The ASRock Z390 Taichi Review: Jack of All Trades, Master of None
by Gavin Bonshor on November 1, 2018 9:00 AM EST- Posted in
- Motherboards
- Intel
- ASRock
- Taichi
- Coffee Lake
- i7-8700K
- Z390
- Dual NIC
- Z390 Taichi
Gaming Performance
AoTS Escalation
Ashes of the Singularity is a Real-Time Strategy game developed by Oxide Games and Stardock Entertainment. The original AoTS was released back in March of 2016 while the standalone expansion pack, Escalation, was released in November of 2016 adding more structures, maps, and units. We use this specific benchmark as it relies on both a good GPU as well as on the CPU in order to get the most frames per second. This balance is able to better display any systematic differences in gaming as opposed to a more GPU heavy title where the CPU and system don't matter quite as much. We use the default "Crazy" in-game settings using the DX11 rendering path in both 1080p and 4K UHD resolutions. The benchmark is run four times and the results averaged then plugged into the graph.
Rise of the Tomb Raider
Rise of the Tomb Raider is a third-person action-adventure game that features similar gameplay found in 2013's Tomb Raider. Players control Lara Croft through various environments, battling enemies, and completing puzzle platforming sections, while using improvised weapons and gadgets in order to progress through the story.
One of the unique aspects of this benchmark is that it’s actually the average of 3 sub-benchmarks that fly through different environments, which keeps the benchmark from being too weighted towards a GPU’s performance characteristics under any one scene.
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imaheadcase - Thursday, November 1, 2018 - link
I'm not a big fan of dark color connectors on motherboards. Its a pain when trying to connect them if in tight spot.gavbon - Thursday, November 1, 2018 - link
I can see your point! The trade off is having lighter ports which would stick out like a sore thumb; if in doubt, the torch on a phone is super handy! Again, I do see where you're coming from and you make a valid pointBeltonius - Thursday, November 1, 2018 - link
So, wait. Do all three M.2 ports (if populated with NVMe drives) disable SATA ports or does M2_2 only disable SATA ports if its populated with a SATA drive?The article is contradictory: "one M.2 shares bandwidth only when a SATA based drive is installed with one SATA port, so even if a user is using a PCIe 3.0 x4 capable drive in the slot, two associated SATA ports will be disabled regardless. The configuration is as follows:"
gavbon - Thursday, November 1, 2018 - link
If slot M.2_2 is using a PCIe drive, it doesn't disable the associated SATA port, only when a SATA drive is installed. The other M.2 ports will disable the shared SATA ports regardless of what's installed in them.DanNeely - Thursday, November 1, 2018 - link
Assuming the same HSIO layout as Z370:The first m2 can block between 0 and 2 SATA ports depending on how other IO lanes are configured.
The second M2 will block 2 SATA ports.
The third M2 slot can't do SATA, and won't block any sata drives.
https://www.tweaktown.com/image.php?image=imagescd...
gavbon - Thursday, November 1, 2018 - link
The official specifications state:"*M2_1, SATA3_0 and SATA3_1 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, the others will be disabled.
If M2_2 is occupied by a SATA-type M.2 device, SATA3_3 will be disabled.
M2_3, SATA3_4 and SATA3_5 share lanes. If either one of them is in use, the others will be disabled."
M.2_2 allows use of a PCIe SSD without disabling any SATA ports. I don't have the Z390 HSIO layout to hand (in pub currently), but all three of the M.2 slots on this board can use SATA drives at the cost of give SATA ports.
Beltonius - Thursday, November 1, 2018 - link
Okay, cool. That was my reading from other research, but the article wasn't clear.Dug - Thursday, November 1, 2018 - link
I really wish we could get some in site to the sub components of motherboards. Things like, what's the performance of the m.2 slots when all 3 are configured? How about usb transfer speed tests. Some sound testing? Wi-fi tests. Any issues with dual nic's and teaming?So much more to a motherboard than overclocking.
Alexandrus - Thursday, November 1, 2018 - link
Vice-versa, not visa-versa, learn your Latin or stop using it all together.gavbon - Thursday, November 1, 2018 - link
Apologies, an obvious brain drop there. Will edit when I get home.