ASRock B550 Taichi Motherboard Review

Features and Specifications

Features

Supports 3^rd Gen AMD AM4 Ryzen™ / Future AMD Ryzen™ Processors
16 Power Phase Design, Digi Power, Dr. MOS
Supports DDR4 5200+ (OC)
3 PCIe 4.0/3.0×16, 2 PCIe 3.0 x1
Graphics Output Options: HDMI, DisplayPort
AMD 3-Way CrossFireX™
7.1 CH HD Audio (Realtek ALC1220 Audio Codec), Nahimic Audio
8 SATA3, 1 Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen4 x4), 1 Ultra M.2 (PCIe Gen3 x4 & SATA3)
3 USB 3.2 Gen2 (Rear Type A+C, Front Type-C), 8 USB 3.2 Gen1 (4 Front, 4 Rear)
Intel^® 2.5G LAN, Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax (2.4Gbps) + BT 5.1

Philosophy of Infinite Potential

Taichi represents the philosophical state of undifferentiated absolute and infinite potential. A motherboard that fulfills every task – with style! Become like water. Shapeless, formless, versatile for any situation.

Unbeatable Heatsink Armor

Forged with aluminum alloy heatsinnk top cover that effectively improves heat dissipation. Underneath its solid strong cover lie two gaming required M.2 Key M sockets for high speed SSDs.

Dual M.2 Sockets for SSD

Hyper M.2 socket that supports PCIe Gen4 x4 while Ultra M.2 socket is capable of running PCIe Gen3 x4 and SATA3 mode.

Metal Backplate

Strengthens the motherboard to prevent bending caused by heavy coolers or graphics cards with better airflow and enhanced stability.

Nahimic Audio

Whether you are using headphones, a headset, external or internal speakers, via USB, Wi-Fi, analog output or even HDMI, Nahimic Audio offers you the most engaging listening experience, vibrant and rich with details.

The Sound Tracker is a visual indicator that points out the directions from which predominant sounds are coming. Each sound is properly positioned in 360° on a radar for a full immersion during the game.

Dr. MOS

Dr.MOS is the integrated power stage solution which is optimized for synchronous buck-set down voltage applications! Compared to traditional discrete MOSFETs, it intelligently delivers higher current for each phase, thus providing improved thermal result and superior performance.

Premium 60A Power Choke

Compared to traditional chokes, ASRock’s premium 60A power chokes effectively make the saturation current up to three times better, thus providing enhanced and improved Vcore voltage to the motherboard.

16 Power Phase Design

Featuring sturdy components and completely smooth power delivery to the CPU. Plus, it offers unmatched overclocking capabilities and enhanced performance with the lowest temperature for advanced gamers as well.

Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax

Welcome to the new Wi-Fi standard! ASRock’s motherboard will be the 1st product coming with next generation Intel^® Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax adapter. The speed will be working up to 2.4Gbps and it will also natively operate with both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz simultaneously. Significant improvement in bi-directional MU-MIMO support is another attractive feature as well.

Intel^® 2.5G LAN

The 2.5G Ethernet configuration were introduced to support higher bandwidth on widely deployed CAT5e and CAT6 cabling in enterprise and metro area networks. The industry’s leading Intel^® LAN always provides the best throughput performance, lower CPU utilization, enhanced stability and is able to deliver ultimate network experience to users!

Reinforced Steel Slot [PCIe 4.0 Version]

The reinforced steel slot comes with the next generation PCI Express 4.0 standard. The various benefits include:
✔ Extra anchor points
✔ Stronger latch
✔ Ensure signal stability
✔ Make sure heavy graphics cards to be well-installed.

RULE YOUR OWN LIGHTING WAY – POLYCHROME RGB

ASRock motherboards deliver stunning performance and superior aesthetics to rule your own colorful lighting way! ASRock offers a very comprehensive control to perform the built-in RGB LEDs or the connected LED strips, CPU fans, coolers, chassis and any RGB devices smoothly. Devices can be synchronized across the Polychrome RGB Sync-certified accessories as well.

Front USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C

Front USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C header delivers up to 10 Gbps data transfer rate and next generation reversible USB design to the front panel of computer case.

Flexible Integrated I/O Shield

Unlike most so called pre-mounted I/O shield that is only decorated with fancy color schemes. We reserve more tolerance space and allow IO shield is adjustable when installing, thus fitting chassis perfectly without any mechanical issue.

Specifications

Unique Feature

ASRock USB 3.2 Gen2
– ASRock Front Panel Type C USB 3.2 Gen2 Header (10 Gb/s)
– ASRock USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s)
– ASRock USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s)
ASRock Super Alloy
– XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink
– Premium 60A Power Choke
– 50A Dr.MOS
– Premium Memory Alloy Choke (Reduces 70% core loss compared to iron powder choke)
– Nichicon 12K Black Caps (100% Japan made high quality conductive polymer capacitors)
– I/O Armor
– Matte Black PCB
– High Density Glass Fabric PCB
– 2oz Copper PCB
Intel^® 2.5G LAN
Intel^® 802.11ax WiFi
ASRock Steel Slot Gen4
ASRock Full Coverage M.2 Heatsink
ASRock Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen4x4)
ASRock Ultra USB Power
ASRock Full Spike Protection (for all USB, Audio, LAN Ports)
ASRock Live Update & APP Shop
CPU

– Supports 3^rd Gen AMD AM4 Ryzen™ / future AMD Ryzen™ Processors*
– Digi Power design
– 16 Power Phase design

*Not compatible with AMD Ryzen™ 5 3400G and Ryzen™ 3 3200G.
Chipset

– AMD B550
Memory

– Dual Channel DDR4 Memory Technology
– 4 x DDR4 DIMM Slots
– AMD Ryzen series CPUs (Matisse) support DDR4 5000+(OC) / 4933(OC) / 4866(OC) / 4800(OC) / 4733(OC) / 4666(OC) / 4600(OC) / 4533(OC) / 4466(OC) / 4400(OC) / 4333(OC) / 4266(OC) / 4200(OC) / 4133(OC) / 4000(OC) / 3866(OC) / 3800(OC) / 3733(OC) / 3600(OC) / 3466(OC) / 3200 / 2933 / 2667 / 2400 / 2133 ECC & non-ECC, un-buffered memory*
– AMD Next Generation Ryzen series APUs support DDR4 5200+(OC) / 5100(OC) / 5000(OC) / 4933(OC) / 4866(OC) / 4800(OC) / 4733(OC) / 4666(OC) / 4600(OC) / 4533(OC) / 4466(OC) / 4400(OC) / 4333(OC) / 4266(OC) / 4200(OC) / 4133(OC) / 4000(OC) / 3866(OC) / 3800(OC) / 3733(OC) / 3600(OC) / 3466(OC) / 3200 / 2933 / 2667 / 2400 / 2133 ECC & non-ECC, un-buffered memory*
– Max. capacity of system memory: 128GB**
– Supports Extreme Memory Profile (XMP) memory modules
– 15μ Gold Contact in DIMM Slots

*For Ryzen Series CPUs (Picasso), ECC is only supported with PRO CPUs.

Ryzen Series CPUs (Matisse):

Ryzen Series APUs:

SR: Single rank DIMM, 1Rx4 or 1Rx8 on DIMM module label x=1 or 2
DR: Dual rank DIMM, 2Rx4 or 2Rx8 on DIMM module label

**Due to the operating system limitation, the actual memory size may be less than 4GB for the reservation for system usage under Windows^® 32-bit OS. For Windows^® 64-bit OS with 64-bit CPU, there is no such limitation.
BIOS

– 256Mb AMI UEFI Legal BIOS with GUI support
– Supports “Plug and Play”
– ACPI 5.1 compliance wake up events
– Supports jumperfree
– SMBIOS 2.3 support
– CPU, CPU VDDCR_SOC, DRAM, VPPM, VTT_DDR Offset, CPU VDD 1.8 Voltage Multi-adjustment
Graphics

– Integrated AMD Radeon™ Vega Series Graphics in Ryzen Series APU*
– DirectX 12, Pixel Shader 5.0
– Shared memory default 2GB. Max Shared memory supports up to 16GB.**
– Dual graphics output: support HDMI and DisplayPort 1.4 ports by independent display controllers
– Supports HDMI 2.1 with max. resolution up to 4K x 2K (4096×2160) @ 60Hz
– Supports DisplayPort 1.4 Input with max. resolution up to 5K (5120×2880)@120Hz
– Supports Auto Lip Sync, Deep Color (12bpc), xvYCC and HBR (High Bit Rate Audio) with HDMI 2.1 Port (Compliant HDMI monitor is required)
– Supports HDR (High Dynamic Range) with HDMI 2.1
– Supports HDCP 2.3 with HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 Ports
– Supports 4K Ultra HD (UHD) playback with HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 Ports
– Supports Microsoft^® PlayReady

*Actual support may vary by CPU

**The Max shared memory 16GB requires 32GB system memory installed.
Audio

– 7.1 CH HD Audio with Content Protection (Realtek ALC1220 Audio Codec)
– Premium Blu-ray Audio support
– Supports Surge Protection
– 120dB SNR DAC with Differential Amplifier
– NE5532 Premium Headset Amplifier for Front Panel Audio Connector (Supports up to 600 Ohm headsets)
– Pure Power-In
– Direct Drive Technology
– PCB Isolate Shielding
– Impedance Sensing on Rear Out port
– Individual PCB Layers for R/L Audio Channel
– Gold Audio Jacks
– 15μ Gold Audio Connector
– Nahimic Audio
LAN

– 2.5 Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000/2500 Mb/s
– GigaLAN Intel^® I225V
– Supports Wake-On-LAN
– Supports Lightning/ESD Protection
– Supports Energy Efficient Ethernet 802.3az
– Supports PXE
Wireless LAN

– Intel^® 802.11ax WiFi Module
– Supports IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n/ax
– Supports Dual-Band (2.4/5 GHz)
– Supports WiFi6 802.11ax (2.4Gbps)
– 2 antennas to support 2 (Transmit) x 2 (Receive) diversity technology
– Supports Bluetooth 5.1 + High speed class II
– Supports MU-MIMO
Slots

AMD Ryzen series CPUs (Matisse)
– 3 x PCI Express x16 Slots (PCIE1/PCIE3/PCIE5: single at Gen4x16 (PCIE1); dual at Gen4x8 (PCIE1) / Gen4x8 (PCIE3); triple at Gen4x8 (PCIE1) / Gen4x8 (PCIE3) / Gen3x4 (PCIE5))*
AMD Ryzen series APUs
– 3 x PCI Express x16 Slots (PCIE1/PCIE3/PCIE5: single at Gen3x16 (PCIE1); dual at Gen3x8 (PCIE1) / Gen3x8 (PCIE3); triple at Gen3x8 (PCIE1) / Gen3x8 (PCIE3) / Gen3x4 (PCIE5))- 2 x PCI Express 3.0 x1 Slots
– Supports AMD Quad CrossFireX™, 3-Way CrossFireX™ and CrossFireX™
– 1 x Vertical M.2 Socket (Key E) with the bundled WiFi-802.11ax module (on the rear I/O)
– 15μ Gold Contact in VGA PCIe Slot (PCIE1)

*If PCIE2 or PCIE4 is occupied, PCIE5 will downgrade to x2 mode.
Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
Storage

– 4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors, support RAID (RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10), NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug
– 4 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s Connectors by ASMedia ASM1061, support NCQ, AHCI and Hot Plug
– 1 x Hyper M.2 Socket (M2_1), supports M Key type 2242/2260/2280 M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen4x4 (64 Gb/s) (with Matisse) or Gen3x4 (32 Gb/s)*
– 1 x Ultra M.2 Socket (M2_2), supports M Key type 2242/2260/2280/22110 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s)*

*Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks
Supports ASRock U.2 Kit
Connector

– 1 x Power LED and Speaker Header
– 2 x RGB LED Headers*
– 2 x Addressable LED Headers**
– 1 x CPU Fan Connector (4-pin)***
– 1 x CPU/Water Pump Fan Connector (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)***
– 5 x Chassis/Water Pump Fan Connectors (4-pin) (Smart Fan Speed Control)****
– 1 x 24 pin ATX Power Connector (Hi-Density Power Connector)
– 2 x 8 pin 12V Power Connectors (Hi-Density Power Connector)
– 1 x Front Panel Audio Connector (15μ Gold Audio Connector)
– 2 x USB 2.0 Headers (Support 4 USB 2.0 ports) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 2 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Headers (Support 4 USB 3.2 Gen1 ports) (ASMedia ASM1074 hub) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x Front Panel Type C USB 3.2 Gen2 Header (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x Dr. Debug with LED
– 1 x Power Button with LED
– 1 x Reset Button with LED
– 1 x Clear CMOS Button

*Support in total up to 12V/3A, 36W LED Strip

**Support in total up to 5V/3A, 15W LED Strip

***The CPU Fan Connector supports the CPU fan of maximum 1A (12W) fan power.

***CPU_FAN2/WP_3A supports the water cooler fan of maximum 3A (36W) fan power.

****The Chassis/Water Pump Fan supports the water cooler fan of maximum 2A (24W) fan power.
CPU_FAN2/WP_3A, CHA_FAN1/WP, CHA_FAN2/WP, CHA_FAN3/WP, CHA_FAN4/WP and CHA_FAN5/WP can auto detect if 3-pin or 4-pin fan is in use.
Rear Panel I/O

– 2 x Antenna Ports
– 1 x HDMI Port
– 1 x DisplayPort 1.4
– 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port
– 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A Port (10 Gb/s) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C Port (10 Gb/s) (Supports ESD Protection)
– 4 x USB 3.2 Gen1 Ports (Supports ESD Protection)*
– 2 x USB 2.0 Ports (Supports ESD Protection)
– 1 x RJ-45 LAN Port with LED (ACT/LINK LED and SPEED LED)
– 1 x Clear CMOS Button
– 1 x BIOS Flashback Button
– HD Audio Jacks: Rear Speaker / Central / Bass / Line in / Front Speaker / Microphone (Gold Audio Jacks)

*Ultra USB Power is supported on USB3_1_2 ports.
ACPI wake-up function is not supported on USB3_1_2 ports.
Software and UEFI

Software
– ASRock Motherboard Utility (A-Tuning)
– ASRock Polychrome SYNC
– ASRock XFast LAN
UEFI
– ASRock Full HD UEFI
– ASRock Instant Flash

*These utilities can be downloaded from ASRock Live Update & APP Shop.
Support CD

– Drivers, Utilities, AntiVirus Software (Trial Version), Google Chrome Browser and Toolbar
Accessories

– Quick Installation Guide, Support CD
– 4 x SATA Data Cables
– 1 x ASRock WiFi 2.4/5 GHz Antenna
– 1 x ASRock Screwdriver
– 2 x Screws for M.2 Sockets
– 2 x Standoffs for M.2 Sockets
Hardware Monitor

– Temperature Sensing: CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
– Fan Tachometer: CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
– Quiet Fan (Auto adjust chassis fan speed by CPU temperature): CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
– Fan Multi-Speed Control: CPU, CPU/Water Pump, Chassis/Water Pump Fans
– Voltage monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3.3V, CPU Vcore, CPU VDDCR_SOC, DRAM, CPU VDD 1.8V
Form Factor

– ATX Form Factor: 12.0-in x 9.6-in, 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm
– 2oz Copper PCB

More information can be found on ASRock’s website.