Intel H670, B660 and H610: here are the alleged specifications
Intel H670, B660 and H610
According to the latest rumors, the Intel H670, B660 and H610 chipsets will be launched in January 2022, but the well-known leaker momomo_us has previewed their specifications. The H670, B660 and H610 motherboards will be distributed in DDR5 or DDR4 versions, very similar to the flagship Z690 products. However, if you intend to overclock your processor, the more expensive Z690 remains the only option. Memory overclocking will also be available on the H670 and B660. Unfortunately, the H610 chipset doesn't have any capabilities, which means consumers will be stuck at the default speed supported by Alder Lake.Credit: ASUS Additionally, PCIe 5.0 support is present on all four chipsets. However, it is important to remember that not all manufacturers will offer this option on their Intel 600 series motherboards. On the Z690 and H670 motherboards it will be easy to find one or two PCIe 5.0 expansion slots, while on the B660 and H610 it will only be offered at most. one PCIe 5.0 expansion slot. Alder Lake provides four PCIe 4.0 lanes for M.2 storage and only the H610 chipset lacks this feature.
Intel has doubled the DMI connection throughput on Alder Lake. While previous generations of Intel processors had an MI 3.0 x8 (7.88 GB / s) pipeline on the chipset, Alder Lake enjoys a DMI 4.0 x8 (15.66 GBps) pipeline. According to information from momomo_us, this is true for the Z690 and H670 chipsets, while the B660 and H610 are limited to a 4.0 x4 DMI connection. A reduced DMI interconnect obviously limits the number of connectivity options on the B660 and H610 motherboards.
Z690 H670 B660 H610 Memory DDR5 / DDR4 DDR5 / DDR4 DDR5 / DDR4 DDR5 / DDR4 CPU OC YNNN MEM OC YYYN CPU PCIe 5.0 1 × 16/2 × 8 1 × 16/2 × 8 1 × 16 1 × 16 CPU PCIe 4.0 1 × 4 1 × 4 1 × 4 - DMI 4.0 lines 8 8 4 4 PCIe 4.0 12 12 6 0 PCIe 3.0 16 12 8 8 USB 3 (20G) 4 2 2 0 USB 3 (10G) 10 4 4 2 USB 3 (5G) 10 8 6 4 USB 2.0 14 14 12 10 SATA 3.0 8 8 4 4 In terms of high-speed I / O (HSIO), the Z690 offers 12 lanes of PCIe 4.0 and 16 lanes of PCIe 3.0. H670 has a 12 + 12 configuration, while B660 a 6 + 8. The H610, however, only provides eight PCIe 3.0 lanes. From a connectivity standpoint, the Z690 chipset is the most generous, offering up to four USB 3.2 Gen 2 × 2 Type-C ports (20Gbps), 10 USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10Gbps), 10 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (5 Gbps). ) and 14 USB 2.0 ports. Logically, the remaining chipsets will be equipped with a small number of USB ports. The H610 is the only chipset that will not ship with USB 3.2 Gen 2 × 2 Type-C ports.
Conventional storage options also vary between different chipsets. The Z690 and H670 are equipped with up to eight SATA III ports, while the B660 and H610 have four ports. Unless you have many secondary storage drives or plan to run a RAID array, four SATA III ports should be sufficient for most users.
Will Intel's Alder Lake H670, B660 And H610 Motherboard Chipsets Support DDR5?
In the early going, there is a single chipset available for Alder Lake—Z690, which happens to be Intel's flagship offering. That's not surprising, as chip makers like to put their best feet forward when launching generational products. However, more mainstream chipsets are on the horizon and a fresh leak purports to show how they compare to Z690.It is generally assumed that Intel will flesh out its Alder Lake chipset family with H670, B660, and H610 offerings. While nothing has been announced yet, it would be odd for Intel to suddenly change up its naming convention, even with Alder Lake introducing a different kind of makeup compared to most past releases (save for Lakefield, to some extent).That seems to be the case according to a new leak, which compares all three chipsets side-by-side, along with Intel's existing Z690 chpset. Have a look...
There are a few interesting details that stand out. One of them is the apparent support for DDR5 memory across the board, right on down to Intel's entry-level H610 chipset for budget builds. If this is an accurate leak, then every single chipset for Alder Lake will support both DDR5 and DDR4, as is the case right now with Z690.Of course, it will be up to the motherboard makers to take advantage of either memory type. Take for example ASRock's current lineup of Z690 motherboards. Out of the 13 models it currently offers, four of them support DDR5 while the other nine ride with DDR4.
The other big question mark is PCI Express 5.0 support. Last month a reviewer claimed to have received an ASUS Z690 motherboard for testing in a retail box for an unreleased Prime B660 - Plus D4 model. According to the sticker on the box, that board only supports PCIe 4.0.Looking at the leaked spec sheet above, however, every Alder Lake chipset will support PCIe 5.0. The B660 and H610 chipsets will offer up a single PCIe 5.0 slot, though if the aforementioned retail packaging is any indication, this could be optional.
There aren't any other real surprises in the leak. H670 looks to offer many of the same core features as Z690 for people who aren't interested in overclocking, while B660 and especially H610 tone things down for what should amount to cheaper price points.
