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) |
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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.
| Hardware Providers for CPU and Motherboard Reviews | |||
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Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs |
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| G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX |
Crucial Ballistix DDR4 |
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57 Comments
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lmcd - Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - link
Honestly this is the most inane post I've ever read. Times haven't changed for the better, Raven Ridge support took over a year after the SoC was released. I own two Raven Ridge devices. I would know.Even when AMD support hits mainline, it's in such a late kernel version that you better hope this "sane" distro you're referring to is willing to backport support in an update.
Dunno what you mean about the Nvidia driver being painless to use. Its Wayland support is still comparatively unstable in Gnome and pushes KDE Wayland support from mediocre to bad. It also requires extra build tools.
I can't edit posts but I explained a key usage of nested Hyper-V. "Anyone who wants to use the Windows 10X emulator needs it unfortunately." There's also plenty of other features that use Hyper-V these days from WSL2 to Windows Sandbox, so the antiquated views on Hyper-V are also quite dated. Times have changed for the better, and Hyper-V is very much part of the present.
Congrats on your condescension though! It almost masks how wrong you are.
Dug - Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - link
Why in the world do you insist on benchmarking Non-UEFI POST Time when no one will use that?TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, May 28, 2020 - link
Because not everyone is you and there are those of us that DO use it. Wow, what an amazing thought.Dorkaman - Thursday, May 28, 2020 - link
I would love to see UEFI post time AND Windpows clean knstall boot time. My old Asus Rampage V Extreme was very slow (40s post+boot no mem test hybrid) and the new Asus ROG Maximus XII Extreme is also very slow.My Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master posts+boots in 10+5 seconds.
Dug - Wednesday, June 3, 2020 - link
Why would you be buying new equipment for outdated OS's that aren't supported?If that's the case, the boot time is irrelevant, and my post still stands. Why even bother benchmarking it?
Ranger1065 - Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - link
A good read, always a pleasure to peruse Anandtech. The aesthetics are not for everyone but personally I think it's a nice looking board. Out of my price range but Z490 is not for me anyway. As to Asus boards, I have an older Z97 Maximus Hero VII and a Z390 Prime. Both great boards that have given me no significant issues.Jorgp2 - Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - link
Do the new CPUs have an additional 4x lanes from the CPU?I keep seeing boards that advertise 8,8,4 slots, with all of them coming from the CPU. And this motherboard for example that has the 4x gen 4 M.2, when the chipset does not have Gen 4
MDD1963 - Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - link
The specs I read said the top GPU slot would be capable of PCI-e 4.0 x16, ...and one of the M.2 slots...( perhaps I missed where it said all 4 might be capable fo PCI-e 4.0 x4 operation?_)Even with the aforementioned limits, more than enough for 99% of most folks....
Spunjji - Thursday, May 28, 2020 - link
Waiting to see how many people show up to the comments to wail about the tiny fans. After all, it wasn't anti-AMD sentiment that caused so many folks to show to all of the articles related to X570 boards (and a few that weren't) and do that, it was totally neutral concerns about longevity and noise.(Full disclosure - I am fully on-board with not wanting tiny fans on a motherboard... just feeling a little amused by the asymmetry of this. The only comment here so far on this topic has been a sensible one, not hysterical ranting.)
TheinsanegamerN - Thursday, May 28, 2020 - link
So you smugly, disingenuously re-categorize the arguments of others and think you're...clever? Funny? Intelligent?Now, here's points for asrock that might blow your mind, these are STANDARD FANS. You can go buy brand new noctuas to replace these and silence them while maintaining cooling performance. Guess what you couldnt do with x570 chipset fans? These fans also dont spin 24/7, only when needed, and the VRMs here get a LOT hotter then the x570 chipset did.
If X570 got into the 90C range without the active cooling (it doesnt) and they used standard 40mm fans (they dont) then the complaints would be baseless. But we saw how necessary those x570 fans really were. And oh hey, there are plenty of Z490 mtoherboards that dont use VRM fans! Just like that whole 1 X570 motherboard that cost like $700!