Board Layout

If you are familiar with the design of the ASRock Z390 Taichi, then you know what to expect from this board. ASRock has kept with this theme for some time, and for good reason. The dark gray and black PCB with a granular, gunmetal gray VRM heatsink makes for an attractive yet neutral tone. The stylized gear wheels of the chipset heatsink add a bit of flare, especially when combined with the masterfully printed PCB graphic.

The back of the ASRock Z390 Taichi is a uniform, nearly unbroken black interrupted by the silver of the socket backplate and a few strategically placed controllers. The board has very clean lines and an excellent fit and finish. The package as a whole lends the board a feeling of order and efficiency.


The CPU socket has plenty of space around it to accommodate large coolers. The four DIMM slots to the right of the socket also feel uncrowded. While the overall look of the ASRock Z390 Taichi has not changed, ASRock has done some rearranging that has led to a cleaner overall design.


There are three M.2 slots on the ASRock Z390 Taichi; the first two are located above and below the first PCIe x16 slot, while the last sits just below the chipset, between the second and third PCIe x16 slots. This third slot has a nice full-coverage heatsink and represents one of the biggest changes to this board over its predecessors. Previous Taichi boards included similar heatsinks, but always in the topmost M.2 slot. By moving the heatsink to the bottom slot and offsetting that slot to the right, the installed M.2 drive should get better airflow in most situations since it has been moved away from the GPU. This is an inspired change, and I hope to see similar choices from other board designs in the future.


The ASRock Z390 Taichi offers three PCI Express 3.0 x16 slots, all encased in steel armor, as well as two PCI Express 3.0 x1 slots. The board has a total of eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and all are angled 90 degrees from the board. Six of these ports are powered by the Z390 chipset, while the last two are supported by an ASMedia ASM1061 controller.


The ASRock Z390 Taichi has a good rear I/O offering, which notably includes two LAN ports, a "Clear CMOS" button, and an Optical S/PDIF Out port. The USB ports come in three slightly different colors, so I feel I should clarify a bit. The first four that are a medium dark blue are USB 3.1 Gen1, while the two dark blue and very light blue (as well as the Type-C) ports are USB 3.1 Gen2.

• 1x "clear CMOS" button
• 2x Antenna ports
• 1x HDMI port
• 1x DisplayPort 1.2
• 1x PS/2 keyboard and mouse combo connector
• 4x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports
• 3x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports
• 1x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C port
• 2x RJ-45 LAN ports
• 1x Optical SPDIF out port
• 5x 3.5 mm audio jacks

Networking on the ASRock Z390 Taichi is handled by a Giga PHY Intel I2119V and a GigaLAN Intel I211AT, while wireless is handled by an Intel 802.11ac Wi-Fi module.