CONCLUSION

    Even just 5 years ago ASRock wasn’t in the top 3 motherboard manufacturers I’d recommend to people, something which has recently changed, not to a small degree due to their very good X670E Taichi, Z790 Lightning WiFi and now the Z890 Taichi Lite. Yes, the Z890 Taichi Lite is the most “basic” (if you can even call it that) model in their Z890 Taichi lineup but it still offers most of the features I’d like to see in a motherboard (I would have liked to see an easy release mechanism for the primary x16 Gen5 slot, but I guess we just can’t have it all). The same of course applies for the number of available M.2 slots (6) which is certainly not something I’ve seen a lot to date. I also found overclocking to be easier and more stable compared to the MSI Z890 Tomahawk WiFi something which could be due to the better phase design. Of course, I will do my best to try and get one of the higher end Taichi models to check and see what you can expect compared to the Lite.

    Currently the Z890 Taichi Lite motherboard by ASRock retails for USD399.99 inside the USA (Amazon.com) and for 447.86Euros inside the EU (Amazon.de), a price tag which is quite balanced. After spending almost 2 weeks with the Z890 Taichi Lite I really have nothing seriously bad to say about it. Yes, it’s not the perfect motherboard, instead it’s a semi-affordable model aimed towards demanding users and since it does deliver it deserves the Golden Award.

PROS

- Good OC Potential (20 Phase Digital VRM / Sufficient Cooling)
- Reinforced & EMI Shielded PCIe 5.0 x16 Slot
- 4 UDIMM DDR5 Slots (Up To 9600MHz+ / 256GB Total / CUDIMM Support)
- 6 M.2 PCIe Slots (1x5.0 / 5x4.0)
- Two Thunderbolt 4 Ports
- HDMI v2.1 Video Output
- 5GbE & 2.5GbE Ports
- WiFi 7 / Bluetooth v5.4
- Available BIOS Settings
- Price (USA)

CONS

- Only 3 USB Type C Ports
- Only 2 Full Sized x16 PCIe Slots