The ASRock X399 Taichi Motherboard Review: Cost-Effective Threadripper
by E. Fylladitakis on October 26, 2018 8:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- AMD
- ASRock
- ThreadRipper
- X399
Board Features
The ASRock X399 Taichi is a motherboard that was designed to cover the needs of as many users as possible, without explicit focus on any precise user's group, such as gamers, overclockers, or professionals. It has an excellent audio circuitry, dual Gigabit LAN and USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports, as well as three M.2 slots, one U.2 port, and eight SATA ports. What it does not have is any of the latest features that we see on top-tier motherboards, like 10G LAN and 802.11ad WiGig, which are what significantly increases the manufacturing cost and, ultimately, the retail price of those motherboards.
| ASRock X399 Taichi | |
| Warranty Period | 3 Years |
| Product Page | Link |
| Price | Link |
| Size | ATX |
| CPU Interface | TR4 / SP3r2 |
| Chipset | AMD X399 |
| Memory Slots (DDR4) | Eight DDR4 Supporting 128GB Dual Channel Up to 3600+ MHz |
| Video Outputs | N/A |
| Network Connectivity | 2 x Intel I211-V 1 x Intel 3168 802.11ac |
| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC 1220 |
| PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU) | 4 × PCIe 3.0 (×16 / ×8 / ×16 / ×8) |
| PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH) | 1 × PCIe 2.0 (×1) |
| Onboard SATA | Eight, RAID 0/1/5/10 |
| Onboard SATA Express | None |
| Onboard M.2 | 3 × PCIe 3.0 (×4) |
| Onboard U.2 | 1 × U.2 Connector (×4) |
| USB 3.1 Gen 2 | 1 × Type-C + 1 × Type-A (Rear panel) |
| USB 3.1 Gen 1 | 8 × Type-A Rear Panel 4 × Type-A via headers |
| USB 2.0 | 4 × via headers |
| Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin ATX 1 x 8-pin CPU 1 x 4-pin CPU 1 × 6-pin PCIe |
| Fan Headers | 1 x CPU (4-pin) 1 x Pump/Aux (4-pin) 2 x System (4-pin) 1 x System (4-pin) w/ liquid cooling pump support |
| IO Panel | 8 x USB 3.0 (USB 3.1 Gen 1) 1 x USB 3.1 Type-A 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C 2 x Network RJ-45 2 x Antenna connectors 5 x 3.5 mm Audio Jacks 1 x Optical SPDIF Out Port 1 x Flashback CMOS button |
In The Box
We get the following:
- Driver Disk
- Quick Installation Guide
- User's manual
- Case Badge
- Four black SATA cables (two straight, two with a 90° connector)
- SLI/Crossfire bridges (2, 3, and 4-Way)
- Wireless antennas
- I/O Shield
The bundle of the ASRock X399 Taichi is simple and straightforward, without superfluities. Inside the box, we found a simple manual and a quick installation guide, only four SATA cables, two simple wireless antennas without extension cords, the I/O shield, and three SLI bridges for two/three/four-way SLI configurations. Users will have to purchase their own SATA cables in order to use more than four SATA devices. There are no cable straps, quick connectors, stickers, or any other luxuries included.
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The_Assimilator - Friday, October 26, 2018 - link
At least it isn't covered with tacky, useless, cost-increasing RGB bling.HideOut - Friday, October 26, 2018 - link
FFS I agree. and the ones t hat have RGB need to have an option to at least disable it. Sometimes you buy the product because of other features (or because some sale makes it cheaper than the non RGB version)twtech - Friday, October 26, 2018 - link
Yeah, I have to say I miss the days when a motherboard attempting to appeal to aesthetics merely had a black PCB instead of green, and perhaps a still relatively hard to see logo painted on as well.Now they end up looking like cheap toys for children 10 and under. Plastic non-functional action-toy type pieces sticking out, flashing lights, etc.
Lord of the Bored - Sunday, October 28, 2018 - link
I remember the period when RED motherboards were the new hotness, and I thought they were just extremely gaudy.If I only knew what the future held...
PEJUman - Sunday, October 28, 2018 - link
the Taichi here means Ultimate/Supreme, probably not the best translation but the closest I can think off. The martial arts is actually ‘Taichi chuan’, often shortened TaiChi. I can’t explain the gears, but understand this board meant to be the X399 flagship line from the Taichi name.PeachNCream - Monday, October 29, 2018 - link
The branding failure doesn't take away from the fact that ASRock is offering a competitive product at a reasonable price. If the company's marketing department just needs to lay off the mind-altering, illegal substances.prateekprakash - Friday, October 26, 2018 - link
Could you please confirm if the 3 m.2 slots are derived from the cpu or chipset lanes?Atari2600 - Friday, October 26, 2018 - link
IIRC at least two of them are direct to CPU.kobblestown - Friday, October 26, 2018 - link
Yes, all three of them are connected to the CPU. That's what you do when you have 64 PCIe lanes to play with. One of the dies provides X16 + x8 + 2*x4 for 2 M.2 slots and the other provides x16 + x8 + x4(M.2) + x4(to the X399 chip). Plus this board should support PCIe bifurcation so you can have a relatively cheap (just ~$50 because it doesn't require PCIe switch chip) card that allows you to plug 4 NVMe cards into one of the x16 slots so you get 7 NVMes to the CPU!The_Assimilator - Friday, October 26, 2018 - link
Is it just me, or are the yellow M.2 attachment points on the bottommost slot (the one closest to the SATA ports) on the *back* of the board as opposed to the front? Have a look at the board pictures on the "Visual Inspection" page to see what I mean.I'm glad that motherboard manufacturers are finally starting to offer a decent number of USB 3 ports on the back panel, but I'd still like to see at least a couple extra 2.0 ports for slower peripherals (mice and keyboards).
I take issue with this claim: "The concept is technically sound from an engineering point of view but it also could create compatibility problems because several PSUs have both CPU 12V connectors on a single cable, meaning that an extension would be necessary to reach the second connector on the motherboard." No decent PSU released in recent years with multiple EPS12V connectors has had them on the same cable, for the simple reason that the amount of current drawn if both were fully loaded would require wire that's thicker than the 16 or 18 gauge normally used, in order to not be a fire hazard.