ASRock Z590 Taichi Review: An Intel Motherboard with Moving Parts (and Thunderbolt 4)
by Gavin Bonshor on April 1, 2021 11:00 AM ESTBoard Features
The ASRock Z590 Taichi is an ATX sized motherboard targeted at gamers and enthusiasts and currently sits at the top of the ASRock's Z590 models. It makes use of plenty of Intel's new features for Z590, including two full-length PCIe 4.0 slots which can operate at x16 and x8/x8, with a third full-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slot. ASRock also includes three M.2 slots, with the top slot operating at PCIe 4.0 x4 from the CPU, with two PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA drives driven by the chipset. For conventional storage devices, there's a total of eight SATA ports, with six from the chipset that includes support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays, while an ASMedia ASM1061 SATA controller powers the other two. A total of four memory slots are present, with support for up to DDR4-5000 out of the box, as well as support for up to 128 GB of capacity. Users looking to run big cooling setups will appreciate the eight 4-pin headers, with one dedicated to a CPU fan, one for a water pump/AIO pump, and six that can double up as either water cooling or chassis fan headers.
| ASRock Z590 Taichi ATX Motherboard | |||
| Warranty Period | 3 Years | ||
| Product Page | Link | ||
| Price | $430 | ||
| Size | ATX | ||
| CPU Interface | LGA1200 | ||
| Chipset | Intel Z590 | ||
| Memory Slots (DDR4) | Four DDR4 Supporting 128 GB Dual-Channel Up to DDR4-5000 |
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| Video Outputs | 1 x HDMI 2.0 2 x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C |
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| Network Connectivity | Killer E3100G 2.5 GbE Intel I219-V Gigabit Killer AX1675x Wi-Fi 6E |
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| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC1220 ESS Sabre ES9218 DAC |
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| PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU) | 2 x PCIe 4.0 (x16, x8/x8) | ||
| PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH) | 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 | ||
| Onboard SATA | Six, RAID 0/1/5/10 (Z590) Two, ASMedia ASM1061 |
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| Onboard M.2 | 1 x PCIe 4.0 x4 2 x PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA |
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| Thunderbolt 4 (40 Gbps) | 2 x Type-C (Rear Panel | ||
| USB 3.2 (20 Gbps) | 1 x USB Type-C (Header) | ||
| USB 3.2 (10 Gbps) | 2 x USB Type-A (Rear panel) | ||
| USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) | 4 x USB Type-A (Rear panel) 4 x USB Type-A (Two headers) |
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| USB 2.0 | 4 x USB Type-A (Two headers) | ||
| Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin Motherboard 2 x 8-pin CPU |
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| Fan Headers | 1 x 4-pin CPU 1 x 4-pin Water Pump/chassis 6 x 4-pin Chassis |
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| IO Panel | 2 x Antenna Ports (Killer AX1675x) 1 x HDMI 2.0 output 2 x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C 2 x USB 3.2 G2 Type-A 4 x USB 3.2 G1 Type-A 1 x RJ45 (Killer) 1 x RJ45 (Intel) 1 x BIOS Flashback button 5 x 3.5 mm audio jacks (Realtek) 1 x S/PDIF Optical output (Realtek) |
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One of the latest features from Intel comes through its Maple Ridge Thunderbolt 4 controller, which is a feature on the ASRock Z590 Taichi. This means there are two Thunderbolt 4 40 Gbps Type-C ports on the rear panel, which can also be used to output video from compatible monitors. ASRock even includes a front panel USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C header, although there aren't many chassis around which can support the full bandwidth available. Also on the rear panel is two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports, with a Realtek ALC1220 HD codec and ESS Sabre ES9218 DAC combo taking care of the onboard audio. Interestingly, ASRock adopts Killer networking which is rebadged Intel controllers designed for gaming, with a Killer E3100G 2.5 GbE controller, a Killer AX1675x Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, and a secondary Intel I219-V Gigabit controller.
Test Bed
With some of the nuances with Intel's Rocket Lake processors, our policy is to see if the system gives an automatic option to increase the power limits of the processor. If it does, we select the liquid cooling option. If it does not, we do not change the defaults. Adaptive Boost Technology is disabled by default.
| Test Setup | |||
| Processor | Intel Core i9-11900K, 125 W, $374 8 Cores, 16 Threads 3.5 GHz (5.3 GHz Turbo) |
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| Motherboard | ASRock Z590 Taichi (BIOS L1.41M) | ||
| Cooling | Corsair iCue H150i Elite Capellix 360 mm AIO | ||
| Power Supply | Corsair HX850 80Plus Platinum 850 W | ||
| Memory | G.Skill TridentZ DDR4-3200 CL 14-14-14-34 2T (2 x 8 GB) | ||
| Video Card | MSI GTX 1080 (1178/1279 Boost) | ||
| Hard Drive | Crucial MX300 1TB | ||
| Case | Corsair Crystal 680X | ||
| Operating System | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit: Build 20H2 | ||
We must also thank the following:
| Hardware Providers for CPU and Motherboard Reviews | |||
| Sapphire RX 460 Nitro | MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X OC | Crucial MX200 + MX500 SSDs |
Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs |
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| G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX |
Crucial Ballistix DDR4 |
Silverstone Coolers |
Noctua Coolers |
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Operandi - Thursday, April 1, 2021 - link
What?I was replying to the comment comparing a mechanical visual embellishment to fan that serves a function. If you bring up one thing in relation to another that typically means drawing a comparison or in this case a likeness between them. However in the case one of them is functional and does something while the other is pointless and stupid, thus making it an unfair comparison.
idimitro - Thursday, April 1, 2021 - link
Taichi - from "we give you only the necessary and meaningful features..." to "have a turning cog just because".tizio - Thursday, April 1, 2021 - link
This is the beginning of the end for sensible looking hardware. By 2023 motherboards will be 50% greebles by weight.Oxford Guy - Thursday, April 1, 2021 - link
‘Although PCIe 4.0 has been seen on AMD platforms for over a year, it's a solid statement from Intel as they look to regain its position as the king in the processor market.’The king of 14nm.
abufrejoval - Thursday, April 1, 2021 - link
I find 2.5Gbit Ethernet at these price levels more than a bit disappointing. I think the RealTek 2.5Gbit would sell at rather similar cost to their Gbit offerings as BOM, so "premium" isn't what comes to mind at this speed.Currently you have to either sacrifice an entire PCIe 4x (or greater) slot or a Thunderbolt port to get 10Gbit via Aquantia/Marvell, 8x for Intel 10Gbit (which might not be NBase-T but 1/10GBaseT, only), when a single PCIe 4.0 lane should suffice.
Surely 3 Watts for a 10GBase-T PHY aren't too much to ask when the CPU gobles 400 and the GPU not much less!
rolfaalto - Friday, April 2, 2021 - link
As of 30th March they've posted a new BIOS/Firmware that fixes a bunch of CPU issues. What version were you testing?sonny73n - Friday, April 2, 2021 - link
If I pay more than $400 for a motherboard, I will definitely get one with 12 or more REAL power phase, not ones that using doublers.Oxford Guy - Saturday, April 3, 2021 - link
I don’t think doublers are necessarily bad. It’s in the implementation.In the bigger picture, just get Zen 3 and don’t worry about overclocking and VRMs.
TheinsanegamerN - Sunday, April 4, 2021 - link
So you'll pay more for something that functions identically? Arguably doublers have the benefit of being easier to sync since they only use 6-8 controllers instead of 12-16, which allows for better voltage control.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, April 6, 2021 - link
Not all doubler implementations are as good as implementations without them. Some are particularly poor. It comes down to the implementation but, in the simplest example a doubler is not as good as having separate phases. There are a lot of variables involved, though. Separate low-quality phases are going to be worse than high-quality phases using a doubler.Buildzoid explained all of the details in his videos. I don't remember all of the specifics but some VRM implementations are full of fakery, like adding lots of chokes or something to fool people into thinking they're getting something more powerful.