Monday, June 3rd 2024
Complete Lineup of ASRock AMD Zen 5 X870 / X870E Series Motherboards Caught in the Open
While wandering through the Computex showrooms, our little spies spotted something interesting at the ASRock stand: an extensive lineup of motherboards built around the AMD X870 and X870E chipsets. The six models from the ASRock, Pro, Steel, Phantom Gaming, and the legendary Taichi families support the latest AMD Ryzen 9000, 8000, and 7000 series processors. We had the opportunity to see them live on display and rushed to present them one by one, complete with pictures and main specifications.
Now we're going to look further in detail:
ASRock X870E Taichi / X870E Taichi Lite
The motherboards have different form factors, and different designs but both of them feature an impressive 27 power phase with 110 A SPS, 2 PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, 1 Blazing M.2 (PCIe Gen 5 x4) plus 3 Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen 4 x4) slots, and Realtek 5GbE LAN connectivity. Regarding audio, it has an ALC4082 audio codec and ESS SABRE 9218 DAC
ASRock X870E Nova WiFi
Here we have a 23 power phase CPU VRM, a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot but one additional M.2 (PCIe Gen 3 x2) slot. The audio features are powered by an ALC 4048 audio codec without any dedicated DAC.
ASRock X870 Riptide WiFi
A motherboard dedicated to gamers, sporting a 17 power phase, 80 A Dr.MOS CPU VRM, 1x PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, 1 Blazing M.2 (PCIe Gen 5 x4) and 3 Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen 4 x4) slots. To help gamers achieve the lowest latency possible, ASRock implemented the Intel Killer 2.5GbE LAN instead of the Realtek one.
ASRock X870 Steel Legend WiFi / X870 PRO RS WiFi
These two models are more like all-rounders, suitable for a wide range of users. Both use a 17 power phase, 80 A Dr.MOS CPU VRM, 1 Blazing M.2 (PCIe Gen 5 x4), 2x Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen 4 x4) slots (1x Ultra M.2 PCIe Gen 3 x4 slot for Pro RS), while ALC4082 audio codec is present on the Steel Legend WiFi, and ALC1220 on the Pro RS WiFi.
ASRock X870E Taichi / X870E Taichi Lite
The motherboards have different form factors, and different designs but both of them feature an impressive 27 power phase with 110 A SPS, 2 PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, 1 Blazing M.2 (PCIe Gen 5 x4) plus 3 Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen 4 x4) slots, and Realtek 5GbE LAN connectivity. Regarding audio, it has an ALC4082 audio codec and ESS SABRE 9218 DAC
Here we have a 23 power phase CPU VRM, a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot but one additional M.2 (PCIe Gen 3 x2) slot. The audio features are powered by an ALC 4048 audio codec without any dedicated DAC.
A motherboard dedicated to gamers, sporting a 17 power phase, 80 A Dr.MOS CPU VRM, 1x PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, 1 Blazing M.2 (PCIe Gen 5 x4) and 3 Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen 4 x4) slots. To help gamers achieve the lowest latency possible, ASRock implemented the Intel Killer 2.5GbE LAN instead of the Realtek one.
These two models are more like all-rounders, suitable for a wide range of users. Both use a 17 power phase, 80 A Dr.MOS CPU VRM, 1 Blazing M.2 (PCIe Gen 5 x4), 2x Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen 4 x4) slots (1x Ultra M.2 PCIe Gen 3 x4 slot for Pro RS), while ALC4082 audio codec is present on the Steel Legend WiFi, and ALC1220 on the Pro RS WiFi.
36 Comments on Complete Lineup of ASRock AMD Zen 5 X870 / X870E Series Motherboards Caught in the Open
This board here:
The Nova looks very sweet.
I guess this will force people to start buying audio cards with full capabilities.
It's too bad they make it so difficult to output a full 7.1 PCM signal, other than eARC you're stuck buying a card.
I have the device which can reveal the problem. It is Focusrite Scarlett 4i4 audio interface which has a mixer with sliders like any normal audio interface do. It works on 2 of my computers. Those are 2600k from 2011 and as old Fujitsu laptop.
But unfortunately those sliders do not work on Asrock X670E PG Lightning mobo from 2024.
The sliders move erraticly when the 4i4 card is connected to any of the PG's USB connectors bound to the chipset. They don't track the mouse. Then when let go they slooowly...move to the final positon. Not exactly what an audio engineer would like to see....or hear. By the miracle of God there is 3 connectors on mobo which are bound directly to CPU and they work as expected for 300€: perfectly.
But why to bother to buy a mobo with 70% of its connectors malfunctioning. Fortunately Hardware Unboxing today published roundup of X870 boards and
the first board which is Asrock X870 Pro RS Wifi has the same designer and it malfunctions in similar manner.
To support my point I link the exact position on that video:
FYI: With same build we found that a 7900X had one dodgy core having 10 celsius excess temp and IGPU did not start to work. We got blue screen with CLOCK_WATCHDOG_TIMEOUT every time boot accessing windows. Put it on the other mobo and get the same 10C result and no igpu.
Replaced the CPU with my old 7900X3D and life was good again. Both 7900X CPU defects were verified with two motherboards: Livemixer and x670e PG Lightning.
We were so lucky to have those two similar motherboards and two similar CPUs to get these results. Many times people just accept the problem and turn the other cheek for problems piling up in later stage. For example me with that PG Lightning piece.
I was just about to start RMA my motherboard and make videos for the case.
4i4 driver is compiled of like 15 different free libraries so who knows what is the reality behind the behavior. For exmple it is possible that PG has the problem and Focusrite responded with a proprietary move to protect business. That is what I suggested them. It might also be windows which have been crappy lately considering robustness. Also possibly needing special treatment. It can be felt with File Explorer behavior which cannot update folder view when a file is saved. Or it updates the view randomly. File Explorer used to work very well during Win7 so there is a regression in the most important area of OS gui. In windows 10 there was a huge lag when tried to use those quick links. Was not in Win7. Windows should get its act back to good level by revamping the File Explorer from robustness point of view.
I got AX210 card and then I have 70cm antenna for it from Fruugo. Hard to find such an antenna from any Finnish webshops even they sell the card. I can recommend fully that card and antenna to anyone.
www.fruugo.fi/24-ghz-5-ghz-n-kaksikaistainen-wifi-antenni-70-cm-ipex4-mhf4-kaapeli-intel-ax210-ax200-lle/p-155383533-329244838
If you see that antenna somewhere it is ok.
The correct connector for those Wifi card antennas can be found using "ax210 IPEX4 MHF4" as a search term.
And that Ax210 must be "BT No vPro" version.