Right now, many graphics cards have dropped in price and become more available. Gamers can easily grab a reasonably priced, latest-gen Nvidia RTX 3000 or AMD RX 6000 series card to build a new gaming PC. Naturally, this pairs with Intel’s latest 12th Gen chipsets, so what’s the best motherboard choice for great performance without breaking the bank?
One of the perfect motherboards for Intel Core i5 CPUs like the 12600K and below is the ASRock B660M Pro RS. This combo delivers excellent performance and value for both work and gaming. Here are some detailed shots of the board:
The ASRock B660M Pro RS comes in simple packaging with just the essentials, typical for budget boards. Inside you get SATA cables, a manual, driver disc, screws for M.2 SSDs, and a rear I/O shield.
Design-wise, the board sports a black and gray color scheme giving it a strong, sleek look with a lean VRM heatsink featuring the Pro series logo. Surprisingly, despite its affordable price, it includes an M.2 SSD heatsink to keep your drives cool and running fast.
As mentioned earlier, the ASRock B660M Pro RS handles mid-range CPUs like the Intel Core i5 12600K well. It features a solid 8-phase power design (9 phases total, 8 for the CPU) that delivers stable power for chips running around 140W TDP. You can push higher, but expect more heat and possible clock drops during long sessions (which is why Core i7 CPUs might struggle a bit here).
ASRock smartly includes 4 DDR4 RAM slots supporting up to 4800MHz (OC). This makes sense since mid-range builds usually skip pricey DDR5 and invest more in a better graphics card for gaming.
On the side, the board offers both USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A and Type-C front panel connectors, matching features found on higher-end motherboards.
Moving down, there’s a Hyper M.2 slot (PCIe Gen 4 x4) with a built-in heatsink and a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot reinforced with metal, ready for mid-range graphics cards. The board also includes an M.2 Key E slot for a Wi-Fi card, so gamers can ditch messy LAN cables.
At the bottom right, there’s another M.2 slot supporting Gen 3 x4 SSDs only. You can also easily add SATA drives for extra storage.
The board features Realtek ALC897 7.1 channel HD Audio Codec with Nahimic Audio, providing decent sound quality for gamers.
Finally, the rear I/O panel has all the essential ports for peripherals like mouse, keyboard, LAN, and audio. The only downside is the lack of a USB Type-C port here. If you don’t have a discrete GPU yet, the integrated graphics in compatible CPUs offer DisplayPort and HDMI outputs.
Overall, priced around 3 million VND (about $130), the ASRock B660M Pro RS is an excellent choice for mid-range gaming PCs running Intel 12th Gen processors right now!
