ASRock Z790 Taichi Carrara Motherboard Review: ASRock Rocks With White Marble
by Gavin Bonshor on August 2, 2023 9:00 AM ESTBoard Features
The ASRock Z790 Taichi Carrara is a mid-range to high-end E-ATX motherboard, which bridges the gap between ASRock's Steel Legend and Phantom Gaming series with the halo ASRock Z690 Aqua. The Taichi series in itself is a premium range of motherboards, whereas the Z790 Taichi Carrara has the same feature set as the regular Taichi; it is different with its white Carrara marbled styled aesthetics.
As a premium LGA1700 motherboard designed for Intel's 13th Gen and 12th Gen Core series processors, it does support PCIe 5.0, with two full-length PCIe 5.0 slots that can operate at x16/x0 or x8/x8, while ASRock includes a single full-length PCIe 4.0 x4 slot which is driven by the Z790 chipset. There are four memory slots with support for up to and including DDR5-7400 memory, and they can accommodate a maximum of 192 GB.
Regarding cooling support, there are 8 x 4-pin fan headers, with one specifically for a CPU fan, one acting as an optional CPU fan and water pump, and six 4-pin headers for chassis fans, although all the headers can support water cooling pumps.
| ASRock Z790 Taichi Carrara Motherboard | |||
| Warranty Period | 3 Years | ||
| Product Page | Link | ||
| Price (MSRP/Amazon) | $499 | ||
| Size | E-ATX | ||
| CPU Interface | LGA1700 | ||
| Chipset | Intel Z790 | ||
| Memory Slots (DDR4) | Four DDR5 Supporting 192 GB Dual-Channel Up to DDR5-7400+ OC (1R+1DPC) |
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| Video Outputs | 1 x HDMI 2.1 2 x Thunderbolt 4 (Type-C) |
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| Network Connectivity | 1 x Killer E3100G 2.5 GbE 1 x Intel I219-V Gigabit Killer AX1690 Wi-Fi 6E |
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| Onboard Audio | Realtek ALC4082 ESS Sabre 9218 DAC |
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| PCIe Slots for Graphics (from CPU) | 2 x PCIe 5.0 x16 (x16/x0, x8/x8) | ||
| PCIe Slots for Other (from PCH) | 1 x PCIe 4.0 (x4) | ||
| Onboard SATA | Eight, RAID 0/1/5/10 | ||
| Onboard M.2 | 1 x PCIe 5.0 x4 4 x PCIe 4.0 x4 |
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| Onboard U.2 | N/A | ||
| Thunderbolt 4 (40 Gbps) | 2 x Type-C | ||
| USB 3.2 (20 Gbps) | 1 x USB Type-C (Front panel) | ||
| USB 3.2 (10 Gbps) | 2 x USB Type-A (Rear panel) | ||
| USB 3.2 (5 Gbps) | 6 x USB Type-A (Rear panel) 4 x USB Type-A (Two headers) |
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| USB 2.0 | 2 x USB Type-A (Rear panel) 4 x USB Type-A (Two headers) |
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| Power Connectors | 1 x 24-pin Motherboard 2 x 8-pin CPU 1 x 6-pin for Fast Charging |
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| Fan Headers | 1 x 4-pin CPU 1 x 4-pin Water pump 6 x 4-pin Chassis |
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| IO Panel | 2 x Antenna Ports (Killer) 2 x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C 6 x USB 3.2 G2 Type-A 2 x USB 2.0 Type-A 1 x RJ45 (Killer) 1 x HDMI 2.1 Output 2 x 3.5 mm Audio jacks (Realtek) 1 x S/PDIF Optical output (Realtek) |
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In terms of storage, the ASRock Z790 Taichi has one PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot, with four PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots, and eight SATA ports; all of the SATA ports can support RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays. On the rear panel, ASRock includes plenty of connectivity, including dual Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports, which can double up as video outputs for additional and compatible monitors. For conventional monitors, there is one HDMI 2.1 video output. ASRock also includes six USB 3.2 G2 Type-A ports and two USB 2.0 ports, while a USB 3.2 G2x2 10 Gbps header is available to use for chassis with a compatible front panel.
The ASRock Z790 Taichi Carrara has a decent networking array, including two Ethernet ports, one controlled by a Killer E3100 2.5 GbE controller and the other by an Intel I219-V Gigabit controller. For wireless, ASRock includes a Killer AX1690 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi with support for wireless and BT 5.3 connectivity.
In keeping in line with other mid-range to premium Z790 motherboards, ASRock has a decent on-board audio configuration with a Realtek ALC4082 HD audio codec doing much of the audio processing, with an assisting ESS Sabre 9218 DAC providing an uprated experience for users with good quality headphones. As such, ASRock offers just two 3.5 mm audio jacks and a single S/PDIF optical output.
Test Bed
With some of the nuances with Intel's Raptor Lake processors, including the use of P and E-cores, our policy is to see if the system gives an automatic option to increase the power limits of the processor. If it does, we select the liquid cooling option. If it does not, we do not change the defaults.
| Test Setup | |||
| Processor | Intel Core i9-13900K, 125 W, $589 8P + 16E Cores, 24 Threads 3.0 GHz (5.8 GHz P-Core Turbo) |
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| Motherboard | ASRock Z790 Taichi Carrara (BIOS 7.04) | ||
| Cooling | EKWB EK-AIO Elite 360 D-RGB 360mm | ||
| Power Supply | Corsair HX850 80Plus Platinum 850 W | ||
| Memory | Corsair Dominator Platinum RGB DDR5-6000 CL30 (2 x 16 GB) | ||
| Video Card | AMD Radeon RX 6940 XT, 31.0.12019 | ||
| Hard Drive | SK Hynix Platinum P41 2TB PCIe 4.0 | ||
| Case | Open Benchtable OBT V2 | ||
| Operating System | Windows 11 22H2 | ||
We must also thank the following:
| Hardware Providers for CPU and Motherboard Reviews | |||
| Sapphire RX 460 Nitro | MSI GTX 1080 Gaming X OC | Crucial MX200 + MX500 SSDs |
Corsair AX860i + AX1200i PSUs |
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| G.Skill RipjawsV, SniperX, FlareX |
Crucial Ballistix DDR4 |
Silverstone Coolers |
Noctua Coolers |
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13 Comments
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Threska - Wednesday, August 2, 2023 - link
Looks pretty although if people were complaining about "active cooling" on AMD boards, they'll do the same with this board.deporter - Wednesday, August 2, 2023 - link
Yep, I'm one of those complainers. Active cooling is a significant negative for me.And I'm generally a bit disappointed that desktop PC parts have been getting hotter for the last few generations. CPUs, motherboards, even SSDs...
imaheadcase - Wednesday, August 2, 2023 - link
Yeah, I mean if its the way its going so be it, but when you got 5.0 SSD drives needing a heatsink that won't let me close back of case its becoming a problem. lolIf you use 5 of the Nvma drives in this on motherboard, will all 5 run at max speed i wonder, or is it limited like when using all USB drives sharing bandwidth? Not up to speed on that stuff.
Qasar - Wednesday, August 2, 2023 - link
i have a x570 board, with a chipset fan on it, and i have NEVER heard it......sorry but those complaining about things like this, i bet, have never heard one, or even owned a board with one. just assume its loud, and run away
Spoelie - Thursday, August 3, 2023 - link
That fan, even if relatively quiet when new, is still a long term liability a lot of people are not willing to deal with.- Fans usually get louder as they age
- Fans spread dust
- Fans will fail over time, and depending on the protections built in to the motherboard, lead to lower performance difficult to diagnose, or outright damage. Given the generally increasing lifetime of a system nowadays, this is a realistic prospect.
Threska - Friday, August 4, 2023 - link
Reason I went with the "S" version of the x570. No fan to deal with.PeachNCream - Friday, August 4, 2023 - link
For most people I've seen that are concerned with active motherboard cooling, its not a matter of noise. Long term fan function tends to be a bit more of an iffy prospect when fan size decreases. I haven't see statistical data, but I have personally dealt with a higher number of small fan replacement issues than I have larger fans despite 80+mm fans representing the majority of the fans I've dealt with over the years. Down in the 40mm or smaller range, the failure rate (again personal experience and anecdotes only) seems significantly higher. Motherboards are usually expected to live a few years so active cooling is seen as something of a detriment.Sivar - Friday, August 11, 2023 - link
This ^.Small fans are overwhelmingly less reliable, not just for some $300 consumer board, but all they way up through enterprise products. We have had major server outages because some NIC cooling fan failed. We have had factory downtime because of fan failures in a literal clean room.
Just, no. I will always actively recommend that people take a hard pass on actively cooled motherboards, or any component with a dinky fan. GPUs and quality case fans are fine.
Manufacturers: If you add a fan, me and everyone that consults with me will not touch your motherboard with somebody else's 100-foot pole.
artifex - Friday, August 4, 2023 - link
Looks like guru3d is reporting AsRock has some "all white" boards announced for mid tier Intel and AMD chipsets. At least some of those will be passive only. Hopefully Anandtech can look into those also, especially any with extra features.skinnyelephant - Friday, September 29, 2023 - link
I love white PC parts. If I had a choice and I was building a new pc, I would be happy to getone of those.