ASRock B650E Taichi Lite Motherboard Review – Less Flashy, Much Powerful, More Affordable

Conclusion - The Better Taichi!

ASRock's strategy to give the Taichi experience at a lower price point is well worth it. The B650E version of the Taichi LITE is not only impressive in regards to its pricing but also the features on offer here are very high-end. For example, you won't be able to find the overkill 24+2+1 on any other B650E motherboard in this price category. This high-end VRM makes sure that you will be able to support the current Ryzen 7000 and whatever high-end next-gen CPUs that AMD will be offering in the years to come.

While the toned-down design of the Taichi may be a bummer, the LITE heatsinks still managed to do a good job in keeping the temps under control. The gear textures on the PCB may look slightly overdone but the black and grey color scheme makes for a very neutral and stealthy design. The removal of the active cooling solution leads to slightly higher VRM temps but it's nothing to worry about as the motherboard was able to deliver the same exceptional performance of the standard Taichi without any hiccups. Furthermore, the last AGESA 1.0.0.7b BIOS firmware is already available for the Taichi LITE, allowing you to support boosted memory speeds.

On the I/O side, the dual PCIe x16 Gen 5.0+Gen 4.0 slots and the Blazing M.2 Gen 5 slot under its own heatsink is a big plus. Even the dual M.2 Gen 4 slots are featured under their own heatsink with pre-applied thermal pads. I/O remains great with 2.5G LAN, WIFI 6E & BT 5.2. Best of all, you also get USB4 Type-C which is great in this price range. ASRock really has a solid motherboard on its hands making it a great option between the B650 and X670 series. The $299 US tag is still a lot to pay for a motherboard but in the case of the Taichi Lite, the price you pay is well deserved.

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