Review H610 Motherboard Roundup: i9-12900K Meets Sub-$120 Micro ATX

[Admin]

The H610 chipset is designed for users who want the latest platform, but a lower cost of entry. While there are limitations (no overclocking, limited connectivity), it’s a cheap way into Alder Lake. Just stay away from the high-power processors with this chipset.

H610 Motherboard Roundup: i9-12900K Meets Sub-$120 Micro ATX : Read more

 

[javiindo]

Not to be able to do overclock on the RAM it means that it's not possible to use the XMP profiles in the RAM?
What was the speed of the RAM tested? Do these motherboards support DDR5? :-o

 

[hotaru.hino]

Not to be able to do overclock on the RAM it means that it's not possible to use the XMP profiles in the RAM?
What was the speed of the RAM tested? Do these motherboards support DDR5? :-o

It just means it doesn't have support for beyond DDR4-3200, per the maximum speed of the JEDEC standard. And they don't support DDR5 (Alder Lake boards can only support one or the other)

 

[Co BIY]

Would have been nice to run a i5-12600K and 12400 to see if these boards can max out these chips.

Is there a way to shut down some cores and throttle back the i9 to emulate the i5s ?

 

[TerryLaze]

Would have been nice to run a i5-12600K and 12400 to see if these boards can max out these chips.

Is there a way to shut down some cores and throttle back the i9 to emulate the i5s ?

The 12600k scores about 17.000 in cb23, 18 when overclocked, the 12900k hits 22 and above on these 610 boards.
They barely slow down the 12900k by around 10% compared to full hog no power limits on the 12900k so anything else should be more than fine on thee boards.
https://www.tomshardware.com/review...-i5-12600k-review-retaking-the-gaming-crown/6

 

[Co BIY]

Does the socket look crooked on the MSI to anyone else ?

 

[ceomrman2]

This is a great article! I feel like the best values are sometimes hidden because people sometimes fixate on the wrong things. You can spend tons on RAM and cool-looking MB features that don't really yield much in the real world, for example.

Everyone's goals are different. I'm using pre-tax Canadian prices (very similar to US after conversion). I'm biased towards spreadsheets/BI, photos, and video encoding. Gaming is relevant, but not top of mind. I'll play with OC'ing but won't pay extra for it. I figured CAD$1400 for ssd/GPU/case/etc, and separately figured prices for these MB/CPU/RAM/opt. WiFi combos. I applied my own weights to the benchies - higher for productivity and efficiency, less for synthetics. I compared i9-11900k, 5950x, and DDR5 z690 boards (as one set). For prices on those I used the average of a couple recent "best medium price" recommendations for the various categories. I added the Asus H610 and each of the three B660s in the article.

The 11900k system would cost -11% vs average, but deliver -23% performance I care about, I'll call that "net -12." The typical DDR5 z690 costs +12% and delivers +11% performance, net =1. The Ryzen was net -1, and Asus H610 was net 0. So all those look perfectly reasonable - you just get just what you pay for. The Asus B660 was net +4, though, and ASRock and MSI B660 boards were both net +5. I puttered with the weighting but the general "bunching" of results was pretty reliable, with 11th gen Intel always losing by a lot, 5960x/DDR5 z690/H610 all basically tied for overall value, and the B660 boards all slightly better overall.

 

[RedBear87]

It just means it doesn't have support for beyond DDR4-3200, per the maximum speed of the JEDEC standard. And they don't support DDR5 (Alder Lake boards can only support one or the other)

Technically Alder Lake can support both DDR4 and DDR5, there's at least one motherboard from Onda (a Chinese OEM) that supports both. And answering javiindo's question, there are more mainstream motherboards that support DDR5 only. Of course at the moment it doesn't make a lot of sense to pair expensive DDR5 with a cheap mobo, but the option does exist (somehow).