MSI MAG B660M Mortar (Intel 1700)

I find it extremely difficult to review budget-originated products because they lack things to talk about. The MSI MAG B660M Mortar WiFi DDR4 is no different. In many ways, the motherboard fails to meet my expectations. To even get Prime95 software to run with a i9-12900K, I had to tweak some settings in the BIOS. That being said, if the goal is to build a low-cost rendering or encoding computer, this is not on my recommendation list without a serious consideration of the application being used and case air-flow. It should be mentioned that MSI has chosen to implement PCIe 4.0 instead of PCIe 5.0 for cost saving tactics. Given it still has two M.2 Gen4 sockets, it will fill the needs of casual users who need a practical system for today. MSI's choice to offer a model with DDR4 instead of DDR5 memory is great as the prices will not be going down anytime soon. Those just interested in strictly gaming or using a lesser CPU will not run into the thermal issues or instant reboots I had. On that note, the MSI MAG B660M Mortar WiFi DDR4 checks off all the boxes for a casual gamer, at an acceptable price tag. However, sacrifices were made in terms of features and the overall power delivery system. To get the best results, I suggest making sure it fills your specific needs before pulling the trigger.