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By Aaron Klotz published 31 May 22
Taichi Carrara joins the modeling party
ASRock has revealed five upcoming X670 and X670E motherboards on its main site, including the X670E Taichi Carrara, Taichi, Steel Legend, Pro RS, and the X670 PG Lightning. All five boards will serve as ASRock's introduction into the AM5 platform and are designed to run AMD's upcoming Ryzen 7000 series processors. The newest entry in ASRock's lineup is the X670E Taichi Carrara. This board appears to be nothing more than an outfit change over the vanilla X670E Taichi, with general specifications being identical between the two motherboards. The Carrara sub-variant features a rather extravagant looking white marble top spread out over the entire bottom and rear I/O section of the motherboard. This design is accompanied by a matte black finish in the top and top-right sections of the motherboard, paired with a line of RGB LEDs to the bottom right. This design is a huge departure from the Taichi aesthetic we're used to seeing. If you didn't see the board's name at all, you would think it's an entirely different motherboard model from ASRock.
The standard X670E Taichi sticks to its roots and takes design queues from all of ASRock's previous Taichi models. However, unlike previous designs, the X670E Taichi is the most mature-looking design with the least amount of bling and graphics ever on a Taichi board. The board is doused in a pure black finish from top to bottom, featuring both matte black and glossy black finishes. To keep the board true to its predecessors, it features gold and silver accents all around the board's edges and features gear-like icons on the chipset cooler and rear I/O panel. Both the Taichi and Taichi Carrara boards feature identical core specifications, including an X670E chipset, dual PCIe x16 5.0 slots (one with 8 lanes), and a beefy 26 Phase SPS power delivery system being the primary key points. I/O connectivity includes a plethora of ports, with two USB Type-C ports that serve as either Thunderbolt 4 or USB4 connectors, a single front USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C port, five rear USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, and seven USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports with four of those designed for front I/O. Audio comes in the form of a Realtek ALC4082 audio codec, assisted by an ESS Sabre 9218 DAC. Internet connectivity comes in the form of a killer E3100G 2.5Gbps ethernet port and a Killer AX1675X Wi-Fi 6E wireless module. Storage solutions are extensive, including a single M.2 Gen5 slot, dual M.2 PCIe Gen4 slots, and a single M.2 slot that can run either PCIe Gen 4 or SATA 6Gbps based SSDs, for a total of four M.2 slots. On top of this, both boards also feature eight SATA connectors for standard SATA-based hard drives and SSDs. For now, it appears the Taichi and Taichi Carrara will both serve as ASRock's flagship motherboards on the AM5 platform with the only differences being aesthetics, though it's possible ASRock will position the Carrara at an even higher price point.
The next motherboard on the list is the X670E Steel Legend. Not much is known about this board, but it should be one of ASRock's cheapest gaming motherboards packing the X670E chipset if it serves the same role as the previous generation X570 Steel Legend. Unfortunately, ASRock has only listed a few general specifications and no listing image to speak of, so we have no idea what this board looks like. According to the product page, it will be a substantial downgrade compared to its Taichi counterparts. Specs for the Steel Legend include a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot, with Realtek ALC 1220 audio codec paired to Nahimic Audio software. M.2 storage comes in the form of a single PCIe Gen5 slot, and all that's known about the USB ports is that there will be USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C connectivity. Finally, network connectivity consists of a Dragon 2.5Gbps LAN port and an unknown Wi-Fi 6E module. We should know more details once ASRock gets around to finishing the product pages of all its AM5 motherboards.
The final X670E chipset motherboard in ASRock's lineup is the X670E Pro RS, which is ASRock's first AM5 motherboard aimed at professional users. Thankfully we have a product image to reference, however specs again are very vague. The most interesting feature about the X670E Pro RS is its PCIe slot setup. The board forgoes the addition of a secondary x16 slot entirely, giving users only a single primary x16 5.0 slot to play with. The only other PCIe slots on the board are a pair of x1 slots for small add-in cards. We believe ASRock made this change to save cost, since PCIe 5.0 is very expensive to implement on a motherboard with its extremely high bandwidth requirements. On the flip side, ASRock is able to use the additional room to give users two more M.2 slots covered by a very long M.2 heatsink. That gives the board a total of five M.2 slots, plus a sixth if you count the M.2 WiFi slot. Aesthetically the board features the same color scheme as ASRock's older Pro SKUs with a black and grey finish. Overall, it fits the design language of a professional mainboard of being stealthy and fitting into the environment with its color-neutral tone. General specifications are largely the same as the Steel Legend with a Dragon 2.5Gbps LAN port, and USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C connectivity. The only note-worthy change is the use of the rather outdated ALC897 Realtek Audio codec.
Last but not least is ASRock's only currently announced X670 motherboard called the X670 PG Lighting. Unfortunately, ASRock has again neglected to include a product image like the Steel Legend, so we don't know what the board will look like. The current spec sheet is even vaguer than the previous product pages of the other AM5 motherboards. All we know is the board will feature HDMI and DisplayPort outputs, an ALC 897 audio codec, USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 Type-C connectivity, and a Dragon 2.5Gbps network port. That's it. However, we can make some assumptions based on previous PG (Phantom Gaming) models about where this board will lie in ASRock's lineup. PG has traditionally been ASRock's midrange gaming motherboard lineup, with slightly better features and power delivery systems than the Steel Legend series, and slightly fewer features than the Taichi motherboards. We expect the X670 PG Lighting to fill in that same role on the AM5 platform. ASRock has always had a higher tier PG motherboard as well, with either a flagship AMD or Intel chipset, so we should expect ASRock to come up with an X670E variant of the Lighting sometime in the future.
Aaron Klotz is a freelance writer for Tom’s Hardware US, covering news topics related to computer hardware such as CPUs, and graphics cards.
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