ASRock DeskMeet B660 Evaluate: An Reasonably priced NUC Excessive?

ASRock was one of many earliest distributors to cater to the small-form issue (SFF) PC market with a number of custom-sized motherboards based mostly on pocket book platforms of their Imaginative and prescient / Core collection items. They ended up lacking the NUC bus for probably the most half, with the Beebox collection put into chilly storage after Skylake and Kaby Lake had been phased out. The economic design and learnings from the Beebox have since been handed on to ASRock Industrial for techniques catering to the industrial and embedded markets.

After Kaby Lake, ASRock shifted focus to Intel’s 5×5 mini-STX form-factor launched in 2015. Whereas permitting for set up of socketed processors, the form-factor couldn’t assist a discrete GPU slot. Across the similar time, Intel additionally began advertising and marketing fanatic NUCs with a discrete pocket book GPU soldered on the motherboard / built-in within the bundle. ASRock has launched a number of Intel and AMD-based mini-STX DeskMini techniques since 2016, and in addition created the micro-STX form-factor to supply a socketed various to the fanatic NUCs.

Intel’s subsequent large push within the NUC market got here with the looks of Compute Parts and Excessive NUCs, with the latter supporting user-replaceable discrete GPUs. With the intention to provide options in that section, ASRock launched their DeskMeet product line early final yr with assist for socketed processors and a PCIe x16 slot for putting in add-in playing cards. The evaluate beneath offers an in depth evaluation of the options, efficiency, and worth proposition of the DeskMeet B660 – a 8L SFF PC based mostly on the Intel B660 chipset, able to accommodating Alder Lake or Raptor Lake CPUs, and chosen dual-slot GPUs.

Introduction and Product Impressions

The rise within the capabilities and energy effectivity of processors, coupled with modern thermal options has additionally enabled small-form issue machines to enter markets that had been restricted to cumbersome power-hungry tower form-factor machines up to now. Whereas a majority of the SFF and UCFF machines available in the market are usually based mostly on sub-45W processors, there’s a rising market (within the gaming and workstation area) for small techniques that may accommodate socketed CPUs. ASRock’s DeskMini collection of mini-STX and micro-STX machines have served this market for the reason that Skylake days. Coinciding the with the launch of Intel’s Alder Lake, ASRock launched a brand new possibility for shoppers in a barely bigger form-factor – the DeskMeet B660.

The DeskMeet B660 focuses on the DIY marketplace for gaming and e-sports techniques. This section has served as a development vector for the in any other case moribund PC market during the last a number of years. Portabile gaming PCs have the added benefit of being compact, lending themselves to use-cases that aren’t simply served by conventional tower desktops. In comparison with the DeskMini mini-STX collection, the brand new techniques deliver the next updates:

• PCIe 4.0 x16 slot permitting the set up of a dual-slot discrete GPU
• Elevated reminiscence capability, due to the presence of 4 full-length DDR4 DIMM slots
• Built-in PSU

The bundle contains the next elements:

• ASRock B660-ITX motherboard (with related cables, screws, and an I/O protect)
• 500W (80+ Bronze) ATX PSU
• Steel chassis (168mm x 219.3mm x 218.3mm) (with related assembling aids)
• Meeting directions

Compact techniques with a PCIe x16 slot and an built-in PSU could be realized with mini-ITX motherboards. Such normal boards are restricted to 2 DIMM slots as a result of area constraints. With the intention to accommodate two further DIMM slots, ASRock has opted for a propretiary form-factor. Their ‘Deep mini-ITX’ board measures 210mm x 170mm (in comparison with the 170mm x 170mm of an everyday mini-ITX board).

Finish-users have the pliability to decide on their very own CPU, storage system, RAM, and elective discrete GPU. House constraints impose some limitations on these, although. The 8L system can assist liquid cooling if a PCIe add-on card shouldn’t be used. CPU coolers as much as 54mm in top can be utilized (something greater would find yourself bumping into the underside of the PSU). Processors with a TDP of as much as 65W could be safely utilized in air cooling. Whereas choose 125W TDP processors are supported, it requires using liquid cooling (ruling out the PCIe add-on card usability). F-series SKUs can be utilized, but it surely requires the obligatory set up of a video card, because the native show outputs of the B660-ITX require a CPU with an built-in GPU.

ASRock sampled us the DeskMeet B660 together with their AMD Radeon RX 6400 Challenger ITX video card and an Intel Core i7-12700F Alder Lake-S processor. The next further elements had been used to finish the construct:

• SilverStone Hydrogon H90 ARGB CPU cooler
• Mushkin Redline Frostbyte DDR4-3600 DIMMs (4×16 GB)
• Mushkin Vortex Redline 2 TB M.2 2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD

The system is supposed to be actively cooled, however the DeskMeet B660 unit by itself does not have any followers bundled with the chassis. The followers within the CPU cooler and video card cooler ought to suffice for many installations. Nonetheless, the aspect of the chassis near the PCIe slot will also be used to mount a 120mm case cooler or a liquid cooling radiator (thickness as much as 45mm). In such instances, the PCIe slot is rendered unusable.

The complete specs of our evaluate configuration are supplied within the desk beneath.

Assembling the System

The DeskMeet bundle comes with the PSU and the motherboard bundled contained in the chassis with applicable padding. Assembling the system entails eradicating a single screw from the underside aspect of the case and pulling out the motherboard tray. One of many likable elements right here is that the entrance panel of the case immediately interfaces with the elements on the motherboard. This eliminates the tangling of wires that was seen within the earlier DeskMini techniques when separating the motherboard tray from the chassis. The motherboard comes mounted on the tray, and the CPU and cooler set up steps aren’t any totally different from different boards with socketed CPUs.

As much as 4 DDR4 DIMMs could be put in within the system. A M.2 2230 slot is obtainable for a Wi-Fi / Bluetooth combo PCIe / USB card. The case has applicable holes for the antennae. There are two M.2 2280 slots (one subsequent to the PCIe slot, and one other on the underside) for set up of NVMe SSDs. The slot subsequent on the underside is PCIe-only, whereas the opposite can accommodate each NVMe and SATA SSDs. Sadly, the documentation shouldn’t be clear on which of those slots is immediately hooked up to the CPU. In different boards, the slot that multiplexes the SATA and PCIe lanes often comes from the chipset (PCH), whereas the pure PCIe one is from the CPU. Primarily based on this assumption, we reviewed the system with the SSD put in on the underside.

The board incorporates 3 SATA ports. The case itself permits for the set up of a 3.5″ HDD (by which case, a PCIe add-in card cannot be put in), or two 2.5″ drives (which eliminates the potential of dual-slot add-in playing cards, whereas nonetheless permitting single-slot playing cards to work). Utilizing such SATA drives additionally precludes the potential of mounting a fan or a water-cooling radiator within the system.

GPU set up entails releasing a latch and fastening screws after inserting the add-in card in place. The PSU is mounted in-place on the very finish, with all obligatory screws within the again panel. The PSU shouldn’t be modular, however the variety of cables to route is minimal, and cable administration shouldn’t be actually a lot of a difficulty. It’s potential to utterly take away the motherboard and I/O protect from the tray, however we did not discover it obligatory through the meeting course of.

Within the subsequent part, we check out the BIOS choices together with an evaluation of the motherboard platform. Following that, now we have numerous sections specializing in varied efficiency elements earlier than concluding with an evaluation of the worth proposition of the system.