K series chips with B series boards?

[wheresmycar]

Seeing overclocking seems pointless, if we purchased a K series Alder Lake chip and paired it up with a respectable B-series board, other than CPU overclocking are there any other disadvantages?

 

[svenge]

There are some chipset-based limitations, but in terms of CPU performance running a 12600K on something like a MSI B660 Tomahawk WiFi DDR4 wouldn't be any different than a Z690 board at stock clocks.

 

[Outback Bronze]

Seeing overclocking seems pointless, if we purchased a K series Alder Lake chip and paired it up with a respectable B-series board, other than CPU overclocking are there any other disadvantages?

You would be best just getting the 12900 (non k) paired with a B660 as there is only 100MHhz difference between boost clocks which is negligible. You would save $$$ too.

 

[Mussels]

Seeing overclocking seems pointless, if we purchased a K series Alder Lake chip and paired it up with a respectable B-series board, other than CPU overclocking are there any other disadvantages?

It varies with every intel generation, but without a Z series board you do end up crippled in various ways

Not just from the lack of multiplier control, but lowered RAM speeds (My i7 6700 is stuck at 2133MHz DDR4, fortunately intel removed that hard lock in current hardware) and quite often the CPU's dont turbo as hard or as high, so performance is often lower than expected if you go by review results on Z series boards, especially for multi threaded results.

Found a good summary image of what's missing between the chipsets, it's a lot more than just overclocking support but also may not matter to everyone:
I went through this page looking for the highlights:

The number of PCI-E lanes (and the speed they run at) is greatly reduced on the B series boardsT
This means less peripherals (like 10Gb USB 3.2 ports) as well as greater chances of installing a device disabling others (NVME disabling motherboard slots or SATA ports, etc)

The USB port differences:
(This doesnt matter to everyone, but the logic that a 20Gb port can run a USB hub for multiple full speed 5Gb devices is relevant long term, as well as the neccesity for high speed wifi for some users)

These are examples of different models and how they line up in reality:

 

[Tetras]

The lower-end B boards are much less likely to be comfortable with the boost frequencies and duration of high-end K CPUs than a Z board, because of their higher power limits. They're not really intended for running K CPUs. You can see that in the thermal testing that channels like hardware unboxed does. But, if you get a good B board it shouldn't be an issue and it is mainly multi-threaded load like Mussels said (gaming should be fine, for the most part).

 

[AlwaysHope]

Don't know about other countries atm, but over here in Australia you can get a low end Z690 board with all its benefits for the price of mid to high end B660 boards. If your not into OC & want maximum connectivity options into the future, then Z690 is your friend. This was also the case with previous gen Z590 & B560 boards as well.

 

[tabascosauz]

Seeing overclocking seems pointless, if we purchased a K series Alder Lake chip and paired it up with a respectable B-series board, other than CPU overclocking are there any other disadvantages?

My concern about B660 memory overclocking was access to VCCSA (and control of other minor DDR5-related voltages I'm not familiar with but know are present on 12th gen)

But it looks like -K SKU on B660 should still have control over those. It's the non-K CPUs that have the secondary voltages locked out, so you're fine if you pair say a 12600K with B660.

12700 locked VCCSA - ram speeds

12700 non-k has locked VCCSA so I was wondering if it is worth getting ram past 3200mhz, I ideally want 3600 G1 but not sure if it will be stable. Which ram/mobo can do this and what speed/timings are possible?

www.overclock.net

It still is a bit of a waste though. Higher end B660 boards stray into Z690 territory (yes, even if those entry level Z690s are crap).

 

[wheresmycar]

appreciate everyones input.

Mussels I really appreciate the thorough comparison and link ups. I like this type of easily comprehensible stuff.

I should have mentioned earlier. The idea was to grab a 12400F for a mate paired with a £130 (ish) mini-ITX board (ASRock B660M-ITX/ac). Hes already got a RTX 2070 super. Purpose of use: 1080P GAMING ONLY. I asked him about additional connectivity/storage/etc... hes got a 500GB + 2TB SSD (both SATA) and hes not looking to expand. A pretty basic setup.

Now we're looking at the 12600K, if it runs at its rated boost clock he'll push past his budget to land one as long as there's no compromise which might go overlooked. Judging by the Z/B-series comparison charts am I correct to assume it's all good?. Z-series mini-ITX boards get pricier hence out of his comfort zone to spend more on that side.

 

[Mussels]

appreciate everyones input.

Mussels I really appreciate the thorough comparison and link ups. I like this type of easily comprehensible stuff.

I should have mentioned earlier. The idea was to grab a 12400F for a mate paired with a £130 (ish) mini-ITX board (ASRock B660M-ITX/ac). Hes already got a RTX 2070 super. Purpose of use: 1080P GAMING ONLY. I asked him about additional connectivity/storage/etc... hes got a 500GB + 2TB SSD (both SATA) and hes not looking to expand. A pretty basic setup.

Now we're looking at the 12600K, if it runs at its rated boost clock he'll push past his budget to land one as long as there's no compromise which might go overlooked. Judging by the Z/B-series comparison charts am I correct to assume it's all good?. Z-series mini-ITX boards get pricier hence out of his comfort zone to spend more on that side.

I'm not familiar with 12th gen boost, just make sure he doesnt get too high hopes there.
It seems like every company has confusing as heck boost clocks these days, in the CPU and GPU worlds.
(my 5800x is advertised as 4.7GHz boost, but its 4.85GHz and 5.05GHz with PBO enabled. And then my 3090 that has 1740MHz boost but boosts to 2.1GHz so... brain hurty)

A B series board may only boost to intels specs (advertised TDP, not the blasting it away 200W TDP), which will likely not be all cores at max boost clock. This will likely be a good thing in an ITX rig, keeping heat under control.

 

[Tetras]

If you extrapolate from thermal testing like this (12600K is later in the charts, @ 21:20), which is a more unusual case of load than gaming, I think it is fairly clear that the 12400F would run games without throttling in pretty much all boards (from what I've seen it stays under 50 watts when gaming, often lower), even without direct airflow to the VRMs.

The 12600K seems to use quite a bit more, up to 70 when playing New World in this video and right up to 90 in TWW3.

It seems rather high, just for a few Mhz on the 12400F, but it is consistent with the average from igorslab:

Intel Core i9-12900K(F), Core i7-12700K and Core i5-12600K Review - Gaming in really fast and really frugal | Part 1 | Page 9 | igor'sLAB

Intel in fast AND economical? Yes, since the 12th. Generation, i.e. Alder Lake S, this also fits together again. And so today's text effectively becomes the narrative for a kind of turnaround…

www.igorslab.de

If the board has airflow I think 90 watts would be fine for the VRMs when gaming, but I'm not sure how meaty the VRMs on that board are, hopefully better than the board HUB panned. He could turn off turbo temporarily (the 12600K's base clock is decent, it is 300 Mhz slower than the 12400F's all-core boost) or cap the power limits lower (if the board permits it), when playing the most demanding games.

I'd feel more comfortable with e.g. a top-down air cooler than an AIO, but 90 watts will be quite loud for the average air cooler and you'd need to fit it into a small case.

If you can find someone who has used the board it could help give a firmer recommendation, though they may not have been monitoring the temperatures or throttling.

 

[tabascosauz]

If the board has airflow I think 90 watts would be fine for the VRMs when gaming, but I'm not sure how meaty the VRMs on that board are, hopefully better than the board HUB panned. He could turn off turbo temporarily (the 12600K's base clock is decent, it is 300 Mhz slower than the 12400F's all-core boost) or cap the power limits lower (if the board permits it), when playing the most demanding games.

The HDV that HWUB hated has discrete Sinopowers with doubled lo-side and no heatsinks, that has zero business being on an Intel board.

The B660M-ITX/ac has (5/6?) x 50A Vishays. No reason for it to struggle below 100W, although admittedly the heatsink looks kinda small and would benefit from downdraft.

 

[wheresmycar]

I had him read all the replies on here and showed him a bunch of benchmarks which are relevant to his most played games. He's happy to stick with the 12400F (actually purchased last night). Useful savings if he ever wants to sell later for a faster 13th Gen chip.

Appreciate everyones input, i'm glad we covered this topic... something i've been curious about too considering overclocking seems more and more less adventurous.