ASRock B650E Taichi Lite Motherboard Review

Inside the box, you’ll find the usual user’s manual, AM5 CPU installation guide, a Taichi postcard, a Taichi keycap, 2 pairs of SATA cables, 3 sets of M.2 screws, a pair of velcro straps for cable management, a USB bracket, and a set of WiFi 6e antennas.

The ASRock B650E Taichi Lite Motherboard

One of the first thing you’ll notice with the B650E Taichi Lite, it that comes with the usual matte finish, but lacks the metal backplate and the large full-cover chipset heatsinks (which are found on the original Taichi version).

However, you still get decent enough cooling for the VRMs/Mofets which are situated along the top and left side of the motherboard. Although you don’t get the full-cover chipset heatsink you still get smaller and more compact heatsinks which cover the Blazing M.2 (PCIE Gen5) slot on the right side of the board, as well as around the Hyper M.2 slots and chipset.

The I/O hood features a printed Tachi logo and design, and it’s partly covered by the large VRM heatsink. There is no RGB lighting in the I/O hood. RGB lighting can only be found on the bottom right hand corner of the motherboard.

A Closer Look

There are 2 x 8-pin PCIE power connectors on the top left-hand corner of the board. Make sure you plug in both of these 8-pin PCIE cables in to the motherboard. This will give the board extra stability for overclocking etc.

There are only two PCIE x16 slots on the B650E Taichi Lite. You get 1 x PCIe 5.0 x16 Slot (for graphics card and supports x16 mode), and 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 Slot (supports x4 mode). Both slots come with surface mount technology, which gives it better physical strength, as well as a more stable memory signal.

And if you love your RGB, then there’s 2 x 3-pin ARGB (5V) headers located near the top right side of the motherboard, and 1 x 3-pin ARGB (5V) header, as well as1 x 4-pin RGB (12V) near the bottom right side of the board.

For audio, it features ESS SABRE9218 DAC and Realtek 5.1 CH HD Audio codec. There are 4 little red squares located on the bottom left-hand corned of the board, and these are the high end audio WIMA Caps.

There’s plenty of USB connectivity. You get 1 x USB4 Type-C (Rear), 1 x USB 3.2 Gen2x2 Type-C (Front), 3 x USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-A (Rear), 10 x USB 3.2 Gen1 (8 Rear, 2 Front), 4 x USB 2.0 (Front). And as with all Taichi motherboards, ASRock have included the onboard power on/off and reset buttons, as well as the diagnostic LEDs.

For connectivity, you get the Killer E3100 2.5G LAN as well as the Killer AX1675 802.11ax (WiFi 6E) + Bluetooth 5.0. And for storage options, you get 4 x SATA3 ports, 2 x Hyper M.2 (PCIe Gen4x4) slots, and 1 x Blazing M.2 (PCIe Gen5x4)

The rear I/O panel include the BIOS flashback button, clear CMOS, connectors for your WiFi 6e antenna, HDMI port, lightning gamning ports, Killer E3100 2.5G LAN port,  8 x USB 3.2 Gen2 ports,  and 1 x USB4 Type-C port, and for audio there’s the mic-in, line-out, and SPDIF out.