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 X570 Taichi 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 love with previous ASRock boards, especially with the cogs and gears embossed over the chipset. The ASRock X570 Taichi looks and feels like a premium board, and I think the ASRock design department has a lot to be proud of.
The ASRock X570 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 three zones: the rear I/O cover, chipset, and underside on the right. All three have good diffusion and are very bright and responsive. The play of light over the details on the chipset is especially interesting to watch.
Test System
Test System |
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Processor: | AMD Ryzen 5 3600X 4.4 GHz (Max Boost Clock), 32 MB Cache |
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Memory: | 2x 8 GB DDR4 3866 MHz Team Group T-Force Xtreem TXKD416G3866HC18EDC01 |
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Cooling: | Custom loop: Swiftech Apogee SKF LT block, Bitspower SC6 pump, 360 mm radiator |
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BIOS Version: | P1.30 |
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Graphics Card: | EVGA RTX 2080 FTW3 Ultra |
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Harddisk: | 1x Crucial M4 128 GB SATA 6 Gb/s SSD (OS) 1x Crucial BX200 256 GB SATA 6 Gb/s SSD (Data) 1x Samsung 950 PRO M.2 (NVMe) |
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Power Supply: | Seasonic Prime Titanium 1000 W |
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Case: | Primochill Praxis Wetbench |
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Software: | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit, NVIDIA GeForce 430.86 WHQL |
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Thanks to ASRock for supplying the AMD Ryzen 3600X for this review!