As for what is expected to be our final Alder Lake review (Ryzen 7000 arriving later this month, followed by Raptor Lake at some point), another Micro ATX B660 with Asus TUF Gaming B660M-Plus I have a chance to see the base motherboard. Wi-Fi D4. As the name suggests, this includes Wi-Fi 6, two PCIe 4.0 M.2 sockets, a 20 Gbps USB Type-C port, competent power delivery, and even Thunderbolt 4 support (via header) for DDR4 Optional. Priced at $171.99, the B660M-Plus WIFI D4 is a well-equipped motherboard in the budget Micro ATX space vying for hard-earned system build budgets.
Other hardware includes four SATA ports, a 2.5 GbE port, outdated Realtek ALC897 audio, and TUF style (black with yellow accents). Overall, TUF Gaming’s performance lived up to expectations. Multithreaded tests on Cinebench R23 and POV-Ray multicore were slower than average, but not too much of an anomaly. Lightly threaded applications, such as Procyon Office tests and games, were faster than average. Overall, this is a performant device compared to other his B660 DDR4 based entrants.
Dive headfirst into the details below, including the TUF board’s hardware and performance, to see how it stacks up against its peers. It certainly has a chance to earn a spot on our best motherboards list. But before we get into all that, below are the detailed specs for Asus’ B660M-Plus WIFI D4.
Specifications: Asus TUF Gaming B660M-Plus WIFI D4
| socket | LGA1700 |
| chipset | B660 |
| form factor | MicroATX |
| voltage regulator | 11 Phase (10 Vcore, 50A MOSFET) |
| video port | (1) HDMI (v2.1 – 4K @ 60Hz) |
| (1) DisplayPort (v1.4 – 4K @ 60Hz) | |
| USB port | (1) USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 (20Gbps) |
| (4) USB 3.2 Gen2 (10Gbps) | |
| (1) USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) | |
| (2) USB2.0 (480Mbps) | |
| network jack | (1) 2.5GbE |
| audio jack | (5) Analog, (1) SPDIF |
| Legacy Port/Jack | ✗ |
| Other Ports/Jacks | ✗ |
| PCIe x16 | (1) v5.0 (x16) |
| (1) v3.0 (x4) | |
| PCIe x8 | ✗ |
| PCIe x4 | ✗ |
| PCIe x 1 | (1) v4.0 (x1) |
| PCIe x 1 | (1) v4.0 (x1) |
| Crossfire/SLI | ? |
| DIMM slots | (4) DDR4 5333+(OC), 128GB capacity |
| M.2 socket | (1) PCIe 4.0 x4 (64Gbps) / PCIe (up to 80mm) |
| (1) PCIe 4.0 x4 (64Gbps) / PCIe (up to 80mm) | |
| U.2 port | ✗ |
| SATA port | (4) SATA3 6Gbps (supports RAID 0/1/5/10) |
| USB header | (1) USB v3.2 Gen 1, Type-C (5Gbps) |
| (1) USB v3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) | |
| (2) USB v2.0 (480Mbps) | |
| fan/pump header | (6) 4-pin (CPU, CPU OPT, AIO Pump, Chassis) |
| RGB header | (3) aRGB (3 pin) |
| (1) AURA RGB (4 pin) | |
| diagnostic panel | Q-LEDs |
| Internal button/switch | ✗ |
| SATA controller | ✗ |
| ethernet controller | Realtek RTL8125 (2.5Gbps) |
| Wi-Fi/Bluetooth | Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 (2x2ax, MU-MIMO, 2.4/5/6GHz, 160MHz, BT 5.2) |
| USB controller | ASMedia ASM1074, ASM2142 |
| HD audio codec | Realtek ALC897 |
| DDL/DTS Connect | ✗ / ✗ |
| guarantee | 5 years |
Inside the Asus TUF Gaming B660M-Plus WIFI D4 box
Asus includes some accessories inside the board packaging. The accessory stack doesn’t really stand out, but it does include a support/driver DVD, SATA cables, and a Wi-Fi antenna. Below is the full list of included extras.
- (2) SATA 6Gb/s cables
- ASUS Wi-Fi movable antenna
- M.2 rubber package
- M.2 SSD screw package
- TUF Gaming Stickers
- Support DVD
- TUF certified card
- User guide
Design of TUF Gaming B660M-Plus
According to Asus, the TUF board (TUF = The Ultimate Force) is designed with military-grade components, an upgraded power solution, and a comprehensive cooling solution that is said to deliver solid and stable performance for marathon gaming. I’m here. While today’s TUF boards are a far cry from the boards of yesteryear (think all armor and the fact that they weren’t considered budget options a few generations ago), what we have here is still A balanced solution, the B660M-Plus WIFI D4 features a new TUF Gaming logo and simple geometric design elements in yellow around the PCIe/M.2 area. A simple theme that seems to blend in with many build themes.
When using RGB lighting, TUF Gaming has several lights on the backside of the board that illuminate the TUF letters through a semi-transparent layer. It’s not the brightest RGB implementation we’ve seen yet, but it’s enough to show off everything in your board and chassis. Overall, the board doesn’t stand out for its looks, but you can show it off inside the case.
The first thing you’ll see in the top left corner of the board is the solid tine EPS connector for powering the processor. In this case there are two, a required 8-pin and an optional 4-pin. Below that is a large heatsink that cools the 11-phase power delivery. These have a lot of mass and a fair amount of surface area, so they seem to be able to keep the power bit running within specs.
Above the top VRM heatsink are the first two (out of six) 4-pin fan headers. This area contains the CPU_FAN and CPU_OPT headers, both of which automatically detect the type of fan attached (PWM or DC power). These (and all) headers have an output of 1A/12W. In addition to the CPU headers, there are three chassis fan headers and another dedicated to the AIO pump (the latter running at full speed). I have enough fan/pump headers, but I want at least one of them to support more than 1A/12W.
Continuing our journey to the right, we come across four unenhanced DRAM slots. Each has a single-sided locking mechanism on the top edge (which thankfully stays away from the video card). Asus’ listing supports up to DDR4-5333+(OC), as do other comparable boards. I ran the two kits without issue, enabled XMP, and ran some benchmarks and stress tests.
In the upper right corner is the Q-LED section, which has four LEDs that light up during the POST process. If there is a boot, VGA, RAM, or CPU related failure, the corresponding LED will stay lit, letting you know where the problem is preventing you from accessing the BIOS or Windows.
If the integrated RGB doesn’t provide enough bling out of the box, there are two headers in this area (both 3-pin ARGB). Additionally, there are two more headers along the bottom edge of the board. A third 3-pin ARGB header and a 4-pin AURA RGB header.
Moving the right edge down reveals the beauty of the TUF design glowing from the RGB below. Below that is a 24-pin ATX power connector for the board, a 19-pin front panel USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) header, and a USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) Type-C header.
The power delivery of this non-processor overclocking board consists of an 11-phase VRM with 10 phases dedicated to Vcore to support power-hungry Alder Lake processors. Power is supplied to the DIGI+ 10 channel PWM controller (ASP2100) from the EPS connector. From there it powers ten Vishay 50A Sic654 DrMOS MOSFETs. There aren’t many 500A available on Vcore, but it handled the Core i9-12900K just fine. Power delivery was not the limiting factor in our testing.
Slide down to the bottom half of the board and start with the audio section on the left. Here we see the fully exposed Realtek ALC897 codec to the left of the audio separation line. His four small capacitors dedicated to audio complete this area. Many users find this audio acceptable, but there are similar boards with better codecs.
In the middle of the board are PCIe slots (3) and M.2 sockets (2). Starting with the PCIe slots, the reinforced top slot (primary video card slot) feeds PCIe 5.0 x16 lanes through the CPU, while the bottom full-length slot gets PCIe 3.0 x4 lanes from the chipset. The small closed-ended x1 slot runs at PCIe 4.0 x1 speeds and draws bandwidth from the chipset.
Moving to the right, past the pushpin mounted chipset heatsink, we come across the first two SATA ports, the remaining two are mounted vertically along the bottom edge. B660M-Plus WIFI D4 supports RAID0/1/5/10 mode on all 4 ports if you want to RAID drives on those ports. The manual does not mention port/lane sharing, so any combination of PCIe/NVMe based M.2 modules and all four SATA ports can run simultaneously.
At the bottom are some headers including a USB port and RGB. Below is the complete list from left to right.
- front panel audio
- COM port
- thunderbolt header
- (2) 4-pin chassis fan headers
- 4-pin RGB header
- 3-pin ARGB header
- clear CMOS jumper
- (2) USB 2.0 headers
- system fan header
- (2) SATA ports
- front panel header
The IO area on the back is pre-installed with an IO plate with a black background and white labels for the ports. There are some TUF Gaming branding in the top left corner. Otherwise things are pretty standard. The number of USB ports is not very large, but for most users he needs 7 Type-A ports and 1 Type-C port. Surrounding it are four 10 Gbps ports, one 5 Gbps port, two USB 2.0 480 Mbps ports and a 20 Gbps Type-C port. Video outputs consist of regular HDMI and DisplayPort. There is a 2.5 GbE port next to the Wi-Fi 6 antenna headers. Last but not least is the complete 5-plug and SPDIF audio stack.
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