ASRock Z390 Taichi Ultimate (Intel Z390) Motherboard Review

Packaging and Overview

The box is very similar to the normal Taichi, but the packaging is better in that it's a bit more high-end.

The accessory package includes four SATA6Gb/s cables, WIFI antenna, SLI HB bridge, rear IO shield, M.2 screws, Post Card, Driver DVD, manual, and a case badge.

ASRock has increased the number of fan headers to a total of eight, while most of their previous Taichi's only had five. All the headers circled in blue are hybrid PWM/DC mode headers rated up to 2A, the one header circled in red is a PWM header. The motherboard's sleek black and silver aesthetics is the trademark Taichi look, and they have updated the silkscreen and heat sink matching, which looks quite good. The rear of the motherboard does feature some components.

The rear IO panel features WIFI antenna, three USB 3.1 type-A ports (two are normal blue under the non-red NIC port), USB 3.1 type-C port, four USB 3.0 ports, PS/2 keyboard/mouse, Clear CMOS, DisplayPort, HDMI, 10G LAN, two 1G LAN, and gold plated 7.1 audio outputs with S/PDIF.

The PCI-E layout is as follows, x16/x0/x0, x8/x8/x0, or x8/x4/x4. The bottommost M.2 slot has a heat sink.

All the M.2 slots are rated up to x4 PCI-E 3.0 and offer SATA mode, and they all share lanes with the SATA ports from the PCH. There are two USB 3.0 internal headers on the motherboard; one is right angled.

There is also a USB 3.1 type-C header on the motherboard. A total of eight SATA6Gb/s ports are on the motherboard, two come from an ASMedia controller. There is a power button, reset button, and POST code display on the motherboard.

At the bottom of the motherboard, we find a USB 2.0 internal header, a half USB 2.0 internal header, a Thunderbolt GPIO header, and an RGB LED header. Further to the left, we find an addressable RGB LED header, and another RGB LD header.

At the top of the motherboard, we find an 8-pin CPU power port and an optional 4-pin port. The heat sinks make good contact with the motherboard.