A Closer Look at the X370 Taichi





Click on image to enlarge ​



Click on image to enlarge ​



Click on image to enlarge ​



Click on image to enlarge ​



Click on image to enlarge ​



Click on image to enlarge ​



Click on image to enlarge ​

When we look at the ASRock X370 Taichi - and quite a few other X370 motherboards - we can't help but be amused at how they were all influenced by the forefather of the white shroud/black PCB movement: the ASUS X99-DELUXE . It's a look that you either love or hate, and if you hate it then hopefully you like black and red because otherwise your AM4 motherboard choices are going to narrow significantly. Either way, ASRock have definitely make this motherboards standout thanks to the crazy amount of white silk-screening on the black PCB. It's a really strinking looking model.This motherboard is based on the conventional full-size ATX form factor - 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm / 12.0-in x 9.6-in - so there are no compatibility issues to worry about with any properly designed case. The overall layout is very well-thought-out and there are no critical shortcomings that we can point out. All the headers, connectors, and ports are easily accessible and free from possible obstruction.We definitely appreciate the fact that there is a huge amount of space between two primary PCI-E x16 slots, so there won’t be any issues fitting thick dual or even triple-slot graphics cards on this motherboard. We also like the fact that they have managed to fit two M.2 slots, which is a feature that we have gotten used to on Intel Z270 motherboards, and which not every X370 model has.When dealing with highly clocked octa-core processors, power handling is important. Thankfully, the ASRock X370 Taichi delivers in spades. It features a 16-phase CPU power design that utilizes an Infineon IR35201 digital PWM controller, sixteen Texas Instruments CSD87350Q5D NexFET MOSFETs backed by eight Infineon IR3598 dual drivers/doublers, excellent higher current 60A power chokes, and Nichicon 12K Platinum capacitors. We suspect that 12 of the doubled phases are dedicated towards the cores, while the remaining 4 are for the SOC (system-on-chip), which is consists of the memory controller, PCI-E controller, and on-die USB and SATA controllers.ASRock claims that this power design can handle up to 300W, and based on the components we are inclined to agree. This is probably the beefiest VRM on any X370 motherboard, and if you're planning on overclocking a Ryzen processor, you will want to consider this as an important selling point.By the way, helping cool these sixteen MOSFETs are two solid aluminium heatsink connected together by a heatpipe . And when it comes time to cooling the processor, there are two CPU fan headers that are fully controllable via both DC and PWM fan control modes from within the UEFI, and one of them supports water pumps with a maximum current draw of 1.5A.The four DDR4 memory slots are clipless on the left side, regulated by a two phase VRM, support up to 64GB of total system memory, and they have been certified for overclocked memory speeds of up to DDR4-3200. Make sure to check out our Overclocking Results section to see whether we were able to hit that level.ASRock are also advertising support for both non-ECC and ECC and unbuffered memory, and although all the elements are in place for this platform to support ECC, we are still investigating whether it is currently enabled and functional.The 24-pin ATX power connector is exactly where it would be on any other motherboard, and we also like the positioning of the two USB 3.0 headers.Those two USB 3.0 headers can add up to four USB 3.0 ports to the front of your case, which is a pretty solid number. This Ryzen + X370 platform is interesting from a USB connectivity standpoint, since not only do the processors natively feature four USB 3.0 ports, but the chipset can handle two full-speed USB 3.1 Gen2 ports, ten USB 3.0 ports, and six USB 2.0 ports. That is twenty total USB ports, but the X370 Taichi 'only' has sixteen, half of which come in the form of headers.This new AM4 platform has no native BCLK control, so ASRock have added an external base clock generator - otherwise known as their Hyper BCLK Engine II - to this motherboard in order to give users the ability to select a base clock between 100MHz and 136Mhz. While most overclocking will still be done via adjusting the multipliers since they are unlocked on all Ryzen processors, this BCLK control will definitely help fine-tune overclocks.Directly below the CPU socket is one of the two M.2 slots, and the only one of which to feature a full-speed PCI-E 3.0 x4 interface thanks to its direct connection to the processor. It has a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 4GB/s, and supports SATA, PCI-E, and PCI-E NVMe M.2 solid state drives that measure up to 80mm long. It does not appear that you can RAID the two M.2 slots together, and as we will show in our feature test page , you really would not want to anyways.Since PCI-E lanes are rather limited on this platform, if you occupy this M.2 slot the NXP L04083B PCI-E 3.0 switches will do their job and disable the second PCI-E x1 slot.While the X370 chipset technically only supports six SATA 6Gb/s ports, it also supports two SATA Express ports. Manufacturers who very wisely decide to avoid SATA Express can repurpose that connectivity into additional SATA 6Gb/s ports. That is what ASRock have done on the X370 Taichi, and they have also added an ASMedia ASM1061 controller to add another two SATA 6Gb/s ports for a grand total of ten SATA 6Gb/s ports. That is some pretty great connecivity.The eight native SATA ports support RAID 0/1/10, while the remaining two do not support RAID. Definitely use the native ports if you want to minimize boot time.By the way, for those who are curious, the SATA 6Gb/s performance on this platform looks be excellent, we were able to hit read speeds of up to 557MB/s As we explain in more detail in our M.2 feature test page , the secondary M.2 slot is slower than the primary one since it gets it four PCI-E 2.0 (instead of 3.0) lanes from the X370 chipset. As a result, it has a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 2GB/s, but in real-life you are unlikely to ever see much above 1.6GB/s. Nevertheless, this slot fully supports PCI-E and PCI-E NVMe M.2 solid state drives up to 80mm long, but not SATA-based SSDs.If this M.2 slot is occupied, the third PCI-E x16 (x4 electrical) slot will be disabled. Likewise, the M.2 slot will be disabled if that PCI-E slot is used.