With the release of AMD's new Zen 2 CPUs,
there's also a new chipset being released, too, the X570.
And today, we've got on review, the ASRock Taichi X570.
And, typically, the Taichi series of motherboards
has delivered that very solid VRM solution,
as well as having solid onboard audio and everything else
also checking out without breaking
the bank too much.
Though, as always with Tech YES City review,
we're gonna be taking this board through all those
paces and giving you guys the verdict
on whether this thing is worth your hard-earned or not.
Let's get on with it.
(upbeat music)
♪ I wish that I was a madman ♪
♪ Tonight, maybe you are ♪
- Welcome back to the YES of the Tech City.
This is Bryan coming to you guys today
with the VRM details.
Straight away, we've got a 14-phase solution with two
of those being dedicated to the SOC,
12 of those being dedicated to the CPU,
and they are doubled via the ISL6617A controller.
They're using the ISL69147 and,
for the MOSFETs, we've got direct drive MOSFETs from Vishay.
These are the SiC634 and 632A
for the high and low sides, rated at 50 amps.
And then, for the chokes,
we've got SMD chokes, 50-amp solutions.
And then, on capacitors, 12K Nichicon caps
to make, overall, a very solid VRM.
From when I tested this with the 3900X
at 4.3 gigahertz all-core overclock,
the heatsink was only showing 51 degrees C
in a 22 C environment with the VRM
coming with 57 degrees on the MOSFETs itself.
So this thing is running very cool
and you won't have to worry about anything,
and not have to worry about
having active cooling on this VRM, either.
And, of course, it will be geared up
to the 3950X when that 16-core solution is released.
And they also require the CPU power pin outlay
with 8+4 pin.
So, overall, a very solid implementation
of the VRM from ASRock,
and the heatsink covering those chips
weighs in at roughly 236 grams;
though, moving over to the onboard audio which is always
an important thing,
especially, if you're buying a high-end board
and you want to run good audio.
We've got the CrossTalk coming in with levels
of minus-86 dB, which is very good, though, keep in mind,
this does have the CrossTalk problem
with a volume level of 91 or higher
having leakage in the right channel.
So, basically, if you want to use this
with headphones or speakers,
then just leave the volume level at 90 or below and it
will be exceptional as the frequency response curve
showed only a negative-two dB drop-off
at 20 Hertz and below.
So the Realtek 1220 codec that they've implemented here
is pretty solid but also,
everything else in the rest
of the circuitry line, the caps, and the amp
are also phenomenal, too.
And speaking of the mic input,
that's an important thing
if you want to get into streaming
or you just want your mates to hear you clearly
while you're gaming.
When I did the test, there was absolutely no noise
coming in and the blips when I changed
the volume levels indicated that noise suppression
was being used but it was only very slight.
So you will be able to use this if you want to get
into streaming, and then, if you need to get
better gear and you know you're that good,
then, of course, you can always upgrade
your audio gear later.
But, overall, fantastic implementation
of onboard audio for ASRock.
And another thing I noticed too
was the channel balance between the left
and right speakers was near-perfect out of the box.
Now, another thing with the X570 chipset
is the introduction of PCIe Gen 4.0.
All the PCIe lanes on the bottom,
including the NVMe solutions, which is 4x4,
you get three of those.
It's covered by a massive heatsink coming in at 233 grams,
and actually features a small fan on the bottom
which is actively powered.
And this is covering the platform chipset Hub Two.
Now, I did test out an NVMe drive here,
the PCIe 4.0 Aorus and the speeds
were absolutely phenomenal on the read
and write sides.
The heatsink did a phenomenal job of cooling, too,
coming in with a 51 degrees software reading
during a stress test,
and the surface temps really only just broke
about 45 degrees when I use the IR camera
to measure the temperatures.
So this heatsink and this solution implemented
by ASRock is doing a great job of cooling
and keeping things quiet, too.
But, besides that there is five standard PCIe 4.0 slots,
two of those being 1X,
three of those being 16X;
and this does include support for NVIDIA NVLink Quad SLI,
or 3-way AMD Crossfire.
The PCIe 16x slots all include the Steel Llama
if you want to start bending graphics cards
while you are playing games.
Now, usually, Thunderbolt is reserved
for Intel's side of things, especially,
their higher-end motherboards.
But in this case, there's the option on the X570 Taichi
to add a Thunderbolt add-in card, too.
Moving over to the back of the board,
there is your BIOS Flashback button,
which is a feature, I believe,
implemented on all X570 motherboards.
You've got Wi-Fi 6 and, when testing out those speeds,
they checked out fine here in the studio.
And then, for the NIC you've got an Intel 211,
and testing out those speeds was consistent, as well.
They've also implemented a clear CMOS button on the back,
as well as a HDMI port if you wish
to use an APU.
There's a hybrid mouse/keyboard PS2,
six USB 3.2 Gen 1 slots,
and a USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type A,
and Type C, as well as optical out
and manual 5.1 support on your audio.
To top off all that, I tested out the USB 3 speeds
on the back and they were all consistent
throughout all the ports.
As for the main area of the motherboard,
in input/output connectivity,
you've got eight SATA3 ports,
a USB Type C out, USB 3.2 Gen 1 out,
and also, four USB 2.0 outs,
as well as having a power and reset button
down on the bottom.
And, besides that, having a Dr. Debug LED
and having both 5 volt addressable RGB,
and 12 volt headers, to which the RGB color scheme
can be controlled within the BIOS itself
via the Polychrome feature.
And it's got 13 different patterns to choose from;
speed, also intensity, and the color spectrum
so you can manually control this
if you wish to.
And there's also RGB underneath the board,
as well as having it on the bottom platform chipset heatsink
and at the top of the board
to the left of the VRM.
So three zones included and, of course,
you can customize it all together without having
to install software in Windows which,
in the past, I'll put a link up here for a video
where I've tested RGB software,
which some of the software can poll your CPU,
especially, if it's active software in Windows,
and that can cause a performance hit.
But it's great to see that ASRock's solution is not this.
It's from the BIOS so it won't be polling your CPU
whatsoever which means you'll have RGB control
and no software performance hits.
And, of course, if you're getting an X570 motherboard,
I'm sure you wanna know
how the BIOS looks and feels.
This is going with ASRock's typical solution
that they've used over the past few years,
and there's nothing that needs
to be changed.
It's got all the features
you'd want for enthusiast air or water overclocking.
You're able to save five different profiles,
as well as update the BIOS easily.
There's the fantastic tuning control
where you can control each
of the individual fan headers themselves
to make custom profiles or just set silent,
or standard, or full speed if that's your kind of thing.
There's also basic and advanced mode and,
if you want to overclock the 3900X, for example,
then that's super easy to do
to get to 4.3 gigahertz like I've done here today.
Basically, in regards to ASRock's BIOS,
I think they like to follow that old saying,
if it's not broke, don't fix it.
And there's nothing that needs to be fixed
on this BIOS.
And so, all this testing now brings us to conclusion time
with the X570 Taichi.
And it does come in with a steep asking price
of $300 USD, or if you're in Australia, $500 AUD.
And at this price point, they have done,
pretty much, everything right.
I think the implementation
of the VRM, the heatsinks, all the extra feature sets,
from the expandability on the PCIe Gen 4.0,
to the Wi-Fi 6, to the Intel NIC,
to the USB 3 ports at the back,
USB front out, BIOS, RGB.
It all checks out and it
all works phenomenally well and very consistent.
Something that you need at this price point
is stability, and this BIOS,
and also, ASRock's implementation,
certainly does hit that mark,
at least from all the testing I've done here today.
The one thing I will point out,
the only critiquing point,
is that onboard audio.
If you're gonna use it and you're gonna use it hard,
then definitely keep that volume level at 90
or below for the best experience.
I'd like to see them fix that because
I have seen them fix it on
some of the Intel boards that I've tested recently here.
So maybe getting that fixed in a future iteration
would mean that you can just raise the volume
completely to 100 and still get that
really good experience on their Purity Sound 4 solution.
Though, speaking of the 3900X
and overclocking on this VRM and the BIOS,
it was just easy-peasy for 4.3 gigahertz overclock.
That's going to expand
over to the 3950X 16-core solution.
The one thing you do have to keep in mind
with this motherboard is that it does
have PCIe 4.0 and you are going to be
paying for that.
So if you can't utilize that just yet,
and I actually don't know
many people that could utilize PCIe 4.0 just yet,
then you are going to be paying money
for something that I don't feel
a lot of people are going to use just yet.
But at least, on that note,
it is going to be one of those future-proof boards
that will last you for years and years to come
as long as AMD keep using AM4.
Also with the X570 motherboards,
you do get Precision Boost Overdrive 2 support,
and when I've tested that here on, both,
the Aorus and also the ASRock boards,
it's worked phenomenally well to the point
where it's pretty much maxing out
a custom overclock without you having
to do any work.
So if you've got a bit of money
and you want to get a 3900X
or even a 3700X, or the 3950X
when that comes out and you're not really
into overclocking but you want
the most performance possible,
than getting an X570 board will ensure that you get
a really good level of performance that
you otherwise wouldn't get out of a B450
or an X470, for example.
And, with that aside,
I hope you enjoyed today's video.
If you did, then be sure to hit that Like button for us,
and also let us know in the comments section below
what you think of the X570 Taichi.
And if you've got any requests for reviews
on the AMD X570 lineup,
then be sure to let us know, as well.
With that aside, I'll catch you
in another tech video very soon.
But if you are enjoying the content enough,
Sub button, ring the bell,
it's down there,
and I'll see you in the next one.
Peace out for now.
Bye.
(upbeat music)
♪ Aint nobody else ♪
♪ Got the sun ♪
♪ Aint nobody else ♪
♪ Got the sun ♪
♪ Aint nobody else ♪