MSI B660 DDR5 boards leak with prices starting at US$119: could help bring Alder Lake and DDR5 to the mainstream

Tipster @chi11edog tweeted what appears to be a price list for MSI's entire upcoming lineup of B660 motherboards. The budget LGA 1700 parts start at just US$119, a big step down in price from Z690 boards currently on the market. 

What's remarkable here is that all of the parts listed appear to be DDR5-compatible B660 variants, not DDR4. If launched today, the US$119 MSI PRO B660M-E would be the cheapest DDR5-compatible motherboard on the market by a wide margin. 

The implications here are interesting. Previous leaks indicated that the Alder Lake i3-12100, alongside Pentium Gold and Celeron parts could arrive early next year. Golden Cove's IPC improvements mean gamers could get considerably more bang-for-buck over the ageing Zen 2-based Ryzen 3 3300X AMD still has on the market. Without cheap LGA 1700-compatible motherboards Alder Lake budget builds just wouldn't make sense. 

Unfortunately, even if these B660 boards release at a sub-US$150 price point, DDR5 price inflation could make all of that a moot point. The cheapest 32GB DDR5-5200 kits will set you back close to US$300, when they're actually in stock. It'll be interesting to see what happens to DDR5 prices over the coming months, when we expect to see B660 boards and budget Alder Lake parts hit the market. 

Check out the MSI PRO Z690 here on Amazon.