Board Layout

The ASRock X399M Taichi is a smaller board, yet even though smaller, it doesn't look like an overly complicated mess. I'm quite impressed with the general part layout, with some stuff mounted to the rear of the board that you will want to be mindful of when installing this board into your case.


The huge AMD TR4 socket dominates the board.


It is a rather weird procedure to open the motherboard's socket, but if you follow the directions, it should be fairly simple. You undo three screws, slide the processor into the plate that lifts up, and then reverse the process. With the huge number of pins here, this helps ensure that installing the CPU goes flawlessly.


You'll find the board equipped with just four DIMM slots, two on either side. They are situated ever so closely to the socket.


PCIe expansion possibilities include just three full-size PCIe 3.0 X16 slots with an M.2 port between the upper two.


There are two more PCIe 3.0 x4-linked M.2 ports here, making for a total of three for you to use.


The rear I/O panel carries ten USB ports (in various flavors), a PS/2 combo port, and audio ports (optical audio is most definitely included, too!). There are dual LAN ports provided. Eight SATA 6 Gbps ports are found on the board's right edge.


There is also a single U2 drive port.


The board's bottom edge includes a right-angled audio header, 5050 LED port, and the usual USB and fan headers along with the front-panel pins.