ASRock Z490 Taichi

Black Haru · May 20, 2020

ASRock's award winning Taichi line is back, and aiming for the top of ASRock's Z490 stack. The cog and gear theme returns, along with a new VRM thermal solution that features a finned heat sink and active cooling. What other new tricks has ASRock included in the ASRock Z490 Taichi?

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jjxaker · May 20, 2020

Judging by the BIOS, the limit for the minimum fan speed was not removed!
ASRock engineers are as idiots as Asus, let them take an example with MSI.
For example, I want to set zero revolutions for a processor temperature of 60 degrees. and bios from Asus and ASRock will not allow this to be done. why do these limits at 20%(14% after calibration), they feel sorry for something?)))
Well at least msi does not limit in this regard, regardless of mode DC or PWM can set zero fan speeds even for a processor temperature of 100 degrees. no limits, complete freedom!
Owners of custom water cooling systems will understand why all this. since it makes no sense that the fans will work if the system is idle or performs light tasks. I will wait for MSI ACE I’ll set my usual dc mode, at 60 degrees 0 volts per cpu/opt fan and I will be happy :cool:

Thank much for the review!

Tech Ninja · May 20, 2020

Where is the 10700k/10900k review?

please add a 2080ti 1440p DLSS2.0 Quality mode no-RTX comparison vs 3800x.

mom betting Intel is 10%faster. More in 1% minimums!

Vario · May 20, 2020

Nice review, looks like a good Taichi model.

Vya Domus · May 20, 2020

jjxaker said:
Owners of custom water cooling systems will understand why all this. since it makes no sense that the fans will work if the system is idle or performs light tasks.

That doesn't really make sense, if you stop all airflow through the rads heat will just keep building up even if the system is not under load. I honestly can't see why running the fans at some absurd low speed isn't enough, I genuinely do not believe people can actually hear fans spinning at something like 500RPM.

jjxaker · May 20, 2020

Vya Domus said:
That doesn't really make sense, if you stop all airflow through the rads heat will just keep building up even if the system is not under load.

There are no problems, even with ordinary AIO. temperatures are the same as at 350RPM. below the Asus does not allow, I have to physically turn off the fans.
It's not about the noise, I have 7 fans Noctua NF-A12x25, all connected via a 2 splitter at cpu/opt connector. but working fans, this is the effect of a vacuum cleaner.
My ideal was that the fans would turn on at 800 RPM at processor temperatures of 60 and above. and up to 50 degrees 0 RPM. can so only msi bios.
My temperatures when the fans are off, the system is on 24/7:

As you can see, fans in idle systems are not needed.
5 minutes fpu test))). in general a decent supply, i can even work without fan. I rarely play games, two hours a week...

warrior420 · May 21, 2020

The memory model# in your specs "F4-3600C16Q-32GTZN " is a 4x8GB/32GB kit? But, for testing you were using 2x8GB? I'm guessing you got a 4x kit and just used only 2 of them.

lukart · May 21, 2020

The Taichi indeed performs as expected. But the Velocita was actually a good surprise in my eyes, good price for the hardware.

Black Haru · May 21, 2020

warrior420 said:
The memory model# in your specs "F4-3600C16Q-32GTZN " is a 4x8GB/32GB kit? But, for testing you were using 2x8GB? I'm guessing you got a 4x kit and just used only 2 of them.

Yup, I have a 4x kit so that I can test quad channel on HEDT platforms. I only used two so that results would be standardized since some boards only have 2 slots.

W1zzard · May 21, 2020

Tech Ninja said:
Where is the 10700k/10900k review?

Intel 10th Generation Core Desktop Processors Start Selling

Intel's 10th generation Core desktop processors started selling as review and retail embargoes lifted earlier today. Despite supply chain constraints, prices of the chips appear surprisingly tame, and close to Intel's announced prices. The retail Core i9-10900K is priced at USD $529 on Newegg...

www.techpowerup.com

and following posts from me in that thread. right now the samples are passing through liege belgium

Nihilus · May 23, 2020

I guess I don't understand comparing motherboard performance. All will break CPU specifications in order to look better. Things such as using a 100.8 baseclock, extending TAU, and using MCE by default make all the hours of testing useless imho.

newtekie1 · Aug 15, 2020

I'm curious about the PCI-E x16 slot configuration on this board.

It says single at x16, dual at x8/x8, and triple at x8/x8/x4. Where is the x4 coming from? It the third slot running off the chipset instead of the CPU? Or is it a typo by AsRock and it really should be x8/x4/x4? I'm curious because I'd like to put a 10Gb ethernet card in the 3rd slot, but I don't want the first slot cut down to x8 just because something is in the 3rd slot.

SimonP · Jan 2, 2021

I'm thinking of buying one of these, how are you getting on with it, any reservations? Also, I need the full 8 SATA ports + 1 M.2. Can that configuration work?

Thanks.

Black Haru · Jan 2, 2021

SimonP said:
I'm thinking of buying one of these, how are you getting on with it, any reservations? Also, I need the full 8 SATA ports + 1 M.2. Can that configuration work?

Thanks.

I haven't had it on the bench since the review, so I can't speak to long term use.

You should be able to populate all 8 SATA ports and still make use of the top M.2 slot, based on ASRocks specs:

*M2_2, SATA3_0 and SATA3_1 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, the others will be disabled.
M2_3, SATA3_4 and SATA3_5 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, the others will be disabled.
M2_3, SATA3_4, SATA3_5 and USB32_TC_1 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, USB32_TC_1 will downgrade to 16 Gb/s max.
M2_3 and USB32_TC_1 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, M2_3 and USB32_TC_1 will downgrade to PCIe Gen3 x2 (16 Gb/s).