ASRock B550 Taichi Review: The $300 B550 Motherboard with Chutzpah

ASRock B550 Taichi Conundrum

When it comes to quantifying the price to performance ratio of AMD's B550 chipset, one must appreciate what vendors have tried to do with the opportunity B550 has presented. One thing a lot of vendors have accomplished is upgrading from standard Gigabit Ethernet to more future proof 2.5 GbE Ethernet, which is something a lot of manufacturers only implemented on its more mid-range to premium X570 models. This in itself has posed furor among users that expected B550 to slot in below X570 in regards to performance, and despite offering limited PCIe 4.0 support from the Ryzen 3000 processors, vendors have instead chosen to implement premium controller sets which have kept its B550 models higher in price than one would initially expect.

The ASRock B550 Taichi has plenty of PCIe options available, with two full-length PCIe 4.0 slots operating in x16 or x8/x8 mode - the B550 Taichi is one of only three B550 boards to do this. The board's storage includes a top-mounted PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot, which is perfect for users looking to benefit from the performance of a super-fast PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe drive, while the second slot operates at PCIe 3.0 x4. Both of the M.2 slots have individual heatsinks which blend into the board's bronze and black aesthetics. The B550 Taichi is also the only B550 model to include eight SATA ports, with four driven by the chipset and offering support for RAID 0, 1, and 10 arrays, while the other four ports are delivered via an ASMedia ASM1061 SATA controller.

Other prominent features of the B550 Taichi include a solid networking array including an Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE Ethernet controller and an equally premium Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 interface with added compatibility for BT 5.1 devices. Memory support is also impressive with speeds of up to DDR4-5000 supported, with a maximum capacity of up to 128 GB across four memory slots.

In our performance testing, the ASRock B550 Taichi displayed solid results in our power consumption testing, with the lack of PCIe 4.0 lanes within the chipset likely to make a difference when compared to X570 models. The Taichi also performed competitively in our out of the box DPC latency testing, as well as in our non-UEFI system POST time test. In regards to CPU and gaming performance, the Taichi was again competitive with other AM4 models on test.

With our Ryzen 7 3700X processor, the Taichi managed a maximum stable overclock of 4.3 GHz, which is equal to any AM4 board we have tested so far, with tight VDroop control and a consistent performance increase in POV-Ray. Our VRM thermal testing performance also puts the Taichi in a good light, with a reading of 55°C from the integrated thermal sensor, which is very impressive when compared to some of the higher-end X570 models we have tested so far.

The ASRock B550 Taichi Versus X570 Taichi

Both the ASRock B550 Taichi ($300) and the X570 Taichi ($300) share the same price point within the market, which poses some pros and cons when compared directly against each other. The B550 Taichi includes better networking support with a 2.5 GbE Ethernet controller and an Intel AX201 Wi-Fi 6 interface, whereas the X570 Taichi uses Intel's I211-AT Gigabit and the slightly older Intel AX200, although it still conforms to Wi-Fi 6 spec. The obvious pitfall for the B550 version is the lack of PCIe 4.0 support from the chipset, which puts the X570 Taichi on a better footing overall with three PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots versus just the B550 variant. 

One argument for the X570 Taichi is that users could use one of the PCIe slots and add a better quality NIC to the board such as an Aquantia AQC107 10 GbE controller and reap the future-proofing benefits of the X570 chipset. Both models have the capability to support the next generation of AMD Ryzen 4000 processors including the highly anticipated Ryzen 4000 APUs, which would make more sense for users to opt for one of the newer and more wallet-friendly A520 models.

The B550 Taichi is a solid representation of a good all-rounder from ASRock, but we can't help think adopting the same price point as its higher-end X570 model to be somewhat bewildering. Sure, it has a solid premium feature set and has much of the capabilities of the X570 Taichi, but if we had to spend $300 on a new AM4 based ASRock motherboard, we would lean more towards the X570 Taichi for all the above reasons; better PCIe 4.0 support for the future, as well as an extra PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot which makes it a sweeter deal overall.