Intel 12th generation CPUs are impressive chips, but they require a great motherboard. The new Z690 chipset is a high-end product, and the ASRock Z690 Taichi delivers. But what does a motherboard really change?

When ASRock first launched the Taichi brand, we were impressed by its "less is not more" design approach. It offered an excellent feature set and cost performance without the excessive RGB overload that was common in gaming boards a few years ago. The brand is now evolving into a true high-end offering. The yet-to-be-announced Aqua is the company's top model, but it is expected to be a limited edition and will likely be priced so high that the Taichi will essentially be ASRock's premium Z690 motherboard.

This motherboard is designed to compete with the Aorus Master, MSI's MEG Ace and Asus Maximus series. There is certainly some stiff competition among them; let's take a look at the features of the ASRock Z690 Taichi. Literally

the look of the board is definitely unique, and while the look is eye-catching, to me, the Taichi's cyberpunk theme looks great in its copper coloring, with a nice splash of RGB and some real working gears above the I/Os. It looks expensive; if you're using Razer products, there's also a Razer-themed Z690 Taichi that easily integrates into the Chroma ecosystem.

An overview of the board reveals some interesting features and design choices: there are dual PCIe 5.0 slots that can operate at x16/0 or x8/x8; there is a PCIe 4.0 slot and a PCIe 3.0 1x slot; there is a PCIe 4.0 slot and a PCIe 3.0 1x slot; there is a PCIe 3.0 1x slot; there is a PCIe 3.0 1x slot; there is a PCIe 3.0 1x slot; there is a PCIe 3.0 2x slot; and there is a PCIe 4.0 slot. Aorus Master and Asus The latter may be valuable to many, as some competing boards, such as the Hero, have only three x16 slots. [There are a total of seven SATA ports, one of which (along with one USB port) is independent of the others; Asrock says these act as protection against malware. Also included is a VGA holder bracket to prevent the GPU from sagging.

Of note is the location of the two CPU fan headers, which are positioned above the primary M.2 slot. This may or may not help or hinder cable management options, depending on the configuration, but it is worth considering when assembling the build.

Perhaps the main weakness of this board is the M.2 complement. There are only three slots, one of which supports only PCIe 3.0 x2. While this may not be an issue for the average gamer with a few M.2 drives and one or two SATA drives, compared to other boards in this price range that support up to five M.2 drives, the Taichi falls a bit short.

If you read our review of the Core i9-12900K, you know that it consumes quite a bit of power in normal operation before even considering overclocking. As is the case with most high-end Z690 boards, ASRock has a very powerful VRM solution; at the 20 phase 105A stage, the 12900K can be significantly overclocked without any stress.

Perhaps the vendor designed the board to handle power guzzling AVX-512 loads. Either way, it's official; note that Taichi's VRM heatsink has a smaller surface area than some products, but has an internal fan adjacent to the I/O area. We didn't even know it was there until we disassembled the system.

If you need more cooling, ASRock bundles a small 30mm fan with an optional bracket for a 40mm fan. Unless your case airflow is terrible, you won't need to use these; in a VRM test consisting of a 20-minute Cinebench loop, the VRM temperature reached 53°C

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Not much to worry about.

The highlight of the rear I/O features is the dual Thunderbolt 4 ports. In addition to these, there are two 3.2 Gen 2 ports and four 3.2 Gen 1 ports; six Type A ports are probably not enough for a high-end board, but ASRock includes a PCI bracket if you want to add two more USB 2.1 ports, so this is moot! . 0 ports via headers.

Networking is handled by a Killer E3100G 2.5G and an AX1675 Wi-Fi 6E controller, all from Intel, as Intel now owns Rivet networks, the developer of the Killer NICs. These are joined by the Intel I219V Gigabit controller. However, some users prefer dual LANs. The rest of the I/O panel is pretty standard, with HDMI 2.1 and ALC 1220 audio; it is nice to see ASRock include a good quality ESS Sabre 9218 DAC.

System Performance

Somewhat surprisingly, given that the BIOS and Windows 11 have room to mature, the Taichi and the other Z690 boards we tested perform very close to each other. This is likely due to Intel's new Turbo definition, where CPU clocks do not vary much between boards.

Gaming Performance

Notably, the Taichi performed well in our gaming tests, often leading the pack; a 1 fps difference is not much, but it is better to lead than lag behind. The board can run DDR5-6400 memory, which not all Z690s could do in pre-release testing. This shows a high level of maturity, as is often the case with new platforms and standards.

The ASRock Z690 Taichi truly looks like a premium product. Its unique appearance will appeal to many. Key features such as dual Thunderbolt 4 ports, a solid audio solution, and strong early memory support give it an edge.

At $590 (£530), this is an expensive motherboard, but boards like the Asus Maximus Hero and Aorus Master are no bargain either. It is a sad state of affairs in today's market, where boards with such prices are the new normal. But let's keep an open mind. In a few months, the cost-performance analysis may be very different.

Taichi's great looks, solid performance, and strong feature list (with the exception of below par M2 support) make it a serious contender in this price range. Let's hope that early adopter pricing, component shortages, and DDR5 availability will improve. If that happens, upgrading to the 12th generation will be much more attractive. For now, the 12th generation fits firmly in the dreamland rig-building category because.