ASRock X299 Tacihi CLX
November, 2019Type
MotherboardPrice
$399.99 USTest Setup
For this review, I was provided the Core i9-10980XE from Intel themselves. The X299 TAICHI CLX motherboard was provided by ASRock while the rest of the equipment was sent by their respective manufacturers. The test setup configuration can be found in the chart below.
MSI X299 Creator & Intel Core i9-10980XE Test Platform:
| Processors Used | AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990X AMD Ryzen Threadripper 1950X Intel Core i9-10980XE Intel Core i9-7980XE Intel Core i9-9900KS AMD Ryzen 9 3950X AMD Ryzen 9 3900X AMD Ryzen 7 3700X |
|---|---|
| Motherboards Used | MSI X299 Creator (Intel 10980XE) Z390 AOURS Master (Intel 9900KS) ASUS ROG Zenith Extreme Alpha (AMD 2990WX) ASRock X399 Taichi (AMD 1950X) MSI MEG X570 Unify (AMD 3950X) ASRock X570 Taichi (AMD 3900X, 3700X) |
| Memory | G.SKILL Trident Z RGB Series 32 GB (4 x 8GB) CL16 3600 MHz |
| Video Cards | MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti Lightning Z |
| Power Supply | ASUS ROG THOR 1200W |
| Cooling Solutions | Corsair H115i Pro AIO Liquid |
| Solid State Drive | Samsung SSD 960 EVO M.2 (512 GB) |
| BIOS Used | 7B96v10 (MSI X299 Creator) |
| OS | Windows 10 64-bit |
The Intel Core i9-10980XE is a very power-hungry chip and as such, overclocking was very limited for my sample. The Intel Core i9-10980XE hit a maximum of 4.7 GHz across all cores at a voltage of 1.20V. With the settings, we booted and stress-tested the processor for 1 hour in Prime 95 which ran stable.
Contents
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The ASRock X299 Taichi CLX is the third and last revision to ASRock's X299 Taichi family and its the best one yet. Offering modern aesthetics, the latest feature set which includes USB 3.2 Gen 2 / Gen 1, 2.5GbE LAN, 10 SATA ports, lots of expansion options and a solid VRM which offers up to 720A to the 10th Gen X-series processors, the X299 Taichi CLX is a worthy option to consider if you're building an Intel HEDT setup for yourself.
- Modern aesthetics and design on 3rd Taichi X299 revision
- Solid 13 Phase Digi Power PWM Design
- Excellent Overclocking Capabilities
- Proper XXL Aluminum heatsinks placed over PWM system
- Good Cooling Design With heatpipe implementation
- Dual 8 Pin power connectors for the CPU Socket
- Dual LAN ports including 2.5GbE connectivity
- Wireless module for WIFI 6 and Bluetooth 5.0
- Dual x16 PCIe slots when running a 48/44 Lane CPU
- Triple M.2 Slots
- 10 SATA Ports
- Metal Shielded PCIe slots
- Dual USB 3.2 Gen 2 Ports
- Lots of USB 3.2 Gen 1 Ports
- Purity Sound 4 Audio System
- Subtle and not too flashy RGB LEDs
Pros
- Very high price ($399.99 US)
- Not the most optimized Software Stack
- M.2 slots share lanes with PCIe slots
- Intel's 10th Gen X-series not that impressive
Cons
About the author: A Software Engineer by training and a PC enthusiast by passion, Hassan Mujtaba serves as Wccftech's Senior Editor for hardware section. With years of experience in the industry, he specializes in deep-dive technical analysis of next-generation CPU and GPU architectures, motherboards, and cooling solutions. His work involves not only breaking news on upcoming technologies but also extensive hands-on reviews and benchmarking.
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