A few weeks ago at Computex, Asrock announced two interesting motherboards. Z790 Taichi Light and the B650E Taichi Light. As of today, they are officially announced. And I am happy to meet them too.
The idea behind the Lite series is simple. Otherwise it’s the same as the existing Taichi, but with a simpler aesthetic. At Computex 2023, an Asrock rep said the complex cogs and wheels heatsinks on recent Taichi boards are very expensive to manufacture, and replacing these with simpler ones would allow the same motherboard to sell for less. said. Banzai!
I have reviewed many Taichi boards such as the Z690 Taichi and the B550 Taichi Razer Edition. I think the first one I reviewed was his 2016 or his 2017 he X99 Taichi. This was the era of excessive RGB and “gamification” of entire product lines. Adding the word game to the board probably made it more appealing. Taichi was a fresh change.
At the time, Taichi stood out a lot for its combination of affordability, a relatively simple non-gamer black-and-white aesthetic, and a robust feature set. In recent years, ASRock has enhanced the Taichi brand, and now it is the company’s main series, with the exception of limited models such as Aqua. Taichi are usually very good boards, but the overpriced price makes them a little less appealing.
However, the same goes for all high-end motherboards. High-end motherboards are too expensive, for whatever reason: missing components, electrical complexity, feature creep, or the need for bigger profit margins. Of course, you can still buy cheap motherboards today, but what I’d prefer is less emphasis on flashy designs, bundled accessories, and an “everything plus kitchen sink” approach.
I’d love to see more “lite” motherboards. First, ditch the sculpted heatsinks that are nothing more than glorified advertisements. M.2 and chipset cooling are usually hidden under the graphics card. Large surface areas (like fins) make the heatsink work, while maintaining a powerful VRM capable of handling K CPUs and their fastest turbo mode. 6 high-speed USB ports, 2 M.2, 2 SATA, 2.5G LAN and WiFi, please. Bang, saved me hundreds of dollars. In some cases, less is actually more.
As long as such a board has proper BIOS support, you can install a 14900K and have turbo functionality working for the next 5 years. Once you close the case, you’ll never know you’re not holding the flagship board. It’s just a board minus the extra expensive junk.
If you want a board with Thunderbolt 4 or dual 10G LAN or SSD add-in cards, manufacturers will be happy to sell them, as they are now. But as a consumer, why don’t you have the option of buying a high-end motherboard in an entry-level bundle?
Of course that never happens. The reason is clear. money, profit, margin. Motherboard makers want you to buy more expensive boards. capitalism! yay.
The DIY PC market is struggling, and forcing users to spend more on high-spec gaming motherboards doesn’t lead to a healthy ecosystem. Given that there are already hundreds of different motherboards on the market, there is room for unconventional motherboard products with wishlists like the one above, but will any manufacturer get into such a product? i doubt it. But we can hope.
No pricing has been announced yet, but we applaud Asrock’s decision to release the Taichi Lite series. I hope it sells well and we will see more similar products in the future.
