As far as hardware goes on the B660 Master, it’s not far off its Z690 brethren with three PCIe express slots, the top x16 operating at Gen4 and the other two operating at x4 and x1 Gen3, respectively. Storage includes one m.2 slot coming off the CPU, this lives above the top PCIe slot. We also have two more m.2 slots to the left of the chipset heat sink, one operating at Gen4 and one at Gen3. SATA connectivity includes four ports at 6Gbps.
Read more @ TweakTown
The new Zen 4 Ryzen processors will have eight general purpose lanes, of which at least four will be required to be dedicated to an M.2 storage slot (always Gen 5). The other four lanes are up to the motherboard manufacturers. Some boards will use these to implement Thunderbolt 4 (Intel Maple Ridge JHL8540) or USB4 (ASMedia ASM4242). If none of these options are used, these lanes can go towards an additional M.2 slot.
With integrated graphics becoming standard on Zen 4, the first generation of AM5 processors will offer four dedicated display outputs, with HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.0 being supported, but neither being required as far as we understand. There are also four USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) ports and at least one USB 2.0 port coming from the processor. Three of the USB 3.2 ports also support DP Alt Mode, something we’ve seen several announced boards supporting on at least one USB-C port. This seems to be up to the motherboard manufacturers to implement once again.
Read more @ TechPowerUp
The MSI MEG Z690 ACE is therefore a high-end motherboard intended in part for overclockers with competition VRMs: 19+1+2 phases at 105 A, excellent heatsinks, an LED display and even two BIOSes. But also to professionals by acquiring two Ethernet ports and a very complete Thunderbolt connection. It is a card in E-ATX format and not in ATX format, so it will not adapt to all cases. Pay attention!
Read more @ CowcotLand (French)
As far as board hardware goes, this Steel Legend platform follows what we have seen across the entire 600 series chipset ecosystem when considering ATX motherboards. LGA1700 socket for 12th Gen Intel CPUs, four slot memory subsystem, this board taking advantage of the lower cost of DDR4. 128GB of memory is supported with speeds from 3200MHz to 5333MHz via XMP 2.0.
Read more @ TweakTown
The company lists Raptor Lake-S CPU support for its PH12ADI Mini-ITX industrial motherboard. The CPU allegedly supports up to 5200 MHz (or MT/s if you prefer) through non-EEC SO-DIMM memory. This speed is above JEDEC’s standard of 4800 MT/s, which may lead us to believe that this is the lowest frequency natively supported for SO-DIMM memory on Raptor Lake.
Read more @ VideoCardz
According to a new leak, MSI might soon release the MAG B660M Mortar Max WiFi DDR4 motherboard with an external clock generator made by Renesas.
A few months ago, der8auer discovered that motherboards with an external clock generator unlock BCLK overclocking of Intel’s non-K (locked multiplier) Alder Lake CPUs. With the right settings, even a Celeron G6900 could be overclocked from 3.4 GHz to over 5.3 GHz.
The MAG B660M Mortar Max WiFi DDR4 changes that, as can be inferred from its rather-lengthy name. Another advantage of the external clock generator is that it adds PCIe 5.0 support for the first expansion slot, something all of the other B660M Mortar models lack (confusingly, there are already four variations out with DDR4/DDR5 and each with/without WiFi).
Read more @ TechSpot
ASUS has announced the Infinity campaign, running through June. The sales campaign features multiple deals across all ASUS product lines. The campaign covers special promotions through Memorial Day and Father’s Day for eligible products while supplies last. Here are some current deals on select motherboards:
| Country | Model | Duration | MSRP | Promo Price |
| US | ROG STRIX B550-F GAMING WIFI II + Router | 5/16 – 5/31 | $ 229.99 | $ 209.99 |
| US | ROG STRIX Z590-A GAMING WIFI | 5/1 – 5/31 | $ 329.99 | $ 229.99 |
| US | TUF GAMING Z590-PLUS WIFI | 5/1 – 5/31 | $ 259.99 | $ 159.99 |
| US | ROG STRIX Z590-E GAMING WIFI | 5/1 – 5/31 | $ 299.99 | $ 229.99 |
| US | PRIME Z590-A | 5/1 – 5/31 | $ 249.99 | $ 179.99 |
Read more @ ASUS
The demo system was running on a proprietary Phison test board which allows them to evaluate & test next-generation PCIe Gen 5.0 SSDs. The platform utilized for this demonstration was running an ASUS ROG X670E HERO motherboard with a prototype AMD Ryzen 7000 Desktop CPU. In terms of performance, the demo yielded a sequential read of up to 12.5 GB/s and a sequential write rated at 10 GB/s. These are some blistering fast speeds compared to the maximum 7-7.5 GB/s speeds on current PCIe Gen 4.0 SSDs.
Read more @ Wccftech
The Taichi is one of the best motherboards coming out of ASRock’s current gen portfolio. That said, not everyone may be a fan of the latest aesthetic or the “gear” design used on the last two Z series platforms. For these consumers, ASRock has offered a Razer Edition solution built from their partnership with Razer for the previous few years. This “Razer Edition” shares the same hardware platform as the standard Taichi but changes the entire aesthetic of the motherboard, including all the motherboard heat sinks, rear I/O cover, and RGB layout.
Read more @ TweakTown
With the Ace taking the enthusiast slot in MSI’s Z690 MAG lineup, variations of the Z690 Carbon and Z690 Edge fill out of the MPG portfolio. At the top end of this range of motherboards is the Carbon EK X, a board that is functionally identical to the Carbon Wi-Fi but with extra sauce added from EK Waterblocks.
For the hardware platform, we have all the typical, with Z690 chipset, Socket LGA1700, and four DDR5 memory slots. As per usual, this allows 128GB of memory to be installed using 32GB sticks, with speeds of 4800 supported at the base and 6600MHz at the top end.
Read more @ TweakTown