The launch price of the ASRock X870E Taichi is significantly less than the ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Hero that we've already reviewed, at $450 versus $700—over 40%. Of course there are pricier boards from ASRock available and cheaper from ASUS too, which we'll be looking at soon. You get most of the perks of X870E here so if you're looking for PCIe Gen 5 for future graphics cards and current SSDs plus USB4 then you've come to the right place in general. The issue is, plenty of X670E boards had these features too, including this board's predecessor, leaving the X870E Taichi at the mercy of its own additional features to tempt Socket AM5 newcomers.

Thankfully, the previous models of the Taichi and Taichi Lite are either the same price or not available depending on where you shop, but ASRock has done a decent job of adding various upgrades, namely Wi-Fi 7, tool-free M.2 heatsinks and a x16 PCIe slot release that's easily as good if not better than ASUS and MSI's efforts. It also has 2-pin thermistor inputs that allow for more elaborate air and watercooling that were absent on the X670E board. Aside from those things, though, X670E Taichi owners have zero reason to upgrade. In fact, some features such as USB4 port power have actually regressed a little (in this case from 27 W to 15 W).

Visually, the board looks fantastic, with restrained RGB lighting that can be expanded with the various 3-pin and 4-pin headers. The fly in the ointment there is the software. It works well, but not without raising red flags with Windows security, which is concerning. The mostly black design will suit the majority of systems and the board itself looks and feels like its worth around $450. Those that are happy to do away with the RGB lighting should look at the otherwise identical ASRock X870E Taichi Lite, which ASRock has placed extremely close to the full fat model here in terms of features, but costs $50 less.

The decision to have added width with E-ATX does mean some smaller ATX cases may lack compatibility and others might see slightly trickier cable routing as a result. The benefit, though, is a spacious PCB and side PCIe Gen 4 M.2 port, which offers excellent cooling and is easier to get at than the other ports. By comparison, the ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Hero squeezes into ATX dimensions. We also loved the additional features of the ASUS board such as 60 W power delivery over its Type-C case header and innovative new EFI features. But they're not worth the huge amount of extra cash.

What ASUS does do well is its EFI and to some extent (at least better than ASRock) is its software. The EFI's recent tweak makes it a far less dated place to be and there's much less flitting between pages to set things up. That's especially so when dealing with additional thermal inputs such as thermistors which both boards have. Even with more mainstream control, ASUS just has more at your fingertips, which saves time. We can appreciate familiarity, but that doesn't mean change is a bad thing when done properly, and it doesn't have to mean moving settings and not being able to find your way around.

The onboard cooling is excellent from the VRMs to the M.2 heatsinks, although it's a shame the only PCIe Gen 5 slot isn't located at the edge of the PCB as this slot, which is limited to PCIe Gen 4 SSDs, does seem to offer the best cooling being located well away from your graphics card. Despite our initial concerns, the VRM fan barely spun up even during our extended stress test with a Ryzen 9 9950X

There are numerous much cheaper offerings that include Wi-Fi 7 and USB4 though, such as ASRock's own X870E Nova Wi-WiFi, which even includes power, reset and LED POST code displays, losing little compared to the X870E Taichi for a $100 saving from a board that will almost certainly have zero issues running that shiny new Ryzen 7 9800X3D. The ASRock X870E Taichi does lack some of the stand-out features of pricier options out there, but it's also significantly cheaper, but it finds it hard to distinguish itself from alternatives that are $100 less, apart from a few tool-free features that many of you might use only once. The price difference is even more if you consider some of the better B650 options out there. Still, we can't argue that it's a solid motherboard that does a lot of things well and includes the latest technology as far as USB, Wi-Fi and tool-free features, making it a keeper until Socket AM5's reign ends.