Introduction

2017 has truly been an exhausting year. We've had so many new CPU launches I've lost count, and here we are with yet another. I am honestly astonished that motherboard makers have been able to keep up. With Intel's latest chipset, Z370, you get fancy new 6-core CPUs with dual-channel memory in the mainstream, and to support that new mainstream CPU, you naturally need that perfect mainstream motherboard. ASRock's Z370 Taichi, as with past Taichi motherboards from ASRock before it, seeks to be that board.

Evaluating all these motherboard and CPU combinations and trying to forget about how the CPU reflects on the platform isn't all that easy. Not every platform can be the best when it comes to performance, especially when performance these days is in many situations dictated more by the number of cores offered. With all these board makers applying the same treatments to each platform, we've got countless numbers of "gaming" this and "overclock" that boards, even if gaming with eighteen cores isn't exactly practical; if you want to do it, we've got the board for you! In the face of all that, ASRock's Taichi series does away with a lot of that fanfare and instead brings you the core functionality each platform offers, and it is up to you to choose which one and whether the feature set it offers suits you best.

Intel's Z370 chipset is pretty capable; with a total of 40 PCIe lanes possible from both the CPU and the chipset combined, you've got a huge number of expansion possibilities at your disposal, and ASRock's Taichi makes use of nearly every one. You've got dual LAN and Wi-Fi support built in, along with superb audio and a trio of 32 Gb/s M.2 ports. There's an overly capable digital VRM to keep power use down, and a simplicity of use that eliminates hassles, including drive cabling by way of the triplet of M.2 ports and a need to enter the BIOS at all due to an onboard hardware-based XMP switch. Yet if you want to overclock a bit, the Taichi has you covered as well, so where are its shortcomings? I think I might have found a few...

Specifications