ASRock X670E Taichi (AMD AM5)

Three flagship-class X670E boards go head to head to see who reigns supreme!

The E series in that 670E could have been short for Expensive, with a price just below the 600 EUR we feel that only very few people will be interested. But as hardware itself, the ASRock X670E TAICHI is an E-ATX motherboard with a focus on excellence and comprehensiveness. To start, it includes a robust 105A 24+2+1 phase VRM that can power any overclocked AMD Ryzen 7000 CPU. Despite this, it provides two PCI Express 5.0 x16 slots, one M.2 PCI Express Gen5 x4 slot for the fastest possible solid-state drive, and three M.2 PCI Express 4.0 slots for other high-performance devices. Last but not least, the 2.5 GbE network card and the Wi-Fi 6E for wireless connectivity, as well as the Realtek ALC4082 sound chip, are worthy of mention. ASRock clearly knows what it is doing when it comes to heat dissipation, as we observe very manageable under-load temps for the VRM and chipset when running Ryzen 9 7950X at full tilt. The VRM cooling is also quite reliable, and the active VRM fan was surprisingly quiet in our tests. The heatpipe that runs through the middle of the ASRock board is a nice touch. There is not much to complain about other than the lack of 10GbE or perhaps an (LCD/OLED) display and the simplicity of the BIOS. With its massive included heatsink, this board is future-proof and ready for PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 drives. The Killer E3100 2.5G LAN and Killer AX1675 802.11ax (WiFi 6E) + Bluetooth provide lightning-fast LAN connectivity, more than enough for even the most demanding streamer/gamer. Lastly, there is an abundance of connectivity options available to you. There is an HDMI port, a microphone jack, a line-out jack, and a SPDIF out jack, as well as two USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C ports, one USB 3.1 Gen2x2 Type-C port, five USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports, three USB 3.1 Gen1 ports on the rear of the motherboard, and four USB 3.1 Gen1 ports on the front. You will not find better functionality anywhere else at this price, though. overall recommended, but if you don't need the features, then go with B650.

ASRock delivers not only on features with the Taichi but nails pricing perfectly, offering a flagship board at mid-range pricing!

So what’s our thoughts on AMD’s new AM5 platform? Well, all I have to say is … this what I’ve been waiting for from AMD, since the announcement of DDR5 ram a couple of years ago. And I’m really glad they followed up on this. AMD’s aging, but still very capable AM4 platform supporting DDR4 ram, has had a good run. So it’s only natural for AMD to take the next step, and implement the support for DDR5 ram on their next-gen AM5 platform. The new AM5 platform features a new LGA1718 socket, but retains the same CPU mounting bracket for cooling, as found on AM4 motherboards. This means you’ll be able to use your existing AM4 CPU cooler, if you make the upgade to AM5. This is something I really like to applaud AMD for!