ASRock X99 Taichi and Fatal1ty X99 Gaming i7 Detailed

[btarunr]

Hot on the heels of Intel Core i7 "Broadwell-E" launch, ASRock introduced two new high-end socket LGA2011v3 motherboards, the X99 Taichi, and the Fatal1ty X99 Gaming i7. Targeted at gamer-overclockers the Fatal1ty X99 Gaming i7 brings some of the latest connectivity options to this platform, such as 32 Gb/s M.2 with NVMe boot support, USB 3.1, and 5 GHz 802.11 ac WLAN. The board features an uncluttered layout, with three PCI-Express gen 3.0 x16 slots, and two PCIe 2.0 x1 slots.

Storage connectivity on the ASRock Fatal1ty X99 Gaming i7 include ten SATA 6 Gb/s, and two 32 Gb/s M.2 (Ultra M.2) with NVMe boot support. You get two USB 3.1 ports, one each of type-A and type-C. The board supports 3-way SLI and CrossFire. Modern connectivity includes Creative SoundBlaster Cinema 3 audio with ground-layer isolation, audio-grade capacitors, and a 115 dBA SNR CODEC. You also get a pair of Intel-driven gigabit Ethernet connections with teaming support, 802.11 ac WLAN, Bluetooth 4.0.



The X99 Taichi, on the other hand, could prove to be an attractive option for those looking for a 2-color build. Vast swathes of white cover a black PCB, including a white reinforcement brace that runs over the I/O area, all the way down. The X99 Taichi appears share its PCB with the Fatal1ty X99 Gaming i7, and so you get most of its features, except a few gamer-centric ones such as the SoundBlaster Cinema 3 audio, and a few onboard easy access buttons. Both boards give you dual-BIOS, and the same exact VRM setup for the CPU, and so they must have similar overclocking capabilities. The X99 Taichi is expected to be priced at US $219, and the Fatal1ty X99 Gaming i7 at $259.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[Caring1]

I like the steam punk look of the X99 Taichi, also the placement of the UltraM2 slots, not hidden under the GPU's or on the reverse of the board.

 

[ZoneDymo]

Yep that Tachi clock thing artwork is nice,
also did not know Fatal1ty was still a thing,
also, why do so few motherboards feature atleast one thunderbolt port? I mean like every motherboard used to feature atleast one firewire port soooo what gives?

 

[peche]

Creative Sound card, nice design
also m2 ports are well located, designs are kinda cool, well done AsRock!

Regards,

 

[broken pixel]

Time to sell the Asrock Extreme11 for either the Taichi or the MSI X99 XPOWER Titanium.

 

[Octavean]

also, why do so few motherboards feature atleast one thunderbolt port? I mean like every motherboard used to feature atleast one firewire port soooo what gives?

Not sure how we got on the subject of Thunderbolt. For what its worth, most of the X99 motherboards I've seen seem to have a Thunderbolt header necessary for a Thunderbolt add-in card.

USB 3.1 Type-C isn't Thunderbolt but since Thunderbolt has adapted to using USB 3.1 Type-C as an interface it could get confusing for some people.

 

[SmokingCrop]

also did not know Fatal1ty was still a thing,

Plenty of Fatal1ty boards:
http://www.asrock.com/mb/index.asp?s=Gaming

 

[Ruru]

Pretty cool placement for CMOS battery on the Taichi board