ASRock has decided to go all out at Computex this year, showing off all the X870E and X870 motherboards it plans to release alongside the Ryzen 9000 series processors. There’s no official date yet, but it’s a safe bet considering each motherboard has out-of-the-box support for the new AMD CPUs. It’s not just the old designs that are used, but six new designs come in the form of the Taichi, Taichi Lite, Nova WIFI, Riptide, Steel Legend & PRO RS series. Of course, everything is led by the Taichi plume.
ASRock has been a bit of an underrated manufacturer in the past, at least in our opinion, but it looks like that might change this year. ASRock seems to have upped the ante in terms of dedication to their craft and it hasn’t gone unnoticed. With support for AM5 until 2027 and beyond, these new 800 series boards will be relevant for a while.
ASRock X870 line of motherboards
These are all the X870E and X870 motherboards ASRock showcased at Computex 2024.
X870E Tiachi
First up, we have the ASRock X870E Taichi. This is the flagship motherboard for the X870E line from ASRock that features a healthy 27-phase power supply system, perfect for all you overclockers out there. The motherboard is, of course, on the DDR5 standard, but what is far from the standard is the dual PCIe Gen 5 X16 slots that the Taichi has. In terms of I/O, this motherboard comes with Gen 4 USB, 5GbE LAN, WIFI7 and more. If you need a lot of storage space on your computer, you’ll be glad to notice the four M.2 slots this motherboard has (1x Gen5 + 3x Gen4).
This is undoubtedly the best looking motherboard ASRock has released to date, it has a badass and rough aesthetic, and is not so heavy that it looks out of place in any configuration. There’s plenty of RGB, especially on the I/O board and on the bottom next to the second PCIe slot. However, all of this comes at quite a price, and we expect this motherboard to top $500 when it launches.
X870E Taichi LITE
If you still need the power of a Tiachi but can’t afford to shell out all that money, you might be interested in the Taichi LITE. This motherboard has the exact same specs as the Tiachi, it just comes without the fancy RGB and accented panels. Something you might also be interested in if you’re not a fan of RGB from the start.
X870E NEW WIFI
The ASRock NOVA WIFI is the best Phantom Gaming motherboard on display, it has an impressive arsenal of updated I/O just slightly reduced from the Taichi specs. The Phantom has a 23-phase power supply design, which is still nothing to worry about. This motherboard only has one PCIe Gen5 x16 slot, but SLI is pretty much dead anyway. What is different about NOVA is 1 additional PCIe Gen3 M.2 slot, a total of 5 slots for M.2 disks, the configuration is the same as Tiachi otherwise.
X870 Riptide WIFI
The X870 Riptide WIFI is 2 of 2 Phantom Gaming motherboards that ASRock offers in this line, and it appears to be a scaled down version of the NOVA. It has a 17-phase power supply design, one PCIe Gen5 X16 slot and only 3 M.2 slots (1x Gen5 + 2x Gen4). Of course, this board will tend to be more economical in the absence of more, taller parts.
X870 Steel Legend
The X870 Steel Legend is a more mainstream offering, aimed more at the budget/average gamer. The specs are almost identical to the Riptide, but the white color scheme makes it seem a bit more sophisticated and less «toy». We can see this being the motherboard of choice for budget gamers, provided the price is right.
We couldn’t get a clear picture of the X870 Steel Legend, but it is among these motherboards.
X870 PRO RS WIFI
Finally, we have the second white motherboard on the list, and probably the cheapest option, the X870 PRO RS WIFI. The specs are again similar to the Riptide, but the PRO only has 3 M.2 slots, and they are configured as one of each, so 1x Gen5, 1x Gen4 and 1x Gen3. Everything else seems to be similar. We’ll likely see this motherboard priced around $220 when it launches.
Again, we couldn’t get a clear picture of the X870 PRO RS, but it is among these motherboards.
What happened to the X770?
Some of you may be confused as to where the next logical step in motherboard progression, the X770 series, went. We have a theory, but without confirmation from AMD itself, that’s all it’s ever going to be – and previous rumors have predicted this as well. Intel released the second LGA 1700 generation of motherboards, the 700 series back in October 2023. AMD didn’t respond to that then, because AM5 was and still is adequate for the hardware AMD has on the market.
Now that AMD is releasing new chips and Intel is moving towards the 800 series of motherboards, AMD doesn’t want to look like its product is inferior. So AMD skipped the 700 series to release the 800 series, putting them on par with Intel. We all associate bigger numbers with better, well, in PC and Tech cases anyway. This was probably done to avoid the perception that AMD might be less powerful or less advanced than Intel, which we know is not the case at all.
