ASRock B550 Taichi Motherboard Review

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Introduction

The Philosophy of Infinite Potential, this is the design language behind the new ASRock B550 Taichi Motherboard.  Today we will be taking the new ASRock B550 Taichi Motherboard based on AMD’s new B550 chipset through its paces on our test bench and seeing what this motherboard has going for it. 

Priced at $299 this motherboard comes in on the high-end side of AMD B550 chipset motherboard offerings.  It’s packed with features, making this B550 chipset motherboard rival features found even on AMD X570 motherboards.  It takes B550 to new heights in feature support, and class.  Let’s see if it functions as well as it looks.

Taichi represents the philosophical state of undifferentiated absolute and infinite potential. A motherboard that fulfills every task – with style! Become like water. Shapeless, formless, versatile for any situation.

ASRock has been around since 2002 specialized in motherboards.  Headquartered in Taipei, Taiwan it has branches in Europe and the USA.  This is a brand that has been growing fast in the US and products are now readily available in the US for purchase.  The company targets mainstream to enthusiast motherboard segments for different types of users.  We reviewed our first ASRock motherboard just recently with the ASRock X570 Creator Motherboard and found it to be a great motherboard that we’d recommend.  Let’s see if the B550 Taichi follows suit.

ASRock B550 Taichi Unboxing

The ASRock B550 Taichi Motherboard comes in a tall box and feels hefty enough.  On the front, it shows the type of motherboard, and chipset while the backside shows major features and lists what it supports and the layout.  It clearly shows what I/O ports are on the back of the motherboard so you know what can be connected to it.

When you open it up, there are two boxes inside, one contains the motherboard, the other are parts and accessories and manuals and CD.  In terms of included hardware, we are happy to see that it comes with two sets of screws and mounting hardware for two M.2 drives.  It also has two SATA cables and the WiFi antenna.  There is also a hex screwdriver included which is used to unscrew the heatsinks to install the two M.2 drives.  It can also be used to remove the center top cover which sits on top of the chipset heatsink.

Be careful when removing the motherboard from its box, all four corners are zip-tied to the foam so the motherboard doesn’t move around.  You will need to snip them all before you can take the motherboard out of the box.  It keeps the motherboard from moving, but it does lack an anti-static bag, which we feel helps protect the hardware.

ASRock B550 Taichi

Let’s take a look at the ASRock B550 Taichi Motherboard.  The motherboard is a full-sized ATX motherboard, it measures 12 inches by 9.6 inches.  It uses ASRock’s Super Alloy suite of power components.  This means it uses a 2oz Copper PCB.  The motherboard utilizes a 16 Power Phase Design, Digi Power with 50A Dr.MOS, and 60A Premium Choke and Nichicon 12K Black Caps with a lifespan of at least 12,000 hours.  It is cooled via an XXL Aluminum Alloy Heatsink with Heat Pipe Design. The motherboard uses Premium Memory Alloy Choke, I/O Armor, and a High-Density Glass Fabric PCB that is Matte Black. It has a unique golden, silver, and black color theme to it with a unique “gears” design to the theme. No, these gears do not move, but there is RGB in there.

2oz Copper PCB provides stable signal traces and power delivery with lower temperatures and higher energy efficiency.  Dr. MOS is an integrated power stage solution that intelligently delivers higher current for each phase and provides improved thermal results and performance.  ASRock’s 60A power chokes make the saturation current up to three times better improving Vcore voltage to the motherboard.  The 16 Power Phase Design provides smooth power delivery to the CPU with the lowest temperatures.  The Hi-Density power connector reduces power loss by 23% according to ASRock and reduces the temperature of the connector by 22 degrees Celsius.  This technology is featured on both the 24-pin ATX power connector and the two 8-pin 12V power connectors. ASRock Full Spike Protection includes various technologies to prevent your motherboard’s components from being damaged by these unexpected voltage spikes. 

Closeup of Backside 

There is a large metal backplate with thermal pads for passive cooling from the backside.  This large metal backplate almost takes up the entire motherboard, but it adds rigidity to the motherboard.  You can actually see the thermal pads connecting with the MOSFETS on the back of the motherboard, providing passive cooling from the back. 

In fact, ASRock has given this backplate an appealing art design and look to it, even though you probably won’t see it once the motherboard is installed.  Still, ASRock went out of their way to make the backside of this motherboard show some class and look visually impressive. The I/O shield, which is built-in, is firmly connected with a bracket that is screwed on the back, giving it more rigidity and making sure the I/O shield is solid. There is also RGB lighting alongside the edge of the motherboard, between the backplate and the PCB, which gives the motherboard a unique lighting pattern when running.

Brent Justicehttps://www.thefpsreview.com
Former managing editor of GPUs at HardOCP for 18 years, Brent Justice has been reviewing computer components since the late 90s, educated in the art and method of the computer hardware review, he brings experience, knowledge, and hands-on testing with a gamer-oriented and hardware enthusiast perspective. You can follow him on Twitter - @Brent_Justice You can sub to his YouTube channel - Justice Gaming https://www.youtube.com/c/JusticeGamingChannel You can check out his computer builds on KIT - @BrentJustice https://kit.co/BrentJustice

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