ASRock Z590 Taichi Review: An Intel Motherboard with Moving Parts (and Thunderbolt 4)
by Gavin Bonshor on April 1, 2021 11:00 AM ESTBoard Features
The ASRock Z590 Taichi is an ATX sized motherboard targeted at gamers and enthusiasts and currently sits at the top of the ASRock's Z590 models. It makes use of plenty of Intel's new features for Z590, including two full-length PCIe 4.0 slots which can operate at x16 and x8/x8, with a third full-length PCIe 3.0 x4 slot. ASRock also includes three M.2 slots, with the top slot operating at PCIe 4.0 x4 from the CPU, with two PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA drives driven by the chipset. For conventional storage devices, there's a total of eight SATA ports, with six from the chipset that includes support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays, while an ASMedia ASM1061 SATA controller powers the other two. A total of four memory slots are present, with support for up to DDR4-5000 out of the box, as well as support for up to 128 GB of capacity. Users looking to run big cooling setups will appreciate the eight 4-pin headers, with one dedicated to a CPU fan, one for a water pump/AIO pump, and six that can double up as either water cooling or chassis fan headers.
| ASRock Z590 Taichi ATX Motherboard | |||
| Warranty Period | 3 Years | ||
| Product Page | Link | ||
| Price | $430 | ||
| Size | ATX | ||
| CPU Interface | LGA1200 | ||
| Chipset | Intel Z590 | ||
| Memory Slots (DDR4) | Four DDR4 Supporting 128 GB Dual-Channel Up to DDR4-5000 |
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| Video Outputs | 1 x HDMI 2.0 2 x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C |
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| Network Connectivity | Killer E3100G 2.5 GbE Intel I219-V Gigabit Killer AX1675x Wi-Fi 6E |
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| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC1220 ESS Sabre ES9218 DAC |
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| PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU) | 2 x PCIe 4.0 (x16, x8/x8) | ||
| PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH) | 1 x PCIe 3.0 x4 | ||
| Onboard SATA | Six, RAID 0/1/5/10 (Z590) Two, ASMedia ASM1061 |
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| Onboard M.2 | 1 x PCIe 4.0 x4 2 x PCIe 3.0 x4/SATA |
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| Thunderbolt 4 (40 Gbps) | 2 x Type-C (Rear Panel | ||
| USB 3.2 (20 Gbps) | 1 x USB Type-C (Header) | ||
| USB 3.2 (10 Gbps) | 2 x USB Type-A (Rear panel) | ||
| USB 3.1 (5 Gbps) | 4 x USB Type-A (Rear panel) 4 x USB Type-A (Two headers) |
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| USB 2.0 | 4 x USB Type-A (Two headers) | ||
| Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin Motherboard 2 x 8-pin CPU |
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| Fan Headers | 1 x 4-pin CPU 1 x 4-pin Water Pump/chassis 6 x 4-pin Chassis |
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| IO Panel | 2 x Antenna Ports (Killer AX1675x) 1 x HDMI 2.0 output 2 x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C 2 x USB 3.2 G2 Type-A 4 x USB 3.2 G1 Type-A 1 x RJ45 (Killer) 1 x RJ45 (Intel) 1 x BIOS Flashback button 5 x 3.5 mm audio jacks (Realtek) 1 x S/PDIF Optical output (Realtek) |
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One of the latest features from Intel comes through its Maple Ridge Thunderbolt 4 controller, which is a feature on the ASRock Z590 Taichi. This means there are two Thunderbolt 4 40 Gbps Type-C ports on the rear panel, which can also be used to output video from compatible monitors. ASRock even includes a front panel USB 3.2 G2x2 Type-C header, although there aren't many chassis around which can support the full bandwidth available. Also on the rear panel is two USB 3.2 G2 Type-A, and four USB 3.2 G1 Type-A ports, with a Realtek ALC1220 HD codec and ESS Sabre ES9218 DAC combo taking care of the onboard audio. Interestingly, ASRock adopts Killer networking which is rebadged Intel controllers designed for gaming, with a Killer E3100G 2.5 GbE controller, a Killer AX1675x Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, and a secondary Intel I219-V Gigabit controller.
Test Bed
With some of the nuances with Intel's Rocket Lake processors, our policy is to see if the system gives an automatic option to increase the power limits of the processor. If it does, we select the liquid cooling option. If it does not, we do not change the defaults. Adaptive Boost Technology is disabled by default.
| Test Setup | |||
| Processor | Intel Core i9-11900K, 125 W, $374 8 Cores, 16 Threads 3.5 GHz (5.3 GHz Turbo) |
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| Motherboard | ASRock Z590 Taichi (BIOS L1.41M) | ||
| Cooling | Corsair iCue H150i Elite Capellix 360 mm AIO | ||
| Power Supply | Corsair HX850 80Plus Platinum 850 W | ||
| Memory | G.Skill TridentZ DDR4-3200 CL 14-14-14-34 2T (2 x 8 GB) | ||
| Video Card | MSI GTX 1080 (1178/1279 Boost) | ||
| Hard Drive | Crucial MX300 1TB | ||
| Case | Corsair Crystal 680X | ||
| Operating System | Windows 10 Pro 64-bit: Build 20H2 | ||
We must also thank the following:
| Hardware Providers for CPU and Motherboard Reviews | |||
| Sapphire RX 460 Nitro | MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X OC | Crucial MX200 + MX500 SSDs |
Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs |
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| G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX |
Crucial Ballistix DDR4 |
Silverstone Coolers |
Noctua Coolers |
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powerarmour - Thursday, April 1, 2021 - link
That gimmicky cogwheel is quite frankly ridiculous, ASRock have really gone all-in for their own personal shark jumping contest.abufrejoval - Thursday, April 1, 2021 - link
One would think it a product for this special day!Exotica - Thursday, April 1, 2021 - link
I don’t understand why some mobo vendors implement thunderbolt4 but fail to include DisplayPort inputs for pass thru of the gpu output via thunderbolt. Major fail in my opinion of asus 13 hero, aorus extreme, and the ASRock Taichi. Give the user control over which video signal they tunnel via thunderbolt: either the igpu or a discrete gpu. At least the gigabyte vision d and the msi ace have DisplayPort input.dotes12 - Thursday, April 1, 2021 - link
I came to the comments for your exact comment. I assume you can tunnel your PCIe GPU through the CPU's GPU just like you can on previous Intel boards, but what is the performance penalty for that? Seems like having a dedicated DP input to incorporate it into TB4 would make sense if there is a performance hit.Linustechtips12#6900xt - Monday, April 5, 2021 - link
They did have it on the x570 AQUA, but thats kinda different segment of mobo, i guess its just kinda a rare feature to want to do, since you're really just swapping one port for another that has built in usb and other junk.vanish1 - Thursday, April 1, 2021 - link
I think it looks greatjeremyshaw - Thursday, April 1, 2021 - link
> The second cogwheel, on the rear IO cover, is a mechanical moving part, and the first time I've personally seen a mechanical moving part integrated into a motherboard.To be fair, we have seen a LOT of fans on motherboards in the past and present.
Oxford Guy - Thursday, April 1, 2021 - link
Yeah. When I read the headline I was surprised because I expected it to refer to a fan — the only moving part that has any business being part of a board.Operandi - Thursday, April 1, 2021 - link
Nothing fair about that comparison at all; one of them performs a function while the other is superfluous bullshit.Oxford Guy - Thursday, April 1, 2021 - link
Um... they’re both moving parts. Fairness has nothing to do with it.