Asrock x470 taichi review in Spanish (full analysis)

Just a few days ago we tested one of the most interesting X470 motherboards in the ASRock catalog, the X470 Gaming K4 from the Fatal1ty range, today we are going further, testing one of the most advanced and expensive models of the brand, the ASRock X470 Taichi.

Wanting to see our review? Do not miss it!

We thank ASRock for the loan of the product for its analysis:

Technical characteristics ASRock X470 Taichi

Just a few days ago I had the opportunity to test one of the most balanced X470 chipset motherboards on the market, it was the ASRock X470 Fatal1ty Gaming K4, today I return to this platform, for another interesting discovery of this same brand.

Another motherboard with the same chipset, from the same brand, and basically the same functionality, but with the difference that this is the definitive ASRock motherboard for this chipset, where they have thrown the rest, a work of art with a design PCB with which you want to hang it on the wall. Now, not everything is image, so let's put it to the test.

Appearance and distribution

The ASRock X470 Taichi is to a large extent the complement to everything I could miss in the Fatal1ty Gaming K4, it integrates more technologies, powers even more certain aspects and is definitely better, but it is also noticeably more elaborate in its design, where from heatsinks, right down to the PCB, combine to achieve a design worth showing.

Bring the usual accessories, including a SLI jumper

As you can see in the images, it is a motherboard that maintains the essence of the Taichi range with a very elaborate PCB design that shows different serigraphs that combine and enhance the design of other elements on the board, even components as simple and common as It can be the battery for CMOS. The PCB is made from high-density fiberglass and two Oz of copper have been used to improve conductivity and reduce the temperature of the board.

In fact, this is the epicenter of a circular design that spans almost the entire board, which fits in with the chipset heatsink and ends in flat shapes in the MosFETs area, connector cover board, and sound system insulation. integrated. Black, gray and white are combined with a powerful RGB system that supports both classic RGB and the new "Addressable RGB".

ASRock takes no risk with size and has made the ASRock X470 Taichi a motherboard perfectly fitted to the ATX standard. The distribution is also classic, but well done. We have the front and source connectors where we hope to find them, 90 degree rotatable connectors for USB 3.0 and SATA and a component arrangement that leaves plenty of room for large heatsinks and good capacity for expansion cards.

It has 16 phases of digital power with double-layer MosFETs and a premium power system consisting of premium black Nichicon capacitors, Chokes capable of up to 60A current. The memory also receives extra signal filtering capacity through a dual-phase power system.

The heatsinks for MosFETs, in addition to the chipset heatsink, are made of one-piece aluminum and combined with the efficiency of the system, in addition to the low consumption of the latest AMD chipsets, achieve excellent results.

In it we can mount up to 64GB of DDR4 memory, in dual channel, it is fully compatible with Intel XMP profiles and ASRock ensures that it can support memories of more than 3466MHz through overclocking. We have tested it with memories of this speed, with excellent results and a perfect compatibility that guarantees outstanding stability.

Storage

Expansion cards share space with M.2 Socket 3 slots for SSD drives. It has two of these connectors, only one of them with full size heatsink. This one is also longer, compatible with units up to 110mm long. This slot supports SATA 6GBps drives and also PCI Express drives with support for PCI Express 3.0 4x connectivity with up to 32Gbps of bandwidth.

The secondary connector, which shares connectivity with the board's PCI Express 5 port, is capable of 4x PCI Express 2.0 links, allowing you to develop bandwidths of up to 20Gbps. This motherboard has official support for the new Intel Optane 905P units, although these must always be mounted in the main slot and have the full body heatsink installed for proper operation.

SATA connectivity has up to 8 connectors, but not all supplied by the X470 chipset. Two of them are added using a dedicated ASMedia controller. These two SATA connectors do not have RAID mode, nor are they supported by AMD's StoreMI system, but they do give us extra capacity.

The six main SATA connectors do support RAID modes with modes such as RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 10, which as you know, is a combination of the previous two to have more performance and data security in combination (requires a minimum of four discs).

The main M.2 slot has a full body heatsink compatible with drives up to 110mm long.

Card expansion

The five PCI Express slots are configured as follows: two PCI Express 3.0 16x slots, which allow working in SLI or Crossfire with links up to 8x (16x if we use only one card), two PCI Express 3.0 1x ports and a PCI port Express 3.0 4x. The latter shared with the second M.2 slot.

I like the space between the main slots, with room for the cards to breathe if we mount two, with the main M.2 slot on top of the first graphics slot, so that everything is accessible. The last slot with PCI Express 16x size does not make much sense, the truth.

I have already commented that the ASRock X470 Taichi is certified for SLI and Crossfire and although it only has space for two cards, we can use dual GPU cards, although we have been a couple of generations without seeing this type of card in the domestic market. If you still have one out there, you can use it without problems on this motherboard. The two graphics connectors have the ASRock metal “shell” slot reinforcement system. This adds a plus of mechanical resistance so that our plate is always in perfect condition.

Front and rear connectivity

This model includes interesting improvements at the connective level, in addition to a large number of internal and external connectors. On the front we can find an important improvement, although still not widespread in mid-range boxes, such as a USB 3.1 Gen2 type C connector. This connector develops up to 10Gbps of bandwidth and also improves charging capacity up to 15w (5v-3A).

Front connectivity is also enhanced by four USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A connectors, all located on the right side of the board, at mid-height. Finally we also have four USB 2.0 ports that are located at the lower end of the board, a place where we can easily use them for other purposes beyond serving for the front connectors of the box.

Among the internal connectors we also find five Molex connectors for fans, one specialized in CPU fan and another specialized in drive pumps for liquid cooling systems. We can also find RGB connectivity for official AMD fans, classic RGB connector with support for 5-12v and ARGB connectivity for the most modern lighting systems.

The front connector for audio has also been taken great care, as we will see later and we will also have a dual 12v auxiliary connector for CPU and a POST display with which to view diagnostic information on the board in real time.

The rear panel is also not far behind and also has video connectivity, something unusual in a motherboard of this range, although thanks to this we will also have support for AMD's latest generation APUs with Vega graphics. The pity is that the integrated connector is an HDMI 1.4b that only supports 4K resolutions at 30Hz vertical refresh. It would have been more logical to take advantage of the Displayport 1.4 connectivity of these processors, which is perfectly convertible to HDMI, would add 4K @ 120Hz support and would also have saved ASRock the royalties that are required to include HDMI connectivity in any product.

The rear panel of the ASRock X470 Taichi also includes six 5Gbp USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports, legacy PS2 keyboard and mouse connectivity, two antenna jacks for on-board Wireless connectivity, Gigabit Ethernet connectivity, regular audio and also two USB 3.1 Gen2 10Gbps connectors in the form of a type A connector and also a type C connector with the same benefits.

ASRock also includes a CMOS reset button that will allow us to reset the bios to its factory settings without having to open the computer case. A fundamental addition to a board that has undoubtedly been designed to take advantage of the low overclocking capacity (at least with cooling above room temperature) of Ryzen processors.

Access to Ethernet and Wireless networks

ASRock has integrated a complete network communication system into the ASRock X470 Taichi by including separate chipsets from Intel. The Ethernet is an Intel I211AT, a chipset that ASRock is using throughout this range, which guarantees reduced latencies, native support in the latest operating systems, and bombproof operation. It reaches Gigabit speeds, but as you already know it also adapts to lower working frequencies.

The Wireless chipset is also signed by Intel, but is somewhat more disappointing than the Ethernet version. I say this because the version used is an Intel Wireless-AC 3165 that has a maximum transfer speed of 433mbps. Chipsets, such as the AC7260 or AC7265, which are slightly more expensive, reach speeds of up to 867mbps with the same antenna configuration that this motherboard has mounted.

The Wireless chipset also offers us dual-band support, to adapt to all types of networks, and also integrates Bluetooth 4.2 support for connectivity of peripherals and other devices.

Sound

In the higher ranges, as in the case of the ASRock X470 Taichi, ASRock takes the rest in terms of sound. In this case, it has the fourth generation of ASRock's Purity Sound system. This system is supported by a quality DSP, such as the Realtek ALC1220, supporting it with an isolated PCB where components for HiFi systems such as Nichicon Fine Gold Series capacitors have also been mounted. A digital-to-analog converter (DAC) with a noise ratio of 120dB SNR is also included.

It also mounts an amplifier for the front connectivity of our motherboard, specifically a NE5532 from Texas Instruments that supports headphones up to 600ohm impedance and that ASRock connects to our motherboard with a front connector with gold plated pins for better conductivity. The board also has an Anti-pop circuit and layers at different levels for the left and right channels.

In this line-out connector we will have an automatic impedance detector, so that our headphones or speakers always have the most suitable configuration for them and the sound system is equipped with a Soundblaster Connect codec in addition to also having all its gold plated audio connectors and digital connectivity through an optical SPDIF type output.

Bios

Except for the color customization, this bios does not differ at all from the others that we have been able to test on other models of the brand. The main feature of ASRock UEFI bios is that they are easy to use combining the mouse control that we demand from the most modern bios with a lot of keyboard agility for which we are used to classic bios.

This model has an excellent level of parameterization for AMD processors of both the Ryzen 1000 and Ryzen 2000 range. We will be able to take full advantage of them, with good parameterization of voltages and with great support for high-speed memories both through manual parameterization and supported by very specific manual adjustments.

The bios has utilities for updating bios online, for adjusting fans through profiles or manually, and excellent control for storage systems and drivers necessary for their installation.

It is not one of the most aesthetic bios on the market, but it does have all the options that we expect from a high-performance board in a format that we can handle quickly. CMOS reset, integrated into the back panel of board connectors, is another important functionality to combine with the operation of this bios.

software

ASRock offers a good set of programs, which we can manage thanks to its “App Store”, which not only acts as an update search engine, including bios updates, but also has a catalog of the brand's own applications, which they can truly offer us functionality, and then others that we could consider “bloatware”, such as browsers, antivirus and others, that we don't have to install if we don't want to.

This ASRock's own applications we can find A-Tuning that allows us to control aspects such as the operation of our fans, or overclocking, in addition to monitoring the system. It is an interesting complement although without a doubt the best application to manage our Ryzen processor is through AMD's Ryzen Master application. With it, and with A-Tuning, we will have access to all the configuration of our PC directly from Windows. As we can see, this combination will help us make the most of our ASRock X470 Taichi.

The RGB system of the ASRock X470 Taichi is equipped in several zones: specifically, the sound card zone, chipset and rear connector coverage. Everything is controlled by ASRock Polychrome technology that allows synchronization with other RGB compatible systems, from any of its ports, or also synchronizes with the new ARGB (Addressable RGB) systems that allow independent control of all the LEDs of a device with this integrated technology. It produces more complex and rich effects and is also being standardized quickly so we can take advantage of it to control components from other brands such as memories, liquid cooling systems, etc.

Overclocking and temperatures

Although this model offers a much more stabilized power line than other models of the brand that we have tested, the truth is that it seems that our processor is not getting more out of itself, not without refrigeration systems that are capable of significantly reducing the processor working temperature and at the same time allows to substantially increase the voltage of the processor.

This means that, although we have a more advanced motherboard, we have not managed to exceed the frequencies that we had already obtained with this processor. We stay at 4100MHz stabilized, without reduction, which increases the performance of this processor, which only reaches these frequencies in temporary turbo modes, almost 20% on a sustained basis. Great for this ASRock X470 Taichi !

It is an interesting improvement, but we will have to look elsewhere, towards other added features, or use high-capacity refrigeration, so that we find sense to pay more for this board than for other models of the brand with the same chipset and lower prices.

The average temperature is 75 degrees, with peaks reaching 78 stressing the CPU.

The AMD Wraith heatsink is designed to work at 40dBA, which is a very suitable noise for a heatsink that will be inside the chassis. The working temperatures are 75 degrees, with an ambient temperature of 25, within the specifications of the processor, and the stability is total. The board guarantees a good extra performance on this 8-core and 16-wire processor keeping everything in the proper parameters for 24/7 operation.

Final words and conclusion ASRock X470 Taichi

The improvements that the Taichi range offers over other ASRock models and ranges is usually a combination of integration of more controllers, more connective capacity and also more risky designs. All that we find in the new ASRock X470 Taichi with X470 chipset for AMD Ryzen processors.

What we do not find is greater overclocking capacity, at least with conventional cooling and with our processor (you know well that in overclocking luck is also a factor), so we find no reason to pay more for this model if our objective is moderate overclocking that we can use 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

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It is true that it offers other added features, perhaps the best one is the improvement of its sound card and its expanded network connectivity, but the rest is not very different from other cheaper models of the brand. This not only happens to ASRock but normally to all manufacturers, and it is our duty, as consumers, to be clear if we are willing to pay more for these improvements, to think that we will be able to have more overclocking with this model, with conventional means, it will surely lead to disappointment.

For the rest, it seems to us a very balanced model, with a modern design that combines 3D forms with 2D forms of screen printing on the PCB as only ASRock knows how to do. A very complete beauty and that with its price of 244 Euros, the ASRock X470 Taichi continues to be very competitive with respect to models in its same range from other manufacturers.

ADVANTAGE	DISADVANTAGES
+ Perfectly equipped	- It does not offer us more overclocking with conventional refrigeration
+ A spectacular PCB design	- the wireless card is widely upgradeable.
+ Support for the best SSD drives on the market, including the Optane 905

The Professional Review team awards him the gold medal:

ASRock X470 Taichi

COMPONENTS - 85%

REFRIGERATION - 80%

BIOS - 79%

EXTRAS - 85%

PRICE - 80%

82%