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.
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Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs |
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Crucial Ballistix DDR4 |
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Peskarik - Thursday, May 28, 2020 - link
Big thanks for the explanation, BGentry.Samus - Thursday, May 28, 2020 - link
Asus is a large OEM manufacturer and just doesn't make anything interesting anymore. That isn't a bad thing, except for innovation.Ian Cutress - Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - link
ASUS defaults to Intel recommended settings for turbo and voltage, and gives users the option to increase these in line with ASUS recommendations to get the best performance. The other manufacturers simply operate with their recommended settings out of the box, hence longer and higher turbos.Note that Intel actually encourages vendors to set their own turbo length and turbo power - what Intel provides is recommendations, but as long as the MB vendors aren't actually overclocking the frequency, they don't particularly care.
We typically test with out-of-the-box settings, to give a sense of what performance that users without any knowledge of what a turbo power limit is should expect. Given ASUS' implementation, it means they fall down on this metric, which makes it appear if the board is worse. What we should have done in this case is posted both sets of numbers and specified the difference, which is our fault. How ASUS does their options is going to be the focus of our Hero review.
rahvin - Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - link
Thanks for the comment Ian. I always do my own setting so I never noticed this, I'm glad you brought it to attention.Peskarik - Thursday, May 28, 2020 - link
Thank you, Ian! I look forward to it. For my next system I would like ASUS board + card, just to be sure all drivers etc are in line, that is why I am looking at the performance of ASUS boards in particular.Byte - Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - link
I used to only buy Asus, but i keep hearing crappy things about their ROG lines. To get similar features cost almost double in the current ROG lines vs Giga or MSI.Seems like the lower Asus lines are ok. What are you guys experiencing?
khanikun - Tuesday, June 2, 2020 - link
I got away from Asus. I stuck with them for like 10 years, but in the later years, my Asus boards kept breaking. I swapped to their WS line, which worked for a while, but then it seems they turned crappy too. They'd die in 1 to 1 1/2 years. Maybe I'm just super unlucky with Asus. I just gave up on them and moved to Gigabyte.Kind of makes me wish Abit was still around and was like their old heyday in the early 2000s. I had a good like 6-7 year run on my old IC7-Max 3 board, until the caps started leaking.
PeachNCream - Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - link
Gotta love how the word "Taichi" totally matches well with the whole brass cogs and gears theme plastered all over the plastic coverings they use to hide the PCB for - well who knows what reason. PCBs in computers must be considered ugly or something. Next stop, PCB-free, RGB-equipped windowed desktop computers!!!Deicidium369 - Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - link
When Jobs started NeXT - even the motherboard went through the aesthetic department.I support removing polychlorinated biphenyls from desktop computers - almost as insidious as RGB Disco lights. Windows are for cars, boats, airplanes, houses and not for PC cases.
I rather like the look of printed circuit boards in PCs - and the idea that you have several billion precision manufactured features in every CPU.
YB1064 - Wednesday, May 27, 2020 - link
ASRock have come a long way. I used be an ABit guy before latching on to ASUS up until Haswell. I had the opportunity to get a great deal on ASRock's Supercarrier Z270 paired with a 7700K. Superb board, tons of features, stable and overclocks quite well (5.1 GHz all cores with no effort).I must say, I miss the glory days of overclocking, i.e. tweaking the hell out of a DFI NF4 + TCCD + BH5 and employing crazy sh!% like the OCZ DDR booster.