News ASRock DeskMini B660: A LGA1700 barebone with PCIe 5.0 SSD, USB 3.2 Gen2×2 and DDR4



LINK: https://www.asrock.com/news/index.asp?iD=4807
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ASRock DeskMini B660
  • Intel12th Gen Core processors up to 65 watts TDP
  • 2× SO-DIMM DDR4 3200Mhz
  • 2 x 2280 M.2 slots (1 PCIe 5.0 and 1 PCIe 4.0)
  • 1x USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type C , 1x USB 3.2 Gen1 Type A and 3.5mm audio jack in front
  • 1× USB 3.2 Gen-2x1 Type-C with ALT mode in back offering DP and PD (60w) connectivity in rear I/O
  • Supports 3 monitors USB-C, Displayport 1.4a and HDMI? (assuming, not stated)
  • Intel Gigabit lan and M.2 2230 Wi-Fi/BT slot
  • 155 × 155 × 80 mm (L×H×W)
  • External power adapter
 
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m-i-c-k-e-y

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Original poster
Feb 13, 2018
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Don't know why place an ATX size power supply on their DeskMeet while SFX and FLEX standards exists...
Maybe I'll buy the DeskMeet just for their MB (supporting 128Gb).
 
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robbee

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n3rdware
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Sep 24, 2016
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Wonder if they are ever going to release this, or at least announce when it'll be released. It's been 3 months since the press release now...
 

msystems

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Apr 28, 2017
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Valantar

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Jan 20, 2018
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Gotta say I really like that form factor. I'd love to see a slightly higher effort board that tried to get some extra m.2 slots into that extra space, that would be pretty neat.
 

msystems

King of Cable Management
Apr 28, 2017
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The bios supports changing the cpu multiplier apparently and a few other things (looking at the manual). But the processor support list is only for non-K and non-F cpu.


CPU Configuration
CPU Turbo Ratio Information
This item allows users to browse the CPU Turbo Ratio information.
CPU Configuration
CPU P-Core Ratio
The CPU speed is determined by the CPU P-Core Ratio multiplied with the BCLK.
Increasing the CPU P-Core Ratio will increase the internal CPU clock speed
without affecting the clock speed of other components.
AVX2 Ratio Offset
AVX2 Ratio Offset specifies a negative offset from the CPU Ratio for AVX
workloads. AVX is a more stressful workload that lower the AVX ratio to ensure
maximum possible ratio for SSE workloads.



So im confused. Can the multiplier even be changed on non-K intel? And if intel K processors have iGpu, why doesn't Asrock support them (other than tdp reasons). Would the bios recognize a 12600k and boot even though its not supported?
 
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Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
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The bios supports changing the cpu multiplier apparently and a few other things (looking at the manual). But the processor support list is only for non-K and non-F cpu.






So im confused. Can the multiplier even be changed on non-K intel? And if intel K processors have iGpu, why doesn't Asrock support them (other than tdp reasons). Would the bios recognize a 12600k and boot even though its not supported?
AFAIK the multiplier can always be lowered on non-K Intel CPUs, but you won't be able to raise it above stock - the BIOS won't let you. As for K SKUs, it's likely they would boot given that they're architecturally identical to other ADL chips, but they might be explicitly excluded for power delivery reasons, for example. AFAIK that would require extra BIOS work on ASRock's side though - leaving it off the QVL is one thing, explicitly removing support from the BIOS is another. YMMV, I guess.
 
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Arboreal

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Oct 11, 2015
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Gotta say I really like that form factor. I'd love to see a slightly higher effort board that tried to get some extra m.2 slots into that extra space, that would be pretty neat.

Agreed, the Deskmeet (ITX+) form factor looks really appealing. you could make some great workstations and portable gaming rigs with them in custom cases.

IIRC they managed 3 M.2 slots on the RX/GTX micro STX boards, and there should be available lanes.

On another tack with M.2, although they are slower* than NVMe it would be great to have a a dedicated 2x SATA M.2 board to go in the lower drive bay of Deskminis in place of 2x 2.5" SSDs.
* I'm not sure how many applications really would show the speed difference in the real world, and would be fine for storage drives
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
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On another tack with M.2, although they are slower* than NVMe it would be great to have a a dedicated 2x SATA M.2 board to go in the lower drive bay of Deskminis in place of 2x 2.5" SSDs.
* I'm not sure how many applications really would show the speed difference in the real world, and would be fine for storage drives
You mean like this, just with two ports? Adapters like that are definitely useful for densifying storage, that's for sure. Depending on the use case the single-port ones are mostly fine even (as long as your SATA controller supports port multipliers, that is).
 

Arboreal

King of Cable Management
Silver Supporter
Oct 11, 2015
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Simpler than that TBH, like this doubled - similar to what I use in my S610 for a 3rd M.2 drive.
More like exhibit B, in fact but with 2 SATA connectors.
Never dabbled with port multipliers...
 

msystems

King of Cable Management
Apr 28, 2017
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Doing some more reading on b660 chipset it appears that there may be some ways to get more performance out of non-K parts... the first being raising the power limit.

But the more interesting and unconfirmed feature is changing the BLCK clock on non-k parts, making it possible to get ridiculous value out of the 12300 even. However that was just a rumor based on a bios feature on z690 boards and probably not a common feature on 660 ones.

 

msystems

King of Cable Management
Apr 28, 2017
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So the b660 Deskmini ships with a 120w brick, but the power draw on Intel 12th gen (even Non-K) can demand up to 200 watts for a short period. I'm wondering how they dealt with that. I assume it's a setting in the bios but I wonder if there is a hard limit and what the limit is.
 

Valantar

Shrink Ray Wielder
Jan 20, 2018
2,201
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So the b660 Deskmini ships with a 120w brick, but the power draw on Intel 12th gen (even Non-K) can demand up to 200 watts for a short period. I'm wondering how they dealt with that. I assume it's a setting in the bios but I wonder if there is a hard limit and what the limit is.
They've likely just hard limited boost power to something like 100W. This is easily done by adjusting... ugh, I can never remember if that is PL1 or PL2. The one that's short term boost power! :p
 

AMv8-1day

Cable-Tie Ninja
Feb 13, 2017
228
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Doing some more reading on b660 chipset it appears that there may be some ways to get more performance out of non-K parts... the first being raising the power limit.

But the more interesting and unconfirmed feature is changing the BLCK clock on non-k parts, making it possible to get ridiculous value out of the 12300 even. However that was just a rumor based on a bios feature on z690 boards and probably not a common feature on 660 ones.

Hardware Unboxed recently elaborated on this little loophole that Der8auer found, allowing BLCK clock overclocking on non-k parts.
Unfortunately, it likely won't help you here as it's very motherboard dependant.
 
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