ASRock Announces Z390 Taichi, Z390 Taichi Ultimate Motherboards

[Raevenlord]

ASRock today announced their Taichi family of Z390 motherboards. The new Taichi motherboards (whose branding has garnered somewhat of a cult following among PC component enthusiasts due to their build-quality and reliability) are being placed in the top of the heap for ASRock's Z390 push.

The 8th and 9th Gen supporting motherboards feature the same 12-phase power delivery design for outstanding power delivery, as well as some other features such as an integrated M.2 shield and ASRock's Polychrome RGB lighting solution. Hyper BCLK Engine II also makes an appearance on both motherboards, for higher overclocking stability and capabilities. Other added features include ASRock's Purity Sound 4 with Realtek's ALC1220 audio codec. The Taichi Ultimate, however, ups the ante by delivering an Aquantia Ethernet solution (AQtion) with 10 Gbps throughput for the ultimate experience - though you'll need to make sure your infrastructure supports these speeds, and that you have a Cat6 Ethernet cable handy.





Both motherboards also feature 1x HDMI, 1x DisplayPort outputs, 8x SATA 3, 3x Ultra M.2 slots with a single M.2 cooling solution, support for 4200 MHz+ DDR4 memory (via OC), 5x USB 3.1 Gen2 (1x Front Type-C, 1x Rear Type-C, 3x Rear Type-A) and 8x additional USB 3.1 Gen1 (4x Front, 4x Rear). Check out the board images and promotional videos below.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[bonehead123]

Nice board, but with everything they put on it, and the correspondingly high price they will sell for, surely they could have spent the extra $5.00 for 2x additional m.2 heatsinks so all 3 drives would have them....

geesh, wtf is wrong with these people (and the other mobo makers too)

 

[Upgrayedd]

I just wana know if Z390 gets a OC Formula board.

 

[Vayra86]

Nice board, but with everything they put on it, and the correspondingly high price they will sell for, surely they could have spent the extra $5.00 for 2x additional m.2 heatsinks so all 3 drives would have them....

geesh, wtf is wrong with these people (and the other mobo makers too)

Well, the Taichi was the most competitive board in the enthusiast range with Z370, so that could be a reason.

 

[newtekie1]

Nice board, but with everything they put on it, and the correspondingly high price they will sell for, surely they could have spent the extra $5.00 for 2x additional m.2 heatsinks so all 3 drives would have them....

geesh, wtf is wrong with these people (and the other mobo makers too)

M.2 heatsinks are kind of one of those things where it is just there to make you feel better, they don't really do much in real world use. Do they help with heat? Yes. Do they prevent throttling? Yes. Does any of that matter in real world use? No, because the drives don't get hot enough or throttle in real world use cases.

 

[dj-electric]

Classic ASRock, they took it down

 

[TheLostSwede]

M.2 heatsinks are kind of one of those things where it is just there to make you feel better, they don't really do much in real world use. Do they help with heat? Yes. Do they prevent throttling? Yes. Does any of that matter in real world use? No, because the drives don't get hot enough or throttle in real world use cases.

You know this for a fact? My Plextor drive gets hot as when used and the heatsink that they fitted to it seems to do little to nothing to help. And no, is not placed under my graphics card.

 

[randomUser]

Z390 no more

They took everything down. No mention on Z390 at all now.

They kept it for what, like 15 hours or so?

 

[Skar78]

You know this for a fact? My Plextor drive gets hot as when used and the heatsink that they fitted to it seems to do little to nothing to help. And no, is not placed under my graphics card.

I cant find the article, i think it was pcper but somehow my google skills fail me. Basically it went something like for the controller alone cooling makes sense, but for the memory its not necessary and could even be argued to be detrimental. However all those heatsinks and coolers try to cool both the flash ics as well as the controller.

 

[Robcostyle]

So, how is it going to be, ASRock? Before, company's motherbarods always perfomed as decent analogs of asus for fair price - but this time? Taichi is going to be 800$? Oh, 799$, right.

 

[kilis]

If you use both m2 slots, you will be left with only 4 active sata port.
Such a stupid limitation from Intel for hi-end motherboard like taichi.

 

[bonehead123]

M.2 heatsinks are kind of one of those things where it is just there to make you feel better, they don't really do much in real world use. Do they help with heat? Yes. Do they prevent throttling? Yes. Does any of that matter in real world use? No, because the drives don't get hot enough or throttle in real world use cases.

Well, I have to differ with you on this.....

I installed EK finned heatsinks on both of my m.2 drives and immediately saw their everyday real world operating temps drop from 44c to 35c....

Of note though, I have them installed in pcie slots instead of under the gpu, and I have boatloads of airflow through my case too, but still a 9 degree reduction is nuthin to sneeze at IMHO

If you use both m2 slots, you will be left with only 4 active sata port. Such a stupid limitation from Intel for hi-end motherboard like taichi

Agreed about this stupid limitation on a $400+++ mobo, however, with more and more folks making the transition to m.2 drives, having 6 or 8 sata ports is becoming less of an issue nowadays . I only use 4 at most anyways, for 2x optical drives, 1x AIO pump, and my fan controller.

 

[newtekie1]

You know this for a fact? My Plextor drive gets hot as when used and the heatsink that they fitted to it seems to do little to nothing to help. And no, is not placed under my graphics card.

Yes, I know this for fact. Yes, M.2 drives get hot in use, but even without a heatsink they shouldn't get to the point of getting hot enough to throttle under normal use cases. Yeah, if you hammer the drive and just right files to it constantly, it's going to throttle, but other than maybe the very first time you install the drive and do a clone over to it from an old drive, that isn't going to effect normal day to day use.

All the M.2 drives I've seen almost never throttle with reads, only with writes. And you have to write 100GB+ constant before the drive starts to throttle, which is not something most users do on a regular day to day basis.

Well, I have to differ with you on this.....

I installed an EK heatsink on both of my m.2 drives and immediately saw their everyday real world operating temps drop from 44c to 35c....

Of note though, I have them installed in pcie slots instead of under the gpu, and I have boatloads of airflow through my case too, but still a 9 degree reduction is nuthin to sneeze at IMHO

Very good, you went from not throttling to not throttling. Those heatsinks did absolutely nothing for you. Lowering temps is nice, but if it doesn't improve performance one bit, it's kind of pointless. And it isn't like 44°c is going to kill the drive either.

 

[CheapMeat]

I wish ASRock continued the Extreme series. =/

They used to do wicked halo products with the 9 and 11 series. For some reason these don't have the same appeal for me.

 

[bonehead123]

Yes, I know this for fact. Yes, M.2 drives get hot in use, but even without a heatsink they shouldn't get to the point of getting hot enough to throttle under normal use cases. Yeah, if you hammer the drive and just right files to it constantly, it's going to throttle, but other than maybe the very first time you install the drive and do a clone over to it from an old drive, that isn't going to effect normal day to day use.

All the M.2 drives I've seen almost never throttle with reads, only with writes. And you have to write 100GB+ constant before the drive starts to throttle, which is not something most users do on a regular day to day basis.



Very good, you went from not throttling to not throttling. Those heatsinks did absolutely nothing for you. Lowering temps is nice, but if it doesn't improve performance one bit, it's kind of pointless. And it isn't like 44°c is going to kill the drive either.

Well....

A) I do write large files to my 2nd drive constantly....

B) I was not implying that my drives were throttling or that I was seeking performance improvements, only keeping my drives as cool as possible...

And finally.....

C) we all know that heat and electronics do not go together well, therefore anything one can do to reduce it is a win-win IMHO.... I prefer to make mine last as long as possible thank you....

 

[Dammeron]

Where are mATX boards? Most of the people don't even need those additional PCIe/M.2 slots.

 

[TheLostSwede]

Yes, I know this for fact. Yes, M.2 drives get hot in use, but even without a heatsink they shouldn't get to the point of getting hot enough to throttle under normal use cases. Yeah, if you hammer the drive and just right files to it constantly, it's going to throttle, but other than maybe the very first time you install the drive and do a clone over to it from an old drive, that isn't going to effect normal day to day use.

All the M.2 drives I've seen almost never throttle with reads, only with writes. And you have to write 100GB+ constant before the drive starts to throttle, which is not something most users do on a regular day to day basis.

Well, that's your experience. I'm not sharing it with you. This Plextor drive is nice in normal use, but anything the least bit write heavy brings the controller up to 65-70 degrees C and it slows down. Could be a Marvell issue, but it's an issue imho and their standard heatsink admittedly does little to nothing to help with the issue. Then again, is a flimsy bit of aluminium, not a solid heatsink. I dare not think how hot it would get without that flimsy piece of metal though...

 

[newtekie1]

Well....

A) I do write large files to my 2nd drive constantly....

Over 100GB at a time?

B) I was not implying that my drives were throttling or that I was seeking performance improvements, only keeping my drives as cool as possible...

If that is what you want to do, fine, but it provides no benefit.

And finally.....

C) we all know that heat and electronics do not go together well, therefore anything one can do to reduce it is a win-win IMHO.... I prefer to make mine last as long as possible thank you....

This is a myth. Yes, if an electronic gets too hot, it can die prematurely. However, if it is kept in a safe range, then the life of the component is not going to be affect. And, in fact, it has been shown that operating electronics at too cool of a temperature can have just as bad of an effect on them as too hot.

Well, that's your experience. I'm not sharing it with you. This Plextor drive is nice in normal use, but anything the least bit write heavy brings the controller up to 65-70 degrees C and it slows down. Could be a Marvell issue, but it's an issue imho and their standard heatsink admittedly does little to nothing to help with the issue. Then again, is a flimsy bit of aluminium, not a solid heatsink. I dare not think how hot it would get without that flimsy piece of metal though...

Yeah, I can see your plextor drive struggling a little big more than modern drives, since it is really a first generation NVMe consumer drive. But it still needs a good 50GB+ before it is going to throttle, which again isn't something most users do on a daily basis.

 

[coonbro]

for guys with m2 heating up with a sink or not try a mini or micro fan on them like you would get for a chipset cooler ? just put some wind on them to help cool ?

wd m2 ssd is .87 inch / 22mm this fan is 25 mm ? slap it right on the sink for example

https://www.amazon.com/Pieces-Brush...1538925649&sr=8-1&keywords=micro+computer+fan

 

[Vayra86]

Well....

A) I do write large files to my 2nd drive constantly....

B) I was not implying that my drives were throttling or that I was seeking performance improvements, only keeping my drives as cool as possible...

And finally.....

C) we all know that heat and electronics do not go together well, therefore anything one can do to reduce it is a win-win IMHO.... I prefer to make mine last as long as possible thank you....

@newtekie1 is very much correct. You worry too much about heat as if every C somehow affects lifespan or performance. It really doesn't. Its the same nonsense as keeping CPU and GPU below 60 C. It is utterly pointless and 100% emotion for often major expenses and/or sacrifices in terms of noise. Its nice to have headroom, but there is such a thing as overdoing it, too.