12700k with a B660 motherboard

[Zarax]

Just like the title said, is there anything I should be wary of by using such a combo?
I'm not interested in overclocking, would I loose anything truly useful by not going with a higher end MB?

Thanks!

 

[mickyflinn]

A lot of b660 motherboards are pcie4 but even some z690 are as well, not a big deal for most but be aware if its a feature you require.

 

[g67575]

Just like the title said, is there anything I should be wary of by using such a combo?
I'm not interested in overclocking, would I loose anything truly useful by not going with a higher end MB?

Thanks!

Might be worth just buying a cheap Alder Lake / motherboard combo, then upgrading to Raptor Lake in about 6 months.

You could consider buying the cheapest Z690 board, they are about £140.

The problem with the 12700K is that it doesn't turboboost to 5ghz on all cores (yes it can be clocked at 5ghz, but reaches silly temps).

6 core chips with no E-Cores are better value, like the 12400f (around £160) and the 12500 (around £200).

A more ideal CPU would have 8-12 Golden Cove (performance cores), with no E-Cores. The 10900 /10900K had 12 cores, so anything less seems like a regression.

E-Cores seem like a bodge to compete with AMD in multithreaded benchmarks on laptops.

It's worth considering that Intel's major upgrade won't arrive until 2023, with Meteor Lake.

 

[Amatsubu]

I wouldn't upgrade to Raptor Lake, TBH.
Just get what you want now and ride the hell out of it, then switch when DDR5 becomes then standard and Intel moves to a new node.

You won't need more e-cores for a good while and Raptor Lake most probably won't run any cooler, especially that it's supposed to have a higher power limit IIRC.

 

[Zarax]

So aside from PCIE 5 there shouldn't be any drawbacks?
I intend to keep the configuration for 5+ years (current one is now 9 years old) so as long as there is no major chance of having to scrap the system for an upgrade (like new GPU in 3 years) I'm not really picky.
I do not intend to upgrade anything other than GPU and SSD.

 

[Tetras]

So aside from PCIE 5 there shouldn't be any drawbacks?
I intend to keep the configuration for 5+ years (current one is now 9 years old) so as long as there is no major chance of having to scrap the system for an upgrade (like new GPU in 3 years) I'm not really picky.
I do not intend to upgrade anything other than GPU and SSD.

The major drawback used to be memory overclocking, but you can overclock memory on B boards now.

The secondary issue is less PCI-E lanes, but you still get 2 m.2 on most b660 boards.

Hardware unboxed have a roundup where they test thermals.

 

[Kelt]

Might be worth just buying a cheap Alder Lake / motherboard combo, then upgrading to Raptor Lake in about 6 months.

You could consider buying the cheapest Z690 board, they are about £140.

The problem with the 12700K is that it doesn't turboboost to 5ghz on all cores (yes it can be clocked at 5ghz, but reaches silly temps).

6 core chips with no E-Cores are better value, like the 12400f (around £160) and the 12500 (around £200).

A more ideal CPU would have 8-12 Golden Cove (performance cores), with no E-Cores. The 10900 /10900K had 12 cores, so anything less seems like a regression.

E-Cores seem like a bodge to compete with AMD in multithreaded benchmarks on laptops.

It's worth considering that Intel's major upgrade won't arrive until 2023, with Meteor Lake.

Incorrect.

My 12700K is oc'd to 5.1/4 and it doesn't reach "silly temps"...at all.

 

[MartinPrince]

...The 10900 /10900K had 12 cores, so anything less seems like a regression...

Another thing you got very wrong, it has 10 cores not 12.

 

[Perfect_Chaos]

I wouldn't upgrade to Raptor Lake, TBH.
Just get what you want now and ride the hell out of it, then switch when DDR5 becomes then standard and Intel moves to a new node.

You won't need more e-cores for a good while and Raptor Lake most probably won't run any cooler, especially that it's supposed to have a higher power limit IIRC.

If i go Intel then I'd wait for Meteor Lake because it should allow at least 1 more upgrade on their boards. It would make little sense to buy straight into Raptor Lake as a new build unless you aren't going to upgrade for a while, and with the larger jumps in speed lately that could leave you left behind by a good bit.

 

[Amatsubu]

If i go Intel then I'd wait for Meteor Lake because it should allow at least 1 more upgrade on their boards. It would make little sense to buy straight into Raptor Lake as a new build unless you aren't going to upgrade for a while, and with the larger jumps in speed lately that could leave you left behind by a good bit.

It depends from what you're upgrading and for how long you plan to keep the platform. I went from 4790k to 12700kf with 32gb of ddr4 and plan to keep it for as long as possible. It has more than enough grunt to skip even Meteor Lake, let alone Raptor. I'll only upgrade when DDR5 becomes commonplace and matures enough to be worth the hassle. IMO, there's no point in upgrading CPUs often, you just lose money and go through the hassle of switching boards and selling stuff. It's better to ride it out until your current one starts struggling. If someone gets AL now, there's zero sense in upgrading to RL in a few months and I'd say even ML can be easily skipped unless you just need to have the shiniest new things.

TBH, it's not a great time to upgrade with everything that's around the corner so if someone has a decent CPU, they should definitely wait. I know I wouldn't have made the jump, if my 4790k wasn't struggling, especially with the whole CPUs being bent by shoddy mechanisms issue (of course MSI is deemed to use higher quality Lotes ILMs but I got Foxconn on mine somehow:/) and some other problems.