An AMD Threadripper X399 Motherboard Overview: A Quick Look at Seven Products
by Ian Cutress & Joe Shields on September 15, 2017 9:00 AM ESTASRock X399 Taichi
The X399 Taichi is configured at a lower point down the ASRock product stack from the Professional Gaming. The Taichi forgoes 10 Gigabit Ethernet, and instead of the Creative Sound Blaster Cinema 3 suite for audio the Taichi uses Purity Sound 4 and a Realtek ALC1220 Codec.
Normally we associate ASRock’s Taichi models with black and white, but this time ASRock has made the board white and grey and drawing attention to the fact that the LEDs can be white if needed. So this means the X399 Taichi has a black PCB with gray accents in the shape of cogs on the PCB area between the PCIe slots and around the chipset heatsink. The DRAM slots are black, while the dual heatsinks for the VRM stretch around to the rear IO via a heatpipe are gray. Much like the Professional Gaming, the only integrated RGB LEDs are under the chipset heatsink, although there are two RGB LED headers for connecting additional RGB strips, all of which can all be controlled by the RGB LED application bundled with the board.
Just like the Professional Gaming, the Taichi supports up to 4-Way SLI and 4-Way Crossfire, with the PCIe slots reinforced using ASRock’s ‘Steel Slot’ protection. From top to bottom, the PCIe slots offer x16/x8/x16/x8 connectivity, taking 48 of the 60 PCIe lanes from the chipset. The final twelve are dedicated to storage with three onboard PCIe 3.0 x4 M.2 slots, one of which is switched with a U.2 connector. Other storage connectivity comes from eight SATA ports, supporting RAID 0/1/10.
The X399 Taichi uses two Intel I211AT gigabit Ethernet controllers, as well as an Intel 3168 1x1 802.11ac WiFi module.
In an almost copy-paste of the Pro Gaming, the Taichi uses the same digital 11 phase IR solution, along with the same EPS placement on the board. USB connectivity on the Taichi is the same as well, with three USB 3.1 (10 Gbps) Type-A ports on the rear panel, one USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) Type-C port on the rear panel, two onboard USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) headers for the front panel, and two USB 2.0 headers as well.
| ASRock X399 Taichi | |
| Warranty Period | 3 Years |
| Product Page | Link |
| Price | $339.99 |
| Size | ATX |
| CPU Interface | TR4 |
| Chipset | AMD X399 |
| Memory Slots (DDR4) | Eight DDR4 Slots, up to 3600 MT/s Supporting 128GB Quad Channel |
| Network Connectivity | 2 x Intel I211AT GbE |
| Wireless Network | 802.11 ab/g/n/ac Dual-Band (2.4/5 GHz) Bluetooth 4.2 |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC1220 |
| PCIe Slots | 4 x PCIe 3.0 (x16/x8/x16/x8) from CPU 1 x PCIe 2.0 x1 from Chipset |
| Onboard SATA | 8x Supporting RAID 0/1/5/10 |
| Onboard SATA Express | None |
| Onboard M.2 | 3 x PCIe 3.0 x4 - NVMe or SATA |
| Onboard U.2 | 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 (disables M2_1 when in use) |
| USB 3.1 | 1 x Type-A, 1 x Type-C (Rear Panel) |
| USB 3.0 | 8 x Rear Panel, 4x via internal headers |
| USB 2.0 | 4 x via internal headers |
| Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin ATX 1 x 8-pin CPU |
| Fan Headers | 1 x CPU (4-pin) 1 x CPU Opt/Water Pump (4-pin) 2 x Chassis (4-pin) 1 x Chassis Opt/Water Pump (4-pin) |
| IO Panel | 2 x Antenna Ports 1 x PS/2 Mouse/Keyboard Port 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A Port 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C Port 8 x USB 3.0 Ports 4 x USB 3.0 Ports 2 x RJ-45 LAN Ports w/ LED 1 x BIOS Flashback Switch HD Audio Jacks |
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LordanSS - Saturday, September 16, 2017 - link
My money is on the latter.... =/vgray35@hotmail.com - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
With CPU power approaching 150 Amps, all these MBs are brain dead right out the gate, for using 50y old 8+ phase Buck converter topology, where VRMs with multiple phases still have poor response settling times (not one cycle settling but 20 cycles), lowish efficiencies way below 98% needing substantial heat sinks; while being saddled with the vagaries of inductive energy storage which takes up a lot of space and cost much more. Instead they should be using hybrid-PWM switching eliminating hard switch of high currents, where fractional cycle resonance ensures zero current switching and almost no switching losses. Resonance frequency scaling of the inductor/capacitor eliminates the need for ferrite cores altogether, reducing both size and core losses.http://www.powerelectronics.com/power-management/s...
Rehashing the same old power technologies with only stepwise minuscule improvements at each iteration, is not going to bode well at all. These engineers need to join the rest of us in the 21st century, and stop rehashing inductive energy storage solutions in power supplies. These new power topologies have been available for 5y to 8y now. And further this will also reduce EMI noise.
vgray35@hotmail.com - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
I might add eliminating the multi-phase Buck converters for a solution based on PWM-resonance switching (hybrid switching), fractional cycle resonance (one cycle settling responses), and resonance scaling of resonance components, will likely permit a X399 mITX board to be made; with all that PSU space recovered for other purposes. Who will take up the challenge? AMD, ASROCK? Or will Intel beat AMD in the rush to high current capability at 99% efficiency? Or one of the other competitors out there! A clarion call to action this is to once and for all retire the Buck converter!ddriver - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
I doubt they will even make a micro atx board, much less itx...It will be a waste, gigantic socket will take up most of the space, there won't be enough room for all 4 memory channels, the CPUs generous amount of PCIE lanes will be utterly wasted.
vgray35@hotmail.com - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
Yes, and yet ASROCK put the X99 on a mITX board. However cutting heat from the VRM's by 60% to 70% or more should be done anyway, not to mention the graphics cards that draw even more power. Why settle for 95/96% efficiency (or worse in some cases) when one could get 98.5% to 99% efficiency. But then again you might be right concerning Thread Ripper, although I would still buy it with M2 slots on the back. The power delivery could be moved entirely to the back of the board without heat sinks with a total height of only 1.5mm (possibly at the center of socket itself on the back). The challenge of course is just as applicable to the graphics cards.ddriver - Saturday, September 16, 2017 - link
Hm, it seems that they launched some lga2066 boards recently, an asrock itx and an msi matx. TR4 however is still atx and up only...DanNeely - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
I agree about how little sense it would make; but there have been a few LGA2011 mITX boards for people who only needed the higher core count. One of the two currently listed on Newegg uses SoDIMMs and riser boards around the CPU socket to make everything fit. Doing it for Threadripper would definitely be harder on account of the bigger socket; but I won't say never.Xajel - Saturday, September 16, 2017 - link
mITX is very hard even with riser boards & only 4x SO-DIMMsbut mATX on the other hand is very plausible... lets hope for a mATX version of the ASRock Pro Gaming with it's 10GbE ( and at least one of it's Intel's 1GbE ), at least 2 of it's M.2's and 6+ SATA ports... and please ASRock, add a front USB 3.1g2 header...
ddriver - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
Amps, or amperes, is a unit of current, not a unit of power. Power is measured in watts."Rehashing the same old power technologies with only stepwise minuscule improvements at each iteration, is not going to bode well at all." - this is unfortunately a fact, and the de-fact motto of the industry.
ddriver - Friday, September 15, 2017 - link
I mean it is kinda naive to assume several years old switching circuits will find their way into the mainstream just because they are a few percent better.We've had gas turbine engines for decades, but they are still only used in tanks, helicopters or naval ships, while mainstream vehicles are still stuck with the internal combustion engine, which is easier to break, harder to maintain and a whooping 60% less efficient.