Product On Review: X870E Taichi Lite
Manufacturer: ASRock
MSRP:
- US: $399 excl Tax.
- AUS: ~$580 excl Tax (TBC)
- UK: ~£360 inc. V.A.T. (TBC)
Editor: Tim Harmer
AMD are back scarcely six weeks after the Ryzen 9000-series launch, this time presenting the 800-series motherboards in partnership with major component manufacturers. Starting with a selection of high performance X870E designs and eventually extending down to mainstream and affordable product segments, the 800-series will be a broad top-to-bottom replacement for the 600-series companion for Ryzen 7000-series processors.
The 800-series continues AMD’s commitment to the AM5 platform, offering compatibility not only with ‘Zen 5’ Ryzen 9000-series processors but also 8000-series APUs and ‘Zen 4’ 7000-series chips. AM5 is expected to be a fixture in the market until at least 2027, indicating that these new designs will be compatible with processors launched as much as three years from now. That’s in stark contrast to Intel, who will be sunsetting LGA1700 later this year after just two discrete processor architectural generations.
X870E is the high-end desktop chipset for the range and takes many of its cues from its predecessor. It utilises a dual-controller solution for its chipset to layer on additional I/O capabilities compared to the single-controller X870 and B850, and thus is tailored for those who demand more peripheral support and PCI-Express lanes.
The chipset has full PCIe 5.0 support for x16 and x8/x8 modes on the GPU alongside a single PCIe Gen5 x4 M.2 NVMe slot. Additional peripheral support is offered through PCIe 4.0 lanes, typically through a plethora of M.2 NVMe storage and additional integrated I/O.
Clear improvements over X670E include improved memory support up to DDR5-8200 (OC), two USB4 40 Gbps ports, and more comprehensive CPU overclocking toolkit that augments PBO.
800-series motherboards are also some of the first to support WiFi 7 networking as standard. This allows the combination of multiple 2.4GHz, 5GHz and 6GHz bands into continuous data streams for higher realised bandwidth and better management of IoT environments.
The model we’re looking at in this review is one of seven ASRock X870/X870E launch models. The ASRock X870E Taichi Lite is an upper-mid rather than the true high-end member of the 800-series, retailing for around $400 at time of writing. This ‘Lite’ variant of the Tachi is, like the 600-series variant before it, quite distinct from its senior partner in look but not necessarily capabilities, and is still a model that’s designed for pushing the platform hard.
This EATX form factor design is equipped with generous 24+2+1-phase power delivery, an oversized VRM cooler, oversized chipset cooler, four M.2 slots (one of which supports PCIe Gen5) and two USB4 Type-C ports. In terms of functionality therefore, it’s certainly no slouch.
ASRock-specific additions include so-called ‘Lightning Gaming’ USB ports, ‘Ultra USB Power’ USB ports, a quick-release M.2 port and extended form factor to make room for all that on-board storage. Audio is provided by an ES9219 SABRE DAC with WIMA Audio capacitors and supported by technical knowhow from Nahimic Audio. And of course it all supports ASRock’s own PolyChrome Sync lighting system through multiple RGB headers throughout the board.
Competition will be fierce between the X870E boards launching today and the coming months. While the X870E Taichi Lite is relatively well positioned from a price perspective - many models will launch well in excess of $450 - it still needs to prove its mettle as a value-added and reliable spine for a high-performance system. So with that in mind, lets take a closer look.
