Asrock X370 Taichi Review

RGB & Fan headers:

There are two RGB LED headers on the board that supports up to 12V/3A, 36W LED Strip.  I prefer a minimalistic look, so I am currently not using these headers, and I cannot comment on their functionality.  As far as placement goes, they look to be located favorable for cable management.

There are 5 fan headers.  Two of which can be used as a water Pump Fan Connector (4-pin).  CPU FAN1, CHASIS FAN1, CHASIS FAN2 can auto detect if 3-pin or 4-pin fan is in use.  I used 4 of these headers, and they were all well placed to allow for good cable management.


SATA:

There are a grand total of 10 Sata 3 ports.  These ports do light up, which looks quite nice.   I am not sure if these flashing lights tell me anything though.  It would be kind of neat if they worked similarly to a HDD LED, and showed activity.

Note, it is recommended that you put your boot devices in the first 8 Sata ports.

There were 4 SATA cables included in the box.  However, I wasn't a big fan of the design of two of the cables, which had an elbow shaped connector on one end.  The elbow didn't fit well into the motherboard, so you were forced to use it elsewhere.  The thing is it doesn't fit particularly well anywhere else either.  I ended up having to redo some of my cables, and using it on my DVD drive.  Maybe there are ideal in another case/situation, but I am not sure what that is.  They didn't work well in my Phanteks Enthoo Pro M though.


Dr Debug:
The Dr Debug is a great feature, which is not found on all boards.   In the past we used to have to count beeps, which was a real pain.  Luckily, I haven't had a reason to test it thus far, but it really gives me peace of mind that it's there.


M.2:
There is an M.2 and a U.2 socket on the board as well.  The Ultra M.2 Socket (M2_1), supports M Key type 2242/2260/2280 M.2 SATA3 6.0 Gb/s module and M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen3 x4 (32 Gb/s).   The M.2 Socket (M2_2), supports M Key type 2230/2242/2260/2280 M.2 PCI Express module up to Gen2 x4 (20 Gb/s).  However, again note, that using the M.2_2 socket will disable the last PCI x 1 slot.
 
Overclocking:

VRM:
I won't go into how truly exceptional this VRM is again, but I will refer you to this guide that breaks down the circuitry, and thermals of the Taichi.   Also, here is a AM4 Mainboard VRM list.

Base clock generator:
This is one of four AM4 boards to offer an external base clock generator, which if I am not mistaken is needed for Bclk overclocking on Ryzen.  Those four boards are the Fatal1ty Professional, Asus Crosshair, the Gigabyte K7, and the Taichi.  This type of overclocking is particularly intriguing as Ryzen sees a large boost in some workloads, like gaming, with faster memory speeds.  However, DDR4 support is currently lacking on Ryzen, which is to be expected of a new platform, and so Blck overclocking is a good alternative way to improve memory performance.

Note that using blck overclocking will force your PCIe-x16 slots to run at PCIe-2.0, rather than 3.0.  This shouldn't be a huge issue though as far as your GPU's performance is concerned, but it could cause instability in other areas.  So, you will want to do your homework before you attempt to do a Bclk overclock on your ryzen system.

uefi:

The bios is in a current state of flux, as is to be expected with a new architectual launch, but the uefi still host a ton of overclocking features.   Most notable of which is the ability to change p states.  Most board manufacturers are not currently enabling you to change this.

P state OC'ing is more complex than just changing the multiplier, but it enables you to keep using some features that would otherwise be turned off with a more simple OC, such as power saving features and XFR.

One of the biggest lacking features is a dual bios.  That would be a godsend on the off chance you did a bad bios update!

DDR Support:

Asrock currently has some of the best plug and play compatibility on the market as far as DDR4 support is concerned.

As always the QVL listings is your safest bet for day one usability.  However, note that these are only tested to work, and not necessarily work at the rated speeds.  The speeds on the box are OC'd speeds utilizing intel's timings, and they might not be supported atm.

Your best bet for overclockable memory will be with single rank DDR4 using Samsung B Die memory chips.  It's not particularly easy to find this information, as the memory manufacturers typically don't list it, but if you are diligent, you can find it.  I personally asked Gskill tech support for the information to ensure I was getting what I paid for.   However, sometimes the manufacturers cannot even say as to what you will get, as they might actually use multiple memory chips in the exact same products.

Overclocking Conclusion:
Long story short, as far as Overclocking goes, this board has everything you need!  You literally couldn't ask for anything else!  Well except, for a dual bios, and the ability to change DRAM subtimings, but no one has access to the latter atm.  I suspect there might be some sort of architectural limitation that will not allow us to change those.

I managed to get my 1700 to 4 GHz with 1.375v with default LLC.  Temperatures on my Noctua D15 are less than 70C under AIDA64.  I have my G-skill Trident Z DD4 4000 Kit currently running at 3200 MHz.  I plan to push the memory further and do some benchmark testing, but I will wait for more Bios updates.


Linux support:

If you are interested in Linux support, then the best I can do is send you over to here.   I personally don't have the qualifications to discuss this topic.

Pricing:

I managed to snag this bad boy up for $190, $175 after Mail-in-Rebate, on Newegg on the 2nd.  In fact, I got it just before Newegg figured out the price with the rebate was too good, and increased it $10.  So, unfortunately some of you guys might have to pay $185 for this board, but who are we kidding?  This board is worth every penny!




Edited by mysticjbyrd - 28 Mar 2017 at 10:31pm

Thanks for your fine review of the X370 Taichi!

Some users might not agree with some of your conclusions, but you obviously are aware of the realities of using an absolutely new platform. This isn't an Intel system that has remained basically unchanged in its over clocking capabilities in many processor generations. Ryzen as a system in general, is not yet mature.

DDR4 memory compatibility, or more precisely the basic memory timings that are required by the Ryzen memory controller, is the biggest issue we are currently dealing with. For example, the Ryzen memory controller apparently "prefers" a Command Rate of 1T, while the standard JEDEC SPD data for DDR4 memory (tuned for Intel DDR4 memory controllers) is set to 2T. That seems to work for some existing DDR4 memory and the Ryzen memory controller, at the default/base DDR4 memory speed of (usually) 2133. But the XMP data for higher DDR4 memory speeds is universally set to 2T with existing DDR4 memory models. Manually setting memory parameters is virtually essential when using DDR4 originally designed for Intel systems.

The Ryzen memory controller has been said by AMD to not support "memory dividers" for DDR4 3000 and 3400 speed memory. Memory at those speeds will run at 2933, possibly 3200 actual for DDR4 3400. Given the information from CPU-Z's database, DDR4 3200 is the real world maximum current memory speed for Ryzen, with one entry at 3384. This is for all mother board manufactures combined.

The ASRock X370 Taichi has reached DDR4 3200 with G.SKILL F4-3200C14-8GTZ at 14-14-14-34-75-1T.

It also has reached DDR4 3200 with G.SKILL F4-3200C14-8GTZKW at 4-14-14-34-75-1T.

Do NOT expect these results with all G.SKILL DDR4 memory models.

The CPU VRM stage design on the ASRock X370 boards is at the level it should be, relative to previous AMD mother boards. The budget, sub $100 (really $150) AM3+ mother boards that AMD said were fine with any AM3+ processor, actually aren't fine if any over clocking or heavy use of the CPU will be done.

The SATA cables with the 90° connectors are meant to be connected directly to HDDs and SSDs, not the mother board. The drives will also need to be in vertically stacked drive bays, one above another, with enough clearance below the drive for proper cable dressing. Many new PC cases has done away with that design (Fractal Define S) so the straight type connectors on both ends are the best suited for these cases. The 90° angle SATA ports on a mother board must use the straight in type of connector, or I have seen some inverted 90° SATA connector cables that would also work.

I'm looking forward to testing M.2 NVME SSDs on a Ryzen board's M.2 port. ASRock Ryzen boards support using M.2 NVME SSDs as the OS drive. While some Ryzen boards have two M.2 slots, both are not the PCIe 3.0 x4 interfaces required by most M.2 NVME SSDs, and RAID is not supported with M.2 NVME SSDs so far with AMD's RAIDXpert software. RAID 0 performance would be reduced due to the unequal bandwidth of the M.2 ports.

Regarding the Ryzen BCLK, Ryzen processors that are semi-SOC type processors, with the SATA support as part of the processor itself, use a shared BCLK with the SATA ports and PCIe 3.0 interface. That causes instability with SATA drives and PCIe devices. BCLK over clocking will be limited on Ryzen systems with shared BCLK due to the shared BCLK.

Great review