ASRock DeskMeet B660

After a few days of testing the ASRock Desk Meet B660, I've come away quite surprised with the capabilities of this SFF 8L platform and saddened by some of the design choices that were made. ASRock has designed the DeskMeet chassis quite well and has given it the ability to use full-size ATX PSUs, with the unit supplied being both custom in the cable length and fan direction, pushing air into the chassis to cool the CPU socket area, including VRMs. Added to this is a custom design "B660" motherboard that offers all the standard amenities we as consumers would expect, including PCIe Gen4 support for storage and graphics cards and features we don't typically see on an ITX platform like four-slot DDR4 memory support. This allows the DeskMeet to support 128GB of memory when typical ITX platforms max out at 64GB. With that, there are some oddities with the DeskMeet B660, which all come down to USB connectivity. The Intel B660 chipset diagram specs two USB 3.2 Gen2x2 ports, four USB 3.2 Gen 2, and six USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports alongside a massive twelve available USB 2.0 ports, all from the chipset. On this platform, ASRock has decided for all the available USB 3.2 ports to function at Gen 1 speeds, severely limiting the performance of any external storage one would want to connect. The second fault is the lack of 2.5Gbe on this platform though I don't blame them too much as B660 offers integrated 1Gbe with 2.5Gbe being an optional add-on. With all of that said, testing went quite well. Starting with the BIOS, allowing us to set up our TridentZ with ease, tagging in the XMP profile for our 3200MHz kit. We also were able to use the CPU Cooler profiles to control the long-term power limits of our CPU, so we didn't push past the thermal limits of the L9i from Noctua. On that same note, for consumers looking to use a system such as this for a "Blade" type server for heavy VM use, omitting the GPU offers plenty of space for the inclusion of a 120mm AIO cooling solution that would allow you to run a higher power limit for increased performance and the ability to run 128GB of DDDR4 aids in this type of use as well. For consumers wanting an SFF gaming platform, the DeskMeet B660 will accommodate dual slot cards up to 8" in length. This means we are topping out with GPUs like the GeForce 3060 Ti and Radeon RX 6600, plenty for a high FPS 1080p machine. With pricing currently up in the air, I'm still on the fence with the DeskMeet B660. If it does launch somewhere around $200-$300, I would be quite happy with it, given how rare 8L chassis are and everything included in the barebones kit. Read more: https://www.tweaktown.com/reviews/10119/asrock-deskmeet-b660-small-form-factor-pc/index.html#Final-Thoughts