazne efektívnejšia, chladiče sú účinnejšie a výbava je celkovo bohatšia, vrátane svetielok.

Audio encoding

Test environment: Audio encoding is done using command line encoders, we measure the time it takes for the conversion to finish. The same 42-minute long 16-bit WAV file (stereo) with 44.1 kHz is always used (Love Over Gold by Dire Straits album rip in a single audio file).

Encoder settings are selected to achieve maximum or near maximum compression. The bitrate is relatively high, with the exception of lossless FLAC of about 200 kb/s.

Note: These tests measure single-thread performance.

FLAC: reference encoder 1.3.2, 64-bit build. Launch options: flac.exe -s -8 -m -e -p -f

MP3: encoder lame3.100.1, 64-bit build (Intel 19 Compiler) from RareWares. Launch options: lame.exe -S -V 0 -q 0

AAC: uses Apple QuickTime libraries, invoked through the application from the command line, QAAC 2.72, 64-bit build, Intel 19 Compiler (does not require installation of the whole Apple package). Launch options: qaac64.exe -V 100 -s -q 2

Opus: reference encoder 1.3.1, Launch options: opusenc.exe –comp 10 –quiet –vbr –bitrate 192

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Adobe Photoshop (PugetBench)

Test environment: set of PugetBench tests. App version of Adobe Photoshop is 22.4.2.

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Affinity Photo (benchmark)

Test environment: built-in benchmark.

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Topaz Labs AI apps

Topaz DeNoise AI, Gigapixel AI and Sharpen AI. These single-purpose applications are used for restoration of low-quality photos. Whether it is high noise (caused by higher ISO), raster level (typically after cropping) or when something needs extra focus. The AI performance is always used.

Test environment: As part of batch editing, 42 photos with a lower resolution of 1920 × 1280 px are processed, with the settings from the images above. DeNoise AI is in version 3.1.2, Gigapixel in 5.5.2 and Sharpen AI in 3.1.2.

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

WinRAR 6.01

7-Zip 19.00

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The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

TrueCrypt 7.1a

Aida64 (AES, SHA3)

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Aida64, FPU tests

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FSI (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Kirchhoff migration (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Python36 (SPECworkstation 3.1)

SRMP (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Octave (SPECworkstation 3.1)

FFTW (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Convolution (SPECworkstation 3.1)

CalculiX (SPECworkstation 3.1)

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

RodiniaLifeSci (SPECworkstation 3.1)

WPCcfd (SPECworkstation 3.1)

Poisson (SPECworkstation 3.1)

LAMMPS (SPECworkstation 3.1)

NAMD (SPECworkstation 3.1)

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Memory tests…

… and cache (L1, L2, L3)

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The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

M.2 (SSD) slots speed

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The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

USB ports speed

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The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Ethernet speed

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Analysis of power draw (EPS + ATX connector) w/o power limits

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The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Analysis of power draw (EPS + ATX connector) with Intel’s power limits

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The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Total power draw w/o power limits…

… and with Intel’s power limits

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Achieved CPU clock speed w/o power limits…

… and with Intel’s power limits

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

CPU temperatures w/o power limits…

… and with Intel’s power limits

v

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

VRM temperatures w/o power limits…

… and with Intel’s power limits

The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

SSD temperatures

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The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Chipset temperatures (south bridge)

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The low price of a motherboard brings with it a few unconventional limitations. Ones that are not often found in competing models for similar money. Some of these are of the safety variety to avoid unnecessary damage to critical components. For a customer buying a standard, reasonably set-up build in this price class, they won’t be a bother, and saving money with the B660 Steel Legend can be beneficial.

Conclusion

The ASRock B660 Steel Legend is looked down upon by many for one reason and one reason only – “weak VRM with high temperatures”. But this is a very superficial view of the matter. Sure, the power delivery is weaker than that of the TUF Gaming B660 Plus WiFi D4 compared to which ASRock’s board mostly pulls the short end of the stick in other ways as well.

However, higher CPU performance per unit of power draw (than on the TUF Gaming B660 Plus WiFi D4) is achieved on the B660 Steel Legend. And quite significantly so. It’s not so much that more efficient components are used within the power cascade, it’s that the B660 Steel Legend has a PL2 capped at 241 W and you can’t loosen the bridle any more. That said, ASRock is working with a lower, less aggressive voltage and doesn’t overdrive the power supply too much. The difference is roughly 50 W (about 20 % of the total power draw), by which the CPU power draw is lower. ASRock goes at the lower end of its capabilities, but in a way that doesn’t limit the computing or gaming performance of the CPU in any way. In fact, even in high load with AVX instructions, 200 MHz higher clock speeds are achieved, which can of course be influenced by adjusting the negative offset manually.

Under gaming load, CPU clock speeds are already the same (4.9 GHz) and ASRock board power draw is in turn lower. It is not as pronounced anymore and it is not determined by pressure on lower power limits, but again it is indicative of more efficient voltage management. And that with the Core i9-12900K the temperatures of the voltage regulators climb above 100 °C? That’s a fact, but at 220 watts, which won’t meet with practice. At a load a hundred watts lower (around 125 W) temperatures even without heatsinks is up to 65 °C, which is already fine, by a good margin. For running a Core i5-12×00(F), it’s a great board in terms of power and performance, more efficient than the TUF Gaming B660 Plus WiFi D4. It has lower efficiency in certain circumstances (with more powerful CPUs) only in idle, where unless you lower the PL1 limit enough, it reaches one of the highest power draws.

Some might argue that you can get similar and even better results by undervolting with an Asus board. But how many people do this? The ASRock B660 Steel Legend is weaker in all respects and that is why we will not glorify this board any more. However, it was important to point out that a less robust VRM doesn’t necessarily mean a worse choice. Especially when reviewers often test with overly powerful processors and pass judgement based on impractical results.

Compared to the TUF Gaming B660 Plus WiFi D4, the B660 Steel Legend doesn’t have WiFi antennas, has one of the slower M.2 SSD connectors, fewer USB ports on the rear panel, but again has the benefit of two SATA ports and RGB LED lighting. So it depends on what you prefer. The sound adapter is the same in both cases, the outdated Realtek ALC897.
The network is 2.5-gigabit (Realtek RTL8125B), transfer speeds are similar, although the Intel I225-V on the rival board is a hair faster. The SSD heatsink also has a rather lower efficiency on the ASRock.

And then there are some performance differences. With a more powerful processor in a lower resolution Full HD, ASRock usually loses some of that percentage to the TUF board for similar money. In Borderlands 3 and Metro Exodus it’s still only 2 %, in Total War Saga: Troy 3 %, in Shadow of the Tomb Raider it’s 6 % and In F1 2020, it’s already up to 9 % in terms of average fps. The weaker the graphics card you have compared to the RTX 3080 (which we’re testing with), the more these differences will diminish. Or with the increase in resolution to UHD, when the TUF board has a at most 1 % lead (in F1 2020 and SOTTR) or even the B660 Steel Legend takes the lead (by 2 % in TWST).

It is notable that with the Core i5-12400, better results are usually achieved on the ASRock board, even at FHD resolution. As much as the B660 Steel Legend with Core i9-12900K was in the minus in F1 2020, it is now in the plus (i.e. by 9 %). Then it has a 5 % edge in Metro Exodus and isn’t even slower in Total War Saga: Troy. With different components, these ratios may naturally vary a bit, but at the very least, it again shows that the ASRock board performs better with more low-power processors. And even in very high workloads, for example in 3D rendering, where the Core i9-12900K produces the weakest results and the Core i5-12400 some of the best. Even if it’s all tight, by single digits. The B660 Steel Legend also leads the way in single-core load when encoding audio recording, though the single-core boost clock speeds achieved are paradoxically the lowest.

The ASRock Steel Legend is looking like an excellent choice to the more low-power mid-range Alder Lake processors. It achieves both above-average performance and above-average efficiency with them. Both compared to the TUF Gaming B660 Plus WiFi D4 for similar money and against significantly more expensive motherboards. However, you have to accept weaker connectivity, which is below average even in this price range.

English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš

Games for testing are from Jama levova

Special thanks to Blackmagic Design (for licenses for DeNoise AI, Gigapixel AI and Sharpen AI) and Topaz Labs (for licenses for DeNoise AI, Gigapixel AI and Sharpen AI)

• Contents
• ASRock B660 Steel Legend in detail
• What it looks like in the BIOS
• Methodology: Performance tests
• Methodology: How we measure power draw
• Methodology: Temperature and frequency measurements
• Test setup
• 3DMark
• Borderlands 3
• F1 2020
• Metro Exodus
• Shadow of the Tomb Raider
• Total War Saga: Troy
• PCMark and Geekbench
• Web performance
• 3D rendering: Cinebench, Blender, ...
• Video 1/2: Adobe Premiere Pro
• Video 2/2: DaVinci Resolve Studio
• Graphics effects: Adobe After Effects
• Video encoding
• Audio encoding
• Photos: Adobe Photoshop, Affinity Photo, ...
• (De)compression
• (De)cryption
• Numerical computing
• Simulations
• Memory and cache tests
• M.2 (SSD) slots speed
• USB ports speed
• Ethernet speed
• Power draw curve (EPS + ATX connector) w/o power limits
• Power draw curve (EPS + ATX connector) with Intel’s power limits
• Total power draw (EPS + ATX connector)
• Achieved CPU clock speed
• CPU temperatures
• VRM temperatures – thermovision of Vcore and SOC
• SSD temperatures
• Chipset temperatures (south bridge)
• Conclusion