Those looking for a more economical approach to building a new system using an Intel 12th Gen processor may want to take a look at motherboards from ASRock. A reddit user has received confirmation from ASRock that all of its Intel 600-series chipset motherboards will allow BFB (base frequency overclocking) for non-K Alder Lake CPUs.
Hello,
after checking with BIOS department, our 600 series mainboards support BFB, too.Best regards,
ASRock Support
ASRock BFB
ASRock originally introduced BFB with Intel 9th Gen processors on select 400-series motherboards. It later expanded support to include some 300-series motherboards. BFB is already seen on the Z690 lineup, but it will be a welcome addition to the other models. BFB allows all cores to run at their max frequencies per the power limits set in the BIOS. This means that builders on a budget will be able to achieve a greater level of performance from their CPUs simply by raising the power limit.
Since a Z690 paired with an Intel Core i9-12900K could easily set back an enthusiast over $1000, the thought of using a lower-end board to get their foot in the door will most certainly have greater appeal. On the other end of the spectrum, one could conceivably use a H610 combined with an Intel Core i5-12400F 6-core/12-thread processor with all clocks running at 4.4 GHz or higher, for a few hundred dollars. By just spending a bit more to move up to a B660 or H670 board for the added features of the 600-series chipset, such as a 4.0 x8 DMI link or 12 Gen 4 lanes, combined with BFB, the deal only gets better. Best Buy confirmed pricing on a lineup of non-K processors in December with a starting price of $109.99 for the i-3 series, which can be found here.
Source: Wccftech