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ASRock’s DeskMeet B660 – Fantastic Idea, Interesting Execution
- Thread starter confusis
- Start date
confusis
John Morrison. Founder and Team Leader of SFF.N
Original poster
SFF Network
SFF Workshop
SFFn Staff
That's better thanks John. When I looked at the post first thing this morning it didn't seem to link properly.
**EDIT**
Overall, it seems a good compromise albeit with the limitations stated.
You have to hand it to ASRock for pushing the SFF boundaries with the Deskmini, the sadly missed Deskmini RX/GTX and now this which pushes things that bit further.
It's a shame that the AMD chipset/CPU configuration doesn't allow for dual M.2 slots as per the Deskmini A300/X300 models, but at least you're not limited to APUs, with the PCIe 16x slot on board.
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confusis
John Morrison. Founder and Team Leader of SFF.N
Original poster
SFF Network
SFF Workshop
SFFn Staff
US$224, mentioned in the conclusion
UPDATE: I derped, forgot to hit "save" on the update before I went to bed last night
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Curiosity
Too busy figuring out if I can to think if I shoul
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psst
Your link in the OP is broken
MOD EDIT: thanks, fixed !
Your link in the OP is broken
MOD EDIT: thanks, fixed !
Last edited by a moderator:
thanks for the review @confusis !
I've also joined the "DeskMeet Club" ...
some pictures for you:
I've also joined the "DeskMeet Club" ...
- DeskMeet B660
- i5 12400
- RTX 3060Ti DIY ITX
- 32GB DDR4
- 2TB SATA SSDs
- 1TB M2 SSD
- 3x 5010 NOISEBLOCKER fans as exhaust
some pictures for you:
confusis
John Morrison. Founder and Team Leader of SFF.N
Original poster
SFF Network
SFF Workshop
SFFn Staff
That's why I was confident to get the Corsair kit running on XMP with 3600 but unfortunately no luck so far - any setting except for the JEDEC profiles won't work for me - maybe I'll contact AsRock to see if that could be fixed with a future BIOS update
confusis
John Morrison. Founder and Team Leader of SFF.N
Original poster
SFF Network
SFF Workshop
SFFn Staff
I'm probably one of the first group of buyers for this, and I see there are some missed in the review, and not just here but elsewhere too. And I start getting question on reddit about this. So I figure I posted here also.
There are two major poorly design choices about this case. And let's started w/ what every reviews I have seen missed.
1. While B660 have two 2280 NVMe slots, the one on the back is not ideal place to use card w/ double sided chip nor card that require heatsink. Generally speaking gen 3 card do not need heatsink. And gen 4 generally do. I stated this because the NVMe slot on the back of the board is not raise very high off the board and there are some circuitry underneath. I think you can imagine what would happen when you attach heatsink around (including metal plate on the bottom of) the NVMe stick and touch the pin spike off the back of the board.
2. I think B660 is not well design in term of heat dissipation. W/o GPU it's fine; but w/ GPU it suddenly become a heat trap. It's practically not cooling off myself, and some mods are required to cool the darn thing off. The biggest heat spot is actually right around the CPU area. The problem with the case is there is practically zero exhaust air flow. If you look at the pictures (horizontal orientation w/ M/B laid out on the bottom), you have the bottom w/ zero air flow due to M/B). One side of the case which could put the rubber feet on is solid, meaning no air flow. The opposite side of that, if GPU is install, it's then become intake fan and the GPU block off the air flow. Right above the CPU is the PSU. So, technically the only two areas that could provide good air flow are, front and back. The back are largely block by PSU. But the biggest mistake ASRock did was the front. If this case is designed so that it's slightly deeper and the metal plate to mount the extra SATA drive is more perpetrated and the plastic front is meshed then it could mount 120mm fan there and this would fixed a lot of problem.
There are some mods that can be done w/o physically damage the case. 1. mount a few 30-40mm fans underneath the PSU as exhaust. 2. mount some fans directly above GPU (inside the case if space is still available) or outside as exhaust but route the fan cable on the back above the GPU mounting plate. The flip plate is removable, and you will just have to screw the GPU down instead of using the plate to lock down GPU.
On the other hand, w/o the care of damaging the case, user could cut or drill some holes on the front of the case and mount the 120mm fan, and that maybe the best way to cool the unit. But I would put extreme caution on doing this. Make sure you have the M/B out of the case first. And clean the case w/ extra caution after cutting or drilling hole on the metal plate. Files and sand the holes well after. Any small piece of loose metal shard flowing inside the cause could turn your PC into door stop or even even your house into ash.
I would consider the first point as maybe negligent or not thoroughly thought design choice. But I would consider the second point as poorly design choice. I mean the case is definitely designed w/ low to mid-low tier GPU in mind, otherwise why even put 500w PSU in there, but w/o even consider adequate cooling at all.
There are two major poorly design choices about this case. And let's started w/ what every reviews I have seen missed.
1. While B660 have two 2280 NVMe slots, the one on the back is not ideal place to use card w/ double sided chip nor card that require heatsink. Generally speaking gen 3 card do not need heatsink. And gen 4 generally do. I stated this because the NVMe slot on the back of the board is not raise very high off the board and there are some circuitry underneath. I think you can imagine what would happen when you attach heatsink around (including metal plate on the bottom of) the NVMe stick and touch the pin spike off the back of the board.
2. I think B660 is not well design in term of heat dissipation. W/o GPU it's fine; but w/ GPU it suddenly become a heat trap. It's practically not cooling off myself, and some mods are required to cool the darn thing off. The biggest heat spot is actually right around the CPU area. The problem with the case is there is practically zero exhaust air flow. If you look at the pictures (horizontal orientation w/ M/B laid out on the bottom), you have the bottom w/ zero air flow due to M/B). One side of the case which could put the rubber feet on is solid, meaning no air flow. The opposite side of that, if GPU is install, it's then become intake fan and the GPU block off the air flow. Right above the CPU is the PSU. So, technically the only two areas that could provide good air flow are, front and back. The back are largely block by PSU. But the biggest mistake ASRock did was the front. If this case is designed so that it's slightly deeper and the metal plate to mount the extra SATA drive is more perpetrated and the plastic front is meshed then it could mount 120mm fan there and this would fixed a lot of problem.
There are some mods that can be done w/o physically damage the case. 1. mount a few 30-40mm fans underneath the PSU as exhaust. 2. mount some fans directly above GPU (inside the case if space is still available) or outside as exhaust but route the fan cable on the back above the GPU mounting plate. The flip plate is removable, and you will just have to screw the GPU down instead of using the plate to lock down GPU.
On the other hand, w/o the care of damaging the case, user could cut or drill some holes on the front of the case and mount the 120mm fan, and that maybe the best way to cool the unit. But I would put extreme caution on doing this. Make sure you have the M/B out of the case first. And clean the case w/ extra caution after cutting or drilling hole on the metal plate. Files and sand the holes well after. Any small piece of loose metal shard flowing inside the cause could turn your PC into door stop or even even your house into ash.
I would consider the first point as maybe negligent or not thoroughly thought design choice. But I would consider the second point as poorly design choice. I mean the case is definitely designed w/ low to mid-low tier GPU in mind, otherwise why even put 500w PSU in there, but w/o even consider adequate cooling at all.
any updates on this build? How were the temperatures with the three additional fans?
I sold the Deskmeet in the meantime, mainly because the 3060Ti got too noisy and toasty in this case. The additional fans helped but still... a 200W GPU seems a little bit too much for the Deskmeet... at least if you're sensitive about noise and temps...
thank you for your quick reply. 
I am currently at a similar point of view as you were a while ago. I have a core i5 12400f with a Noctua NH-L9i-17xx. Both components are a bit undervolted but the GPU gets 83°C after a while.
I recently got an RX 6600 and would still try it with additional fans. But whether that really makes sense. I'll have to decide at another time.
How did you connect and install the additional fans?
I am currently at a similar point of view as you were a while ago. I have a core i5 12400f with a Noctua NH-L9i-17xx. Both components are a bit undervolted but the GPU gets 83°C after a while.
I recently got an RX 6600 and would still try it with additional fans. But whether that really makes sense. I'll have to decide at another time.
How did you connect and install the additional fans?
The fans improved GPU thermals about 3-5C for me but only at full throttle so overall it didn't really help with the noise unfortunately...
I've cut and soldered a custom cable to run all three fans off one PWM motherboard header, but you can also order a cheap 3 to 1 fan splitter cable. For mounting I've just used some "foam tape" between PSU and the inner case part to hold the fans in place.
I've cut and soldered a custom cable to run all three fans off one PWM motherboard header, but you can also order a cheap 3 to 1 fan splitter cable. For mounting I've just used some "foam tape" between PSU and the inner case part to hold the fans in place.
I will be pouncing on a Deskmeet X300 as soon as I can find one available (let me know if they're in stock anywhere?). I plan on putting a 5700G in it and using it as an emulation/HTPC machine in the living room, but am concerned about temperature control.
I'm thinking I'll do some combination of adding three small fans next to the PSU like the previous poster did, adding a 140mm fan by the empty GPU slot, and replacing the PSU fan with a better one. Does anyone have any thoughts as to the best setup? I was leaning towards having the large fan as an intake and the three smaller ones as exhaust, but I'm not sure if that makes sense.
I'm thinking I'll do some combination of adding three small fans next to the PSU like the previous poster did, adding a 140mm fan by the empty GPU slot, and replacing the PSU fan with a better one. Does anyone have any thoughts as to the best setup? I was leaning towards having the large fan as an intake and the three smaller ones as exhaust, but I'm not sure if that makes sense.
If you are not planning to add a dedicated graphics card I would just get a good CPU cooler and adding one large exhaust fan to support the Deskmeets airflow concept (intake through the PSU).
Just a heads up: I just got an email from Newegg that the Deskmeets are back in stock
