Finished Looks

I want to give a special thanks to EVGA for providing an RTX 2080 FTW3 Ultra to replace my old GTX 980; it was a much needed upgrade. In addition to the new hardware and the new bench, I have changed up the cooling, going with a larger loop. The Eisbaer performed well, but the ever-increasing heat density of mainstream CPUs was pushing it to the limit.


The ASRock X299 Taichi CLX, like other recent ASRock offerings, is an exceedingly sharp and modern-looking board. ASRock has put some serious work into this refreshed Taichi design. The design retains the attention to detail I have come to love through previous ASRock boards, especially with the cogs and gears embossed over the chipset. The ASRock X299 Taichi looks and feels like a premium board, and I think ASRock's design department has a lot to be proud of.


The ASRock X299 Taichi really starts to shine once the RGB LEDs are factored in. Like pretty much all ASRock designs, the RGB LEDs are integrated well enough to where they are not prominent when turned off. If you don't like LEDs on your hardware, they can be disabled. You won't even need to download any software as ASRock has included basic controls in the BIOS.


If you are like me, though, a well-implemented lighting system can really bring a build together. There are two zones: the chipset and underside on the right.

Test System

Thanks to ASRock for supplying the Intel i9-10900X for this review!