ASRock X99 Taichi Motherboard Review

Motherboard Photos

The X99 Taichi has a similar package as most other ASRock motherboards. The same as in BIOS/UEFI, the main difference makes new Taichi black/white design. Tested X99 motherboard is first from the Taichi line but soon you will see new motherboards based on Intel Z270 chipset ( which are already in stores ) and in about a month also new series of motherboards on new AMD chipsets.

Package contains all you need to install the motherboard:

• Quick Installation Guide, Support CD, I/O Shield
• 4 x SATA Data Cables
• 1 x ASRock SLI_HB_Bridge_2S Card
• 1 x ASRock SLI_Bridge_2S Card
• 1 x ASRock 3-Way SLI-2S1S Bridge Card
• 2 x ASRock WiFi 2.4/5 GHz Antennas
• 2 x Screws for Ultra M.2 Socket

On the back we can find 8 USB ports from which 5 are USB 3.0/3.1 and 3 are USB 2.0. Two USB 3.1 ports ( Type A and C ) are supporting 10Gb/s bandwidth and are connected to ASMedia ASM1142 controller while USB 3.0 ports come from Intel chipset. There is also PS/2 mouse/keyboard port which is sometimes still handy but I guess it will start to disappear in next generations of motherboards.
Two Intel LAN ports are supporting teaming but for some reason Microsoft disabled this functionality in Windows 10.
Clear CMOS switch is also pretty handy, especially when you are overclocking your PC in a closed case. It saves some time required to open the case and look for button inside.
HD Audio Jacks have typical layout: rear speaker, central, bass, line in, front speaker and microphone.

On the motherboard there are also additional connectors for USB 3.0/3.1, audio front panel, COM and TMP.

The X99 Taichi is also equipped in two BIOS/UEFI chips which you can switch manually. It’s great feature, especially when you wish to keep profiles for different needs, wish to keep copy of your BIOS settings or try new BIOS version. In the UEFI you can also keep your profiles what is handy when you try various overclocking settings. 

The X99 Taichi has 12 power phase design which you can see on the photos below. It let to support even 18 core Xeons or higher overclocked i7 processors.

There are two power connectors: 24 pin ATX and 8 pin dedicated for CPU.

The motherboard has five fan connectors from which one is designed to support water pumps. We can also find LED connector which appeared with the RGB LED idea introduced to all new gaming motherboard series.

On the motherboard we will also find multiple storage ports:

• 10 x SATA3 6.0 Gb/s connector
• 1 x SATA Express 10 Gb/s connector (shared with SATA3_4 and SATA3_5)
• 2 x Ultra M.2 Socket – support for M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s and M.2 PCI Express up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s)

Here is one thing worth to mention. To use both M.2 sockets in PCI Express mode is required 40 PCIE lane CPU such as i7 5830K and higher or i7 6850K and higher. Users who have i7 5820K or i7 6800K processors will be limited to SATA3 mode on the M.2 socket near CPU but still can use M.2 in PCI Express mode on the other socket – next to Dr. Debug LED display.

Motherboard is supporting up to 128GB DDR4 memory in 8 slots. It’s a lot for a home usage but X99 platform is designed also for work. Especially in graphics designing and rendering you may need more RAM.

We had no issues with compatibility and stability of DDR4 memory based on Samsung and Hynix IC. Regardless of used brand ( Corsair, Crucial, G.Skill, Team Group ) memory was working at XMP profiles without issues. However tested memory kits were specified up to DDR4-3200.

Above you can see how X99 Taichi motherboard looks from the back. Nothin unusual but the design is clean and all looks really good.

From the devices I really like is WiFi controller which is more often used at home or in the office and most X99 motherboards don’t have it while it’s additional cost if you wish to use wireless connection. Controller is also supporting Bluetooth what is next advantage if you wish to use devices on this interface.

From the things I’m missing are power and reset buttons on board but I understand it’s not the overclocking series motherboard and it’s not required. I’m just used to have them on most my motherboards.

Additional features will be described on the next pages of this review. Let’s move to BIOS/UEFI options.