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) |
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:
50 Comments
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DanNeely - Friday, April 2, 2021 - link
I can't decide if the basic idea itself is the most absurdly pitiful bit, or it's that they superimposed a non-moving gear on top of the one that does move.TheinsanegamerN - Monday, April 5, 2021 - link
$429 is a rediculous price.Taichi ultimates used to cost under $400, and came with two ethernet ports AND a 10G ethernet port. They came with plenty of PCIe lanes as well. This taichi at $429 is a ripoff.
Oxford Guy - Tuesday, April 6, 2021 - link
Inflation is very high right now. Products are going up 30%, 50%, 100%, etc.It was high even before COVID and the trillions in dollars that were printed in response.
edwpang - Monday, April 5, 2021 - link
Motherboard used to have a fan to cool down the northbridge chip. That's more useful than this one!ltkAlpha - Monday, April 5, 2021 - link
The moving cogwheel... The fact that whoever decided this was a good idea was in a position to make that decision makes me depresses me.Oxford Guy - Tuesday, April 6, 2021 - link
It's less offensive than Intel putting skulls on its SSDs. That has to be the #1 stupidest.Mikuni - Saturday, April 10, 2021 - link
April's fools80-wattHamster - Monday, April 12, 2021 - link
Purely aesthetic cogwheel isn't any more ridiculous than purely aesthetic RGB lighting, but I don't see anyone getting their knickers in a twist about that.kkromm - Saturday, April 17, 2021 - link
The 2.5G port is a complete gimmick. I have a 2009 Mac Pro with a 10g card a 2017 pc with a 10g fiber card a 2019 Mac Pro with 2 10g ports but a should get excited with 2021 motherboard that has a 2.5G port that would not even work as a 2.5G port with my 10g Netgear equipment (m430024x24f) because it does not recognize 2.5G and knocks it down to 1g. Do you even know how networks work? Do you know that I would have to get a $500 multi speed switch (ms510txm) just for a 2.5G port to work on my network but you are all excited by a 2.5G port...give me a break!kims123 - Sunday, April 18, 2021 - link
really it was to be unique...great thought what u have done like that...i would be look great..