Biostar’s B660M Silver is the cheapest micro ATX motherboard in the Alder Lake spectrum. Priced at around $160 in the US, it has everything you need to get the most out of your system, unless you want to overclock your CPU. B660M Silver brings a black and silver look (no RGB), two PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 sockets, four SATA ports, excellent power delivery, and 2.5 GbE ports. Overall, it’s a well-rounded option in this area, but it doesn’t include Wi-Fi.
The B660M Silver’s performance was on par with other similar boards across the test suite. I struggled a bit with some advanced multithreading tests, but this is a common theme with most of his B660 boards. Biostar’s board excels in his Procyon Office suite, showing close to the top results in all of these tests. If you’re a gamer, there’s nothing to fear as performance was also average.
Before we get into all the details and see if this board makes it onto the best motherboards list, here is a list of specs from Biostar’s website.
Specifications: Biostar B660M Silver
| socket | LGA1700 |
| chipset | B660 |
| form factor | MicroATX |
| voltage regulator | 13 phases (12x 70A DrMOS MOSFET for Vcore) |
| video port | (1) HDMI (v2.0) |
| (1) DisplayPort (v1.4) input | |
| (1) DVI-D | |
| USB port | (1) USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C (10Gbps) |
| (5) USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps) | |
| (2) USB2.0 (480Mbps) | |
| network jack | (1) 2.5GbE |
| audio jack | (3) Analog |
| Legacy Port/Jack | PS/2, DVI-D |
| Other Ports/Jacks | ✗ |
| PCIe x16 | (1) v5.0 (x16) |
| (1) v3.0 (x4) | |
| PCIe x8 | ✗ |
| PCIe x4 | ✗ |
| PCIe x 1 | (1) v3.0 (x1) |
| Crossfire/SLI | ? |
| DIMM slots | (4) DDR4 5000+(OC), 128GB capacity |
| M.2 socket | (1) PCIe 4.0 x4 (64Gbps) / PCIe (up to 110mm) |
| (1) PCIe 4.0 x4 (64Gbps) / PCIe + SATA (up to 110mm) | |
| U.2 port | ✗ |
| SATA port | (4) SATA3 6Gbps (supports RAID 0/1/5/10) |
| USB header | (1) USB v3.2 Gen 2×2, Type-C (20Gbps, 60W) |
| (1) USB v3.2 Gen 1 (5Gbps) | |
| (2) USB v2.0 (480Mbps) | |
| fan/pump header | (5) 4-pin (CPU, CPU OPT, system fan) |
| RGB header | (3) aRGB (3 pin) |
| (1) AURA RGB (4 pin) | |
| diagnostic panel | EZ debug LED |
| Internal button/switch | ✗ |
| SATA controller | ✗ |
| ethernet controller | Realtek RTL8125BG (2.5Gbps) |
| Wi-Fi/Bluetooth | ✗ |
| USB controller | ✗ |
| HD audio codec | Realtek ALC1220 |
| DDL/DTS Connect | ✗/X |
| guarantee | 3 years |
Inside the box of Biostar B660M Silver
Biostar, like all our board partners, includes some accessories to get you started. The B660M Silver’s accessory stack is sparse, but contains enough to get you started. Below is a complete list of included accessories.
- (4) SATA cable
- I/O shield
- Support DVD
- Quick guide
The design of the B660M Silver
The B660M Silver is a general purpose board with a focus on reliability according to Biostar. The black PCB is replaced by light gray design elements stenciled onto the board around the PCIe and socket areas. Cooling the power delivery, chipset and one M.2 socket is a silver heatsink with a brushed aluminum finish. These aren’t the biggest heatsinks we’ve seen, but they do the job. However, if you need lights, don’t worry. Because the board is fully complemented with ARGB and RGB headers that you can add your own.
The top half of the board gives a good view of the VRM heatsink that extends over the IO bits on the back. Not the largest or heaviest VRM heatsink, but it will keep these MOSFETs working to spec. The top of this heatsink has black silver branding, Biostar stenciled onto the chipset heatsink. Just above the VRM heatsink is a single 8-pin EPS connector (required) for powering the processor.
Passing through the sockets and the small upper VRM heatsink, we come across the first (five) 4-pin fan/pump headers. Biostar doesn’t list the power output for these headers, so you would expect 1A/12W power output for each, if only for safety reasons. Use the Aorura software and the AI Fan program to calibrate the fan.
Heading to the right, there are four non-hardened DRAM slots that are locked only at the top. Biostar lists support for up to 128GB of RAM and speeds up to DDR4-5000+(OC). Two test kits with speeds up to DDR4-4000 had no issues. As always, the distance to reach these (and faster) speeds depends on your memory kit and processor’s integrated memory controller (IMC) and may vary.
In the upper right corner are all three RGB headers. Two 3-pin ARGB headers and one 4-pin RGB header. Control of the included lighting is done through the Aorura software and the Vivid DJ applet. On the far right are a 24-pin EPS for board power, a 19-pin USB 3.1 Gen 1 (5 Gbps) header, and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C header.
B660M Silver’s power delivery consists of 12 phases of Vcore (13 phases in total). Power is supplied to the Renesas RAA229130 controller through an 8-pin EPS connector. Power then moves to twelve 70A OnSemi 5062 DrMOS MOSFETs. The 840A available isn’t the biggest we’ve seen, but it’s enough to handle the Intel Core i9-12900K at default speeds without getting in the way.
On the bottom half of the board we find the fully exposed audio section on the left. To the left of the audio isolation line is the Realtek ALC1220 codec and his four dedicated audio caps. Compared to most of its peers (with the exception of the B660M Mortar), this is a good audio solution on paper, but difficult to distinguish aurally.
In the middle of the board are 3 M.2 sockets and 3 PCIe slots. Starting with the slots, the B660M Silver features two full-length slots (one reinforced) and one x1 slot. The top slot (primary) connects through the CPU and runs at PCIe 5.0 x16. The bottom slot connects through a chipset that runs at PCIe 3.0 x4. There is no mention of multi-GPU support, although the board has the bandwidth to support it. The middle x1 slot also connects through the chipset and supports up to PCIe 3.0 x1 speeds.
As for the M.2 sockets, there are two Key-M slots for storage and one Key-E socket for Wi-Fi (CNVi module not included). The socket on top connects via a CPU with PCIe 4.0×4 (64 Gbps) bandwidth and handles up to 80mm modules. The bottom socket supports modules up to 110mm and connects via a PCIe 4.0 x4 (64 Gbps) bandwidth chipset.
At the bottom are some headers including USB ports, RGB, etc. Below is the complete list from left to right.
- front panel audio
- (3) 4-pin fan header
- (2) USB2.0
- 9-pin Thunderbolt header
- Debug LED
- COM port
- front panel
- 4-pin RGB header
B660M Silver includes a simple rear IO plate that needs to be installed. It has a silver label on a black background and “Silver” branding in the upper left corner. In terms of ports, left to right are the video outputs (HDMI, DisplayPort, DVI-D). On top of that is the Wi-Fi antenna connection, which is misleading as this model does not come with Wi-Fi. It has 8 USB ports. Two USB 2.0 (480 MBps) ports and six USB 3.2 Gen2 (10 Gbps) ports, one of which is Type-C. Next is an audio stack with 2.5 GbE ports and 3-plug analog inputs only.
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