By: Jonah Chow and Jonathan Kwan
October 14, 2022
Do you ever feel the joy of getting into things at the opportune time? That was the case for me this year with a few different examples. The first was watching Breaking Bad, which is a show most people know by now. I decided to finally see if it was worth the hype, which I ultimately found it was. It was also the right time to invest in that universe as Better Call Saul, its prequel and sequel, was airing its final season this past August. Thus, it was a good time to become invested in the universe to see how the story ended. Watching the show live with all this knowledge was quite an enjoyable experience. I also got into the Korean music label Dream Perfect Regime, also known as DPR, this year. DPR has two main artists under the label, DPR Live and DPR Ian, who both have unique styles of music. This was also very timely as they came to my hometown of Calgary to perform very recently, which was a great experience. Recently, my job has had me traveling more than before in the last little bit. It can be a bit hard to be in a hotel with just your phone sometimes, so I started to pay attention to how other people dealt with moving around for their jobs. This included varying options, but one common trend I noticed was bringing a mini-PC around for gaming to keep up with friends. Thankfully, today's review unit of the ASUS ROG Strix B660-I Gaming WiFi seems to enable this behavior. We have seen several motherboards this year from ASUS with the ProArt B660-Creator D4 and ProArt Z690-Creator WiFi. How will motherboard hold up with its smaller size? Let us read on to find out!
Our review unit of the ASUS ROG Strix B660-I Gaming WiFi came in a medium-sized, brown corrugated cardboard box from ASUS' American offices in Fremont, California, USA. Using FedEx International 2day, the motherboard arrived safely to us here in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for our review today. The ASUS ROG Delta S Wireless accompanied our motherboard and it will also be reviewed by Yours Truly.
The retail packaging for the ASUS ROG Strix B660-I Gaming WiFi uses a red and black color scheme, with the red being used on the top and bottom and the black being used everywhere else. The image of the mini-ITX board can be found towards the right side on the front with the product name to the left overlapping onto the image board. The ROG logo and brand name can be seen printed at the top left. A load of specifications and badges can be seen at the bottom. More specifications can be found at the back of the box.
Speaking of specifications, before we move on, let us take a look at the detailed specifications of the ASUS ROG Strix B660-I Gaming WiFi, as obtained from the manufacturer's website:
CPU
Intel® Socket LGA1700 for 12th Gen Intel® Core™, Pentium® Gold and Celeron® Processors
Supports Intel® Turbo Boost Technology 2.0 and Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0**
* Refer to asus.com for CPU support list.
** Intel® Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0 support depends on the CPU types.
Chipset
Intel® B660
Memory
2 x DIMM, Max. 64GB, DDR5 6200(OC)/ 6000(OC)/ 5800(OC)/ 5600(OC)/ 5400(OC)/ 5200(OC)/ 5000(OC)/ 4800 Non-ECC, Un-buffered Memory*
Dual Channel Memory Architecture
Supports Intel® Extreme Memory Profile (XMP)
OptiMem II
* Supported memory types, data rate(Speed), and number of DRAM module vary depending on the CPU and memory configuration, for more information refer to www.asus.com for memory support list.
* Refer to www.asus.com for the Memory QVL (Qualified Vendors Lists).
Graphics
1 x DisplayPort**
1 x HDMI® port**
* Graphics specifications may vary between CPU types. Please refer to www.intel.com for any updates.
** Support 4K@60Hz as specified in DisplayPort 1.4
*** Support 4K@60Hz as specified in HDMI 2.1.
Expansion Slots
Intel® 12th Gen Processors
1 x PCIe 5.0 x16 slot
Storage
Total supports 3 x M.2 slots and 4x SATA 6Gb/s ports*
Intel® 12th Gen Processors
M.2_1 slot (Key M), type 2242/2260/2280/22110
Intel® B660 Chipset*
M.2_2 slot (Key M), type 2242/2260/2280 (supports PCIe 4.0 x4 mode)
4 x SATA 6Gb/s ports****
* Intel® Rapid Storage Technology supports SATA RAID 0/1/5/10.
** Intel® Rapid Storage Technology supports Intel® Optane Memory H Series on PCH attached M.2 slots.
Ethernet
1 x Intel® I225-V 2.5Gb Ethernet
ASUS LANGuard
Wireless & Bluetooth
Wi-Fi 6
2x2 Wi-Fi 6 (802.11 a/b/g/n/ac/ax)
Supports 2.4/5GHz frequency band
Bluetooth v5.2
USB
Rear USB (Total 8 ports)
1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port (1 x USB Type-C®)
4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports (3 x Type-A +1 x USB Type-C®)
3 x USB 2.0 ports (3 x Type-A)
Front USB (Total 5 ports)
1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 connector (supports USB Type-C®)
1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 header supports additional 2 USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports
1 x USB 2.0 header supports additional 2 USB 2.0 ports
Audio
Realtek 7.1 Surround Sound High Definition Audio CODEC*
"ROG SupremeFX 7.1-Channel High Definition Audio CODEC S1220A
- Impedance sense for front and rear headphone outputs
- Supports: Jack-detection, Multi-streaming, Front Panel Jack-retasking
- High quality 120 dB SNR stereo playback output and 113 dB SNR recording input (Line-in)
- Supports up to 32-Bit/192 kHz playback*"
Audio Features
- SupremeFX Shielding Technology
- Savitech SV3H712 AMP
- Premium audio capacitors
- Due to limitations in HAD bandwidth, 32-Bit/192 kHz is not supported for 7.1 Surround Sound audio.
Back Panel I/O Ports
1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 port (1 x USB Type-C®)
4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports (3 x Type-A +1 x USB Type-C®)
3 x USB 2.0 ports (3 x Type-A)
1 x HDMI® port
1 x DisplayPort
1 x Wi-Fi Module
1 x Intel® I225-V 2.5Gb Ethernet
5 x Audio jacks
Internal I/O Connectors
Fan and Cooling related
1 x 4-pin CPU Fan header
1 x 4-pin CPU OPT Fan header
1 x 4-pin AIO Pump header
Power related
1 x 24-pin Main Power connector
1 x 8-pin +12V Power connector
Storage related
2 x M.2 slots (Key M)
4 x SATA 6Gb/s ports
USB
1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 connector (supports USB Type-C®)
1 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 header supports additional 2 USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports
1 x USB 2.0 headers support additional 2 USB 2.0 ports
Miscellaneous
1 x Addressable Gen 2 headers
1 x AURA RGB header
1 x Clear CMOS header
1 x Front Panel Audio header (AAFP)
1 x S/PDIF Out header
1 x Speaker header
1 x 10-1 pin System Panel header
Special Features
Extreme Engine Digi+
- 5K Black Metallic Capacitors
ASUS Q-Design
- M.2 Q-Latch
- Q-DIMM
- Q-LED (CPU [red], DRAM [yellow], VGA [white], Boot Device [yellow green])
- Q-Slot
ASUS Thermal Solution
- M.2 heatsink
ASUS EZ DIY
-CPU Socket lever protector
- ProCool
- Pre-mounted I/O shield
- SafeSlot
- SafeDIMM
AURA Sync
- AURA RGB header
- Addressable Gen 2 RGB header
Software Features
ROG Exclusive Software
- ROG CPU-Z
- GameFirst VI
- Sonic Studio III + Sonic Studio Virtual Mixer + Sonic Suite Companion
- Sonic Radar III
- DTS® Sound Unbound
- Anti-virus software
ASUS Exclusive Software
Armoury Crate
- AIDA64 Extreme (60 days free trial)
- AURA Creator
- AURA Sync
- Fan Xpert 4
- Two-Way AI Noise Cancelation
AI Suite 3
- Performance And Power Saving Utility
TurboV EVO
EPU
DIGI+ VRM
Turbo app
MyAsus
WinRAR
UEFI BIOS
ASUS EZ DIY
- ASUS CrashFree BIOS 3
- ASUS EZ Flash 3
- ASUS UEFI BIOS EZ Mode
BIOS
128 Mb Flash ROM, UEFI AMI BIOS
Manageability
WOL by PME, PXE
Accessories
Cables
2 x SATA 6Gb/s cables
1 x ROG USB2.0 splitter cable
1 x Panel cable
Miscellaneous
1 x ASUS Wi-Fi moving antennas
1 x Cable tie
2 x M.2 SSD screw packages
1 x M.2 bracket
1 x ROG key chain
1 x ROG STRIX stickers
1 x ROG STRIX thank you card
Installation Media
1 x Support DVD
Documentation
1 x User guide
Operating System
Windows® 11 64-bit, Windows® 10 64-bit
Form Factor
Mini-ITX Form Factor
6.7 inch x 6.7 inch ( 17 cm x 17 cm )
Page Index
1. Introduction, Packaging, Specifications
2. Bundle and Chipset
3. Physical Look - Hardware, Board Layout
4. BIOS and Test System
5. Benchmark: AIDA64
6. Benchmark: Cinebench R23
7. Benchmark: PassMark PerformanceTest 10
8. Benchmark: PCMark 10
9. Benchmark: 3DMark
10. Onboard Sound Frequency Analysis
11. Thermal Measurements
12. Conclusion
