Final Thoughts
When it comes to ASRock’s Taichi series they’ve always been loaded with features and the Z690 Taichi is no different. It has all of the features you would want from the Z690 platform like DDR5 support, PCI-Express 5.0, Thunderbolt 4, USB 3.2 gen 2×2, and WiFi 6E. Pretty much all of the boxes you want are checked here. As far as performance goes we did not run into any issues in our testing.
In terms of handling the best of the best Core i9-12900K you won’t have an issue with this board as it has an upgraded VRM with 105A MOSFETS providing you with up to 1995A of power for your CPU. The power delivery components are adequately cooled with large heatsinks and an active fan. Don’t worry though, in our testing the fan did was not very loud at all.
We can’t overlook the overall design of this board. The Taichi series has always featured gears and clockwork designs and this board is no different. There is actually a moving gear on the rear I/O, just like we saw on the Z590 Taichi. ASRock has not toned down their RGB like other companies either so you have some nice RGB lighting on this board, which I definitely appreciate. I also like how ASRock illuminated the audio connections on the rear of the board, this makes connecting your cables much easier.
I did find the placement of the CPU fan headers a bit odd (they are under the CPU socket). Typically we see them on the top-edge of the board, having them below the CPU socket just makes them harder to access, especially once you have a graphics card installed. Also there are only three M.2 slots on this board, with only two of them being gen4 slots. Other high-end Z690 boards out there have 4 or more slots or even an included M.2 expansion card. So if you were thinking about going M.2 storage you will be a bit limited on this board.
Right now this board is selling at our favorite online retailer for $489.99, which is what we expect based on the features of this board. Overall ThinkComputers gives the ASRock Z690 Taichi motherboard a 9 out of 10 score.
Pros:
– Sleek design
– The gear actually moves!
– Solid VRM and VRM cooling
– Thunderbolt 4
– Great RGB lighting and lighting of the audio ports
Cons:
– CPU fan headers are in a weird place
– Only 3 M.2 slots
