Taichi comes in an attractive looking box which, the front simply showcases the logo, while the reverse has a breakdown of all the significant features. Inside the box, all of the accessories are stored within their own cardboard container, and the board itself is found within an anti-static bag.
Taichi is ASRock’s top-end motherboard within their lineup and as such, it comes with an array of bundled accessories, including an M.2 expansion card which can support an additional four M.2 devices and will operate in Gen4x1 mode. This is what the accessories bundle looks like:
- 4 x SATA Data Cables
- 1 x M.2 Expansion Card
- 1 x ASRock WiFi 2.4/5/6 GHz Antenna
- 1 x ARGB Splitter Cable
- 3 x Thermistor Cables
- 1 x Screw for M.2 Socket
- 1 x Standoff for M.2 Socket
Taichi conforms to the ATX Form Factor and will therefore fit into most mid-tower cases.
The design of TAICHI is sleek and it is adorned in a black and gold aesthetic. The gold accents are a particularly nice touch – providing the board with that luxury feel. There is no doubt that this has been given premium treatment.
Being a Z890 motherboard, the socket is LGA 1851 and has support for Intel 15th Gen. Processors (Arrow Lake). TAICHI comes in with a phenomenal 24+2+1 phase SPS VRM power delivery and the board uses an 8-layer server-grade PCB. There are two gigantic heatsinks which cover the VRMs – and as we discovered in our testing, the thermal design is exceptional – keeping temperatures well within the realms of adequate. Behind these heatsinks we have twin 8-pin CPU connectors.
There are 8x 4-pin fan headers spread out at the top, side, bottom and middle of the board with designated compatibility for water pumps. 4 RGB LED headers are also present for additional lighting and these come in the form of 1x RGB LED and 3x addressable LED.
Memory support sees us able to use up to 256GB of DDR5 and up to 9600MHz. In the memory region there is also Debug LED panel which is a handy diagnostic feature identifying any problems on bootup and an onboard power/reset buttons which are useful if you have this board on a test bench.
Connectivity for your computer case comes in the form of 1x USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 header and 2x USB 3.2 Gen 1 headers for the front panel. In terms of storage, there are up to 4x SATA 6GB/s ports and a whopping 5x PCIe M.2 slots – 4x are Gen4x4 and the remaining one is Gen5x4. All M.2 slots feature a corresponding heatsink to control temperatures – the upper slot (which is Gen5) has been given it’s own supersized aluminium fin stack.
For graphics delivery there is 1x PCIe 5.0 X16 slot and 1x PCIe 4.0 x16 slot. The upper slot is Gen5 and should be used if a single graphics card is operating – it operates at the full 16 lanes and features enhanced steel slot protection.
For audio, TAICHI uses the Realtec ALC 4082 processor. And the audio package itself includes:
- WIMA Audio Capacitors (For Rear Outputs)
- ESS SABRE9219 DAC for Rear Panel Audio (130dB SNR)
- Individual PCB Layers for R/L Audio Channel
- Direct Drive Technology on Front headphone port (Supports up to 600 Ohm headsets)
- Nahimic Audio
The back panel of TAICHI is jam-packed with features and connectivity – Available we have:
- 2 x Antenna Ports (WIFI7)
- 1 x HDMI Port
- 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port
- 2 x Thunderbolt™ 4 Type-C Ports (40 Gb/s)
- 4 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A Ports (10 Gb/s)
- 4 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Ports
- 2 x USB 2.0 Ports
- 2 x RJ-45 LAN Ports (2.5G and 5G)
- 1 x Clear CMOS Button
- 1 x BIOS Flashback Button
- 1 x Line Out Jack (Gold Audio Jack)
- 1 x Microphone Input Jack (Gold Audio Jack)
It’s wonderful to see the backpanel laden with so many USB ports, and even Thunderbolt 4, which content creators will definitely find useful.
We of course have the inclusion of WiFi 7 with this being a Z890 motherboard for those wanting to take advantage of wireless connectivity.
