The ASRock Z490 Taichi Motherboard Review: Punching LGA1200 Into Life
by Gavin Bonshor on May 27, 2020 9:00 AM ESTBoard Features
The ASRock Z490 Taichi is a premium ATX sized offering which is targetted at gamers looking for unique stylings but also has elements which should suit content creators too. It includes a strong feature set with three PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, with the top M.2 slot including future capabilities for Intel's Rocket Lake PCIe 4.0 processors. It has three full-length PCIe 3.0 slots which operate at x16, x8/x8, and x8/x8/+x4, with two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots. Other storage options include eight SATA ports, six driven from the Z490 chipset, and two from an ASMedia ASM1061 SATA controller. It includes support for DDR4-4600 memory, including capabilities to install up to 128 GB across its four memory slots. Located around the edge of the board are eight 4-pin headers for fans, including one dedicated to a CPU fan, one for water pumps, and six for chassis fans.
ASRock Z490 Taichi ATX Motherboard | |||
Warranty Period | 3 Years | ||
Product Page | Link | ||
Price | $370 | ||
Size | ATX | ||
CPU Interface | LGA1200 | ||
Chipset | Intel Z490 | ||
Memory Slots (DDR4) | Four DDR4 Supporting 128 GB Dual-Channel Up to DDR4-4666 |
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Video Outputs | 1 x HDMI 1 x DisplayPort 1.4 |
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Network Connectivity | Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5 GbE Intel I129-V GbE Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 |
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Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC1220 ESS Sabre 9128 (Front Panel) |
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PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU) | 2 x PCIe 3.0 (x16, x8/x8) | ||
PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH) | 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 2 x PCIe 3.0 x1 |
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Onboard SATA | Six, RAID 0/1/5/10 (Z490) Two, (ASMedia) |
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Onboard M.2 | 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 2 x PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA |
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USB 3.1 (20 Gbps) | 1 x USB Type-C (Rear panel) | ||
USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) | 2 x USB Type-A (Rear panel) 1 x USB Type-C (Header) |
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USB 3.0 (5 Gbps) | 5 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 CPU/Water pump 6 x 4-pin Chassis |
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IO Panel | 2 x Antenna Ports (Intel AX201) 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard 1 x HDMI output 1 x DisplayPort 1.4 output 2 x USB 3.2 G2 Type-A 1 x USB 3.2 G2 Type-A 5 x USB 3.2 G1 Type-A 1 x RJ45 (Realtek) 1 x RJ45 (Intel) 1 x BIOS Flashback button 5 x 3.5 mm audio jacks (Realtek) 1 x S/PDIF Optical output (Realtek) |
The ASRock Z490 Taichi boasts a pretty stacked rear panel with a single USB 3.2 G2 20 Gbps Type-C, two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and five USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports. A further four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A, four USB 2.0, and a single USB 3.2 G2 Type-C port can be made available via internal USB headers. The board also includes two video outputs including a DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI, while networking is strong with a Realtek RTL8125BG 2.5 G and Intel I219-V Gigabit Ethernet controller pairing. For users looking for wireless connectivity, an Intel AX201 wireless interface offers both Wi-Fi 6 and BT 5.1 connectivity.
Test Bed
As per our testing policy, we take a high-end CPU suitable for the motherboard that was released during the socket’s initial launch and equip the system with a suitable amount of memory running at the processor maximum supported frequency. This is also typically run at JEDEC subtimings where possible. It is noted that some users are not keen on this policy, stating that sometimes the maximum supported frequency is quite low, or faster memory is available at a similar price, or that the JEDEC speeds can be prohibitive for performance. While these comments make sense, ultimately very few users apply memory profiles (either XMP or other) as they require interaction with the BIOS, and most users will fall back on JEDEC supported speeds - this includes home users as well as industry who might want to shave off a cent or two from the cost or stay within the margins set by the manufacturer. Where possible, we will extend out testing to include faster memory modules either at the same time as the review or a later date.
Test Setup | |||
Processor | Intel Core i7-10700K, 125 W, $374 8 Cores, 16 Threads 3.8 GHz (5.1 GHz Turbo) |
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Motherboard | ASRock Z490 Taichi (BIOS 1.50) | ||
Cooling | NZXT Kraken Z63 280 mm AIO | ||
Power Supply | EVGA 1600 T2 1600W 80 PLUS Titanium | ||
Memory | G.Skill TridentZ DDR4-2933 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 1909 inc. Spectre/Meltdown Patches |
Readers of our motherboard review section will have noted the trend in modern motherboards to implement a form of MultiCore Enhancement / Acceleration / Turbo (read our report here) on their motherboards. This does several things, including better benchmark results at stock settings (not entirely needed if overclocking is an end-user goal) at the expense of heat and temperature. It also gives, in essence, an automatic overclock which may be against what the user wants. Our testing methodology is ‘out-of-the-box’, with the latest public BIOS installed and XMP enabled, and thus subject to the whims of this feature. It is ultimately up to the motherboard manufacturer to take this risk – and manufacturers taking risks in the setup is something they do on every product (think C-state settings, USB priority, DPC Latency / monitoring priority, overriding memory sub-timings at JEDEC). Processor speed change is part of that risk, and ultimately if no overclocking is planned, some motherboards will affect how fast that shiny new processor goes and can be an important factor in the system build.
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Ian Cutress - Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - link
I still have a DDR booster :)YB1064 - Thursday, May 28, 2020 - link
Happy to take it off your hands if you don't need it. :)bigboxes - Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - link
It's funny, you had me up until DFI. I had a lan party NF4 board. I hated that thing. It was too difficult to get and keep stable. I wasn't a noob when it came out. Such a disappointment. I like tweaking my stuff, but no thanks. LolSpunjji - Thursday, May 28, 2020 - link
Can second this. The LAN party NF4 boards were absolute garbage - I had a friend RMA the same one twice, and the entire process took a year. What's the point of having the best OC features if your boards aren't stable at stock settings?alufan - Thursday, May 28, 2020 - link
And third garbage wouldnt overclock worth Toffee even running stock was a challenge all they had was fancy colours and a lot of rave reviewsYB1064 - Thursday, May 28, 2020 - link
I never said that the DF4 boards were reliable. They were at best betas, but I'll be damned if they didn't overclock like crazy. I've gone through about ~20 boards (NF4, NF4-SLI-DR, NF4-Expert) to find the best ones. It was a crapshoot, but man was it FUN!andanand - Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - link
Is there any reason someone would choose an i7 over an AMD cpu at the same price point?lmcd - Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - link
Microsoft still hasn't gotten around to nested Hyper-V on AMD -- unless it quietly made it into 2004 that released today.IGP is pretty useful on Linux still since AMD driver support tends to be late for new graphics architectures. A CPU-only workload on Linux would definitely favor Intel, as cheap AMD GPUs are ancient and Nvidia proprietary drivers are still annoying to use.
lmcd - Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - link
Nested Hyper-V sounds niche but anyone who wants to use the Windows 10X emulator needs it unfortunately.mooninite - Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - link
Hi, let's calm down on the FUD.You act like the only virtualization solution on Windows is Hyper-V. It's not. It's not a deal breaker for most people. Maybe for you... but not for most people.
IGP support is *equal* today (yes, the year is 2020) with Intel and AMD IGPs. All the way up to Ice Lake and Vega 3xxx APUs. Performance favors AMD IGPs. This support extends to video decoding and encoding, which is equal on both sides.
The NVIDIA driver is painless to use if you use a sane, well-maintained distribution that packages it for you.
Anything else you would like to debate? Some of your statement was true a decade ago, but times have changed for the better.