ASRock X299 Taichi LGA 2066 Intel X299 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.1 ATX Intel Motherboard

Pros: - Good looking board - Great feature set - Wifi is solid - Dual Intel NICs - So far suprisingly great BIOSs

Cons: - Not shiny if the LED stuff is your thing, though there are 2 LED strip connectors and the LED controls are slick - Single BIOS (was shocked at this one) - No PCIe switches

Overall Review: I've experienced some flaky BIOS issues across multiple ASRock boards in the X99 platform so I was honestly expecting issues with this with brand new BIOS versions on a fresh platform. So far absolutely rock solid. I've successfully clocked 128GB of G.Skill 2666, 128GB Corsair Vengeance LPX 2666 and 32GB (4x8GB) of Corsair 3200 with zero issue. They've already released 3 BIOS versions, two since I got the board. 1.3 was ripped down and replaced with 1.31 today. Haven't had any issues with any of them thus far. Again, ASRock has had flaky BIOS issues in the past for me so this has so far been great. There was an issue with 1.1 and 1.3 where disabling speedstep would break overclocking completely and basically lock you at 3.5, which made no sense. Looks like that's fixed in 1.31. Got a 7800X clocked up to 4.6 at 1.17 with no issue and great temps thus far. The VRM heatsink temp seems to flow directly with the CPU temp I'm reaching. On the back of the board the VRMs sit about 16-18c higher than the heatsink temp and that's much closer to the actual VRM temps, so pretty toasty. Granted that's under full load stress testing but still, they get hot. Could be my settings or could be BIOS but my full CPU clock speed and BCLK (100) don't reflect in Windows what I have them set to in the BIOS consistently, in any tool (CPU-z, task manger, HWInfo x64). For instance, BCLK shows 96 and CPU clock never shows 4.6 anywhere except occasionally in CPU-Z, and its not always at 4.6 like I have it set statically. I feel like some of this is just the software tools as they haven't been patched for the new platform, and maybe Windows also, but could be BIOS (lots of auto settings in there still) and could be chipset driver. Time will tell. Its also nice to have all these features, more than the X99 boards I used, and all in an ATX FF instead of EATX. Personally I dig the color scheme as it opens you up to install whatever colors you want for your custom loop and it'll look awesome. Smart move by ASRock really, in an era where everybody's personalizing with LED options out the whazoo. Plenty of M.2 slots that can run NVMe or SATA SSDs so you could save some $$ with a SATA SSD in an m.2 FF and keep it on board instead of a 2.5" SSD in the case. ASRock was great with this in the X99 platform while other manufacturers' m.2 slots only supported NVMe SSDs many times. Two small gripes that I'm missing here: (1) Only single BIOS. I've had to utilize the 2nd BIOS feature in the past to save my keester. (2) I love me some PCIe switches and there's none here. At least a BIOS option to shut down certain PCIe slots would be awesome. UPDATE: In regards to VRM temps, previously while stress testing if my CPU was reaching 72c (for instance) the VRM heatsink was reaching around the same but reading the temp of the VRMs on the back of the mobo was at almost 90c. I pulled the VRM heatsink off and replaced the stock thermal pad that was installed with some leftover thermal pad from EKWB I had laying around and it made a HUGE difference. Now, after OC'ing my 7800x to 4.7 and allowing prime95 to ramp the CPU to almost 90c, the VRM heatsink is only hitting around 50-55c and on the back of the board its only hitting around 60c. Note, this was also after installing my custom loop with a 280mm radiator up top that puts a 140mm fan right above the VRM heatsink now vs the 120mm I had before but I can't imaging that alone is swaying this number that much.

Pros: A great x299 board for gamers and enthusiasts, and has plenty of ports and CPU support.

Cons: There is a show-stopping issue within this board, and within all Intel x299 chipset boards and their associated CPUs -- if you buy this board and any CPU that it supports, you will not be able to play 4k/UHD BluRay content from an attached BluRay drive. At production time, this board supported 4k BluRay playback with the right hardware connected to it. AFTER these boards were shipped to retailers and thousands of customers bought them, Intel and/or their partners added a DRM "gotcha" to the requirements for 4k/UHD BluRay playback, making it impossible to play licensed 4k BluRay content on this chipset and CPU. They added an enhanced requirement for something called 'Intel SGX', and for some reason they did not include support for SGX in the chipset firmware or drivers and there is NO LEGAL WORKAROUND. If you bought this board and a CPU, you may get stuck with them unless you RMA them quickly!

Overall Review: This board and the Intel x299 chipset would be GREAT for 4k enthusiasts and gamers alike, but the fundamental issue with Intel not deploying SGX support for this chipset is a show-stopper. DO NOT BUY unless you do not plan to play much 4k content other than video games.

Pros: Very nice quality MB. Best feature set for price among Skylake competition. Blazingly fast disk I/O via M.2 slots. A joy to install - with caveats. Overall very happy. Reader warning: "This review for ASRock review rebate program." In other words, ASRock is paying me $25 extra in a rebate program for doing this review. I appreciate that. Good deal if you want to buy the board. BUT - I would suspect any reviews that say "This review for ASRock review rebate program." ASRock requires you to say this in order to get the rebate - thank you Newegg for "keeping 'em honest". But people are still naturally biased when money is involved. Nevertheless I will do my best to make this review objective - and if they don't pay my rebate...well we'll see.

Cons: It took me quite a while to get this installed and working in a configuration that's not all that weird, but - it was mostly my fault. I can give ASRock HIGH KUDOs for good documentation on the accompanying disk, but I'm taking a point off because there was NO WARNING about this in the printed manual. Long story short - BE SURE TO READ the docs on the included CD. There are very specific and complex details when installing RAID. So my troubles were really my fault. As per my usual tendency, I ignored the supplied CD, preferring instead to get all the latest drivers myself online. I ended up having to redo everything - up to reinstalling Win 10 - to finally get my D drive to come up as RAID 1. My simple dislike for reading resulted in the RAID in a mode which does not recognize drives greater than 2TB. (mine are 4TB) Configuration: 1 500GB SSD boot drive (Samsung 960 Pro) in first M.2 slot. Worked without a hitch 2 Seagate Barracuda Pro 4T SATA in RAID 1, as D drive 1 Intel Optane 32GB SSD in second M.2 slot for accelerating D drive. 32-GB Corsair RAM Intel 7820 CPU PLEASE: Just read and follow the RAID the docs on the disk! Install the provided drivers, then update to the latest online afterward. It works great now! And pay attention to the following BIOS settings: Boot/CSM/OpROM Settings: "Launch Storage OpROM Policy" = UEFI Only (also available under "Advanced/Storage" Advanced/Storage: "SATA Mode" = "Intel RST" Advanced/Storage: "M2 - RST PCie Storage Remapping" = "Enabled" As far as VM support, it took a while to get Hyper-V working. Turned out to need a simple BIOS update - I had 1.4, but needed 1.6. But you will also need to enable Advanced/Chipset "Intel Virtualization Technology". I also disabled "Intel VT-d" but not sure that is needed now that BIOS has been updated. One other glitch - my onboard wireless LAN just would not turn on in Win 10 without fully enabling Advanced/Storage/WAN Radio" (don't leave as "Auto")

Pros: + Well featured for price + Dual NIC + Built in Wireless + 3x Ultra M.2 + Triple SLI capable + Solid OVerclocker + Easy to use UEFI Bios + Solid 3 year warranty + Steel PCI-E slots

Cons: - Onboard Wireless is slower 433 Mb/s

Overall Review: Note: "This review for ASRock review rebate program." My previous setup of the last 3 years was a 5820k and ASRock Fatal1ty X99X Killer motherboard that was rock solid and among my favorite builds I have done in over 15 years of building computers. So I was excited to try out my new 7820X and ASRock X299 Taichi. Base Build: i7-7820X, 4x8GB Mushkin Redline DDR4-3000 (15-15-15-35), Corsair RM850i, Corsair Air 540, CM Glacer 240L, Samsung 960Evo M.2 500GB, Crucial MX300 750GB, Samsung 2TB, Asus Strix GTX 1070 Extra's: Pretty much standard fare for extra's, although the included SLI bridge was nice. Packaging was good with foam padding surrounding the board. Presentation wise, I really like the X299 Taichi. The board has a solid feel. The black PCB feels stiff, with little flex. The steel PCI-E slots are fantastic for helping reduce stress on PCI-E slots from heavy graphics cards. The 3 M.2 slots is amazing for those wanting to explore NVMe goodness. With dual INtel NIC's, 10 SATA3's, plenty of USB 3.0's, built in ac WiFi and 13 power phases, it really has a ton going for it. I also like the lighting, it is subtle without beign all overbearing and saturating the motherboard. Bios: Updated to 1.60. Coming from the ASRock Fatal1ty X99X Killer, the UEFI Bios of the ASRock X299 Taichi was very similar so I felt right at home. Settings are very easy to find and navigate. Thus far everything has been rock solid and feels very mature for such a new board. Performance and compatibility: The motherboard fired up with no issues and my ram's XMP settings were loaded without a hitch. There were no compatibilty issues with the Samsung 960 EVO (which is crazy fast BTW). After everything was loaded and checked for stability, I performed some fiddling with the 7820X. The ASRock X299 Taichi proved to be a solid overclocker so far, with 4.6Ghz being 100% stable at 1.20v under all toture testing loads. The CPU gets a bit warm, so I have not tried for higher yet as I am satisfied for now and do not want to crank up my radiator fans to offset higher temps. Conclusion: I must say, overall I am once again very pleased with what ASRock has brought to the table. The X299 Taichi is affordable for a X299 motherboard, is very well featured, overclocks well, looks good, stable and has a decent 3 year warranty. Based on my short time with it, I have to give it 5 eggs. 100% recommended.

Pros: I successfully installed this motherboard, and so far working great. Plenty of room for upgrades. No complaints on the product itself.

Cons: My biggest complaint is ASRock Customer service and technical support. Do not expect to find any support from their agents. I was having trouble connecting to my WiFi, and I figured I had set something wrong, but when I called customer service I was in fact hung up on my first call, second call it felt like the woman couldn't be bothered and just wanted me off the phone. No greeting, no indication of interest for my situation. With the tech agent, we tested 2 or 3 things that I had already tried myself. After that the agent said it must be defective and to send it back for a replacement. He sounded incompetent over the phone, and quick to give up. Somehow I turned off the WiFi utility connector, and all I had to do was turn it back on, through the little icon in the lower right corner of my windows 10 operating system. I'm a former Mac user so it was just a simple fix, thankfully. Newegg has much better product support, if you go with ASRock.

Pros: Compatibility with the i9-7900X. Nice, solid RAM slots. 8 slots for quad-channel. Nice, solid PCI slots. 2011-style cooling mounting. Liquid cooling screws down without back plates. Three m.2 connections for fast SSD connections. Tons of SATA ports for drive connections. Two 5050 LED headers for customization.

Cons: The BIOS must be updated to access all 8 RAM slots. RAM speed is not optimal yet. There is a new BIOS update to address this in alpha now. The Asrock Thunderbolt 3 AIC only works in PCI slot 2. The instructions don't mention this. The Thunderbolt AIC will block one fan on your graphics card, so you will want to work out a riser card to move your graphics card.

Overall Review: I would DEFINITELY recommend this board, but please update the BIOS, and use PCI slot 2 if you add the Thunderbolt AIC. You must also turn Thunderbolt on in the BIOS or it won't actually work.

Pros: Started up the 1st time, no issues. Memory went to 2666 with no problem. With water cooled temps under 40C - do get one of those!

Cons: minor, that side mounted USB 3.0 is a pain. You'd have better luck wrestling with alligators. The USB connection is a poor design no matter which MOBO you use. Again, minor irritation.

Overall Review: All the new MOBOs have side mounted Sata and 2nd USB 3 connections. Plugin you sata / usb 3 connectors BEFORE you install your mobo in the case. It will save time and frustration SN76M0XB360352

Pros: Solidly Built - It Feels well built, with premium materials, seems like a reliable board 3x M.2 Slots - Good Support for high speed NVME Storage Intel NICs - Uses Intel LAN ports which are reliable

Cons: x299 is an expensive platform

Overall Review: I am using this for a workstation build. I was able to get the CPU, RAM, Storage, and video card installed and a Post screen up in under 15 minutes. So far the system is stable at stock speeds and everything is working great. I recommend this for a workstation build. This review for ASRock review rebate program.