Introduction

With AMD having released its final batch of 3D V-Cache processors for now in the form of the Ryzen 9 9950X3D and Ryzen 9 9900X3D, the stage is set for 2025 to be a year of bumper sales for motherboard manufacturers too, at least so far as Socket AM5 is concerned. We've looked at a number of B850, X870 and X870E options already and ASRock has some mighty strong products that, as usual, often offer excellent value, and as one of the stars of the 600-series chipsets, the Lite version of the popular Taichi returns, unsurprisingly named the ASRock X870E Taichi Lite.

It stands out from the crowd thanks to its EATX dimensions and edgy M.2 port located on the side of the PCB, filling up the extra real-estate that also allows for sizeable heatsinks down south too. The Lite model is $50 less than the full X870E Taichi, which was a decent effort in itself. Given the $400 price tag, though, that's not a huge discount over its sibling, so it will be interesting to see if the cuts are worth it, or if you should go all out and go full Taichi with none of this Lite nonsense.



Offering the flagship X870E chipset means the competition comes mainly from boards lavished with RGB lighting, tool-free features, elaborate GPU release mechanisms and more presents in the box. The X870E Taichi Lite goes old school to cut costs, using a standard GPU release lever, zero RGB lighting apart from the usual headers and only includes the essentials in the box. If you want a premium Socket AM5 motherboard with a degree of head-turning ability, on paper the X870E Taichi Lite could be for you. Let's take a look.

Specifications

Packaging and Contents

The accessories at least allow you to make use of most of the SATA ports out of the box with four cables included. There's also a 3-way 3-pin ARGB splitter cable which is a nice touch and an adhesive Wi-Fi aerial. There's also three thermistor cables to take advantage of the board's trio of 2-pin thermistor headers.



The full list of accessories includes:

• 1x Quick start guide
• 1x Wi-Fi Antenna
• 4x SATA cables
• 3x Thermistor probes
• 1x 3-pin ARGB 3-way splitter cable