ASRock Z790 Taichi Carrara Out-of-Box Test / 24 Phase 105A, 4 M.2, TB4 and USB PD Fast Charge

ASRock-Z790-Taichi-Carrara

ASRock’s 20th anniversary has added Taichi Carrara’s white marble colour scheme to this year’s new Taichi board. With the launch of the 13th generation Intel Core, the new generation of “Z790 Taichi Carrara” has also followed the trend and upgraded the 24-phase 105A SPS power supply. More complete support for PCIe 5.0 graphics cards and SSDs, in addition to 8 SATA, 4 M.2, Thunderbolt 4, front USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type C, PD 3.0 60W fast charge support, more complete specifications than the previous generation, to meet high-end Player performance and expansion needs.

Specifications
Dimensions: E-ATX (30.5cm x 26.7cm)
Processor Support: 12th, 13th Generation Intel Core
Processor Pin: Intel LGA 1700
CPU Power Phase: 24 +1+2 Phase 105A Smart Power Stage
Chipset: Intel Z790
BIOS: 1 x 256Mb ROM, UEFI AMI
Memory: 4 x DIMM, MAX 128GB, DDR5 7000+(OC)/4800 MHz
Display Output: HDMI 2.1, 2 x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C (DisplayPort 1.4 Internal Graphics Out)
Thunderbolt : 2 x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C (PCIe, USB)
Expansion Slots: 2 x PCIe 5.0 x16 (x16, x8/x8), 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 (x4)
Storage Ports: 8 x SATA 6Gb/s,Blazing M2_1 (CPU) PCIe 5.0 x4 , Hyper M2_2 (CPU) PCIe 4.0 x4, Hyper M2_3 PCIe 4.0 x4, Hyper M2_4 PCIe 4.0 x4, Hyper M2_5 PCIe 4.0 x4
Network: Killer E3100G 2.5GbE LAN, Intel I219V 1GbE LAN
Wireless: Killer 1675x 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6E 2×2, BT 5.2
Audio: Realtek ALC4082 5.1ch , ESS SABRE9218 DAC
USB Ports: 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type C (Front Expansion, USB PD 3.0 20V/3A/60W ), 2 x Thunderbolt 4 Type C, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 6 x USB 2.0 (4 to expand), 10 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 (4 to expand)
RGB: 3 x ARGB 4-1pin, 1 x RGB 4pin
FAN: 1 x 4-pin CPU, 1 x 4-pin CPU/PUMP, 6 x 4-pin Chassis/PUMP

ASRock 20th Anniversary Board! Z790 Taichi Carrara out of the box/power supply upgrade, M.2 PCIe 5.0, USB PD fast charge

ASRock’s 20th-anniversary motherboard is based on its own flagship Taichi, adding the colour scheme of Carrara white marble, giving the motherboard an elegant white shape and a distinctive ink colour pattern of marble. Intel is used to updating two generations of CPUs with one pin, so both Z690 and Z790 of LGA 1700 support the 12th and 13th generation Intel Core processors. In view of this, the Z790 Taichi Carrara also has a lot of updates. The above specifications in red are new boards. of the upgrade.

Z790 Taichi Carrara upgrades 24-phase 105A SPS power supply to support 12th and 13th generation processors, provides 4 DIMM DDR5 memory slots, supports up to 128GB capacity and up to 7000MHz overclocking memory possibility; also has Thunderbolt 4 Type-C port, Ability to connect external high-speed PCIe devices, USB, and DisplayPort 1.4 video output to the internal display.

The PCIe expansion also provides 2 PCIe 5.0 x16 supports single-card x16, dual-card x8/x8, and 1 PCIe 4.0 x16 (x4) slot. The storage surface is 8 SATA and up to 4 M.2 expansion. First of all, Blazing M2_1 adopts CPU PCIe 5.0 x4 channel, that is, it shares the channel with PCIe 5.0 x16. When this M.2 is used, PCIe1 is x8, and PCIe2 will be turned off.

Next, Hyper M2_2 uses the CPU PCIe 4.0 x4 channel, but only one of M2_1 and M2_2 can be used, because the positions of the two slots will interfere with each other. This design is the relationship created by the Z690, so the Z790 can only carry it hard; and Hyper M2_3, Hyper M2_4 and Hyper M2_5 all support PCIe 4.0 x4 lanes, so the board has 5 M.2s but can only use up to 4.

PCIePCIe Line Sharing
PCIe1Single card x16, dual card and PCIe2 points x8/x8
PCIe2M2_1 will be turned off when in use
PCIe3SATA3_0~4 will be turned off when in use

The sound is Realtek ALC4082 5.1ch sound chip with ESS SABRE9218 DAC; the network is the combination of Killer E3100G 2.5GbE LAN, Intel I219V 1GbE LAN and Killer 1675x Wi-Fi 6E wireless; USB is on the front USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type C Supports USB PD 60W fast charging, and a total of 21 usable USB ports.

ASRock Z790 Taichi Carrara packaging.
Inside pages are featured descriptions.
On the back is the motherboard specification sheet.

Z790 Taichi Carrara changed the I/O casing and M.2 / PCH heat sink to Carrara white marble. Under the pure white elegance of the marble, there are special ink-splashed lines, which make the motherboard more unique and elegant. The Z790 Taichi Carrara and Z790 Taichi motherboards have the same specifications but differ in appearance.

Z790 Taichi Carrara appearance.
Metal back plate.

The motherboard has 4 DIMM DDR5 memory slots and is enhanced with metal armour, supporting up to 128GB capacity and overclocking memory such as XMP / EXPO.

In addition, there is a 6-pin power supply next to the ATX 24-pin power supply, which is to provide the USB PD 3.0 20V/3A/60W fast charging power supply for the front USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type C port. As for the right-hand side, There are also ARGB pins and CPU FAN sockets.

DDR5 and ATX 24-pin, 6-pin power supply.

Z790 Taichi Carrara provides USB PD 3.0 20V/3A/60W fast charging function on the front USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type C port, so to meet the fast charging power supply requirements, you need to connect an additional PCIe 6-pin power supply socket, otherwise, you can only provide the basic USB power supply.

Front USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type C and 6-pin power supply.

Intel LGA 1700 pin, supports 12th and 13th-generation Intel Core processors at the same time, and there is a large VRM heatsink around the CPU, 2 sets of heatsinks are connected in series through heat pipes, and the heatsink on the left-hand side extends to the I/O On the top of the shell, there is the 20th-anniversary logo of ASRock in gold.

LGA 1700, VRM radiator.
The CPU uses a dual 8-pin power supply.

The lower right corner of the motherboard has 8 SATA ports and a USB 3.2 Gen 1 internal socket.

SATA, USB.

The PCIe slots and M.2 heatsinks, as well as the heatsinks of the motherboard, are specially painted by Carrara. The first PCIe1 slot supports PCIe 5.0 x16, while the second PCIe2 slot is split with PCIe1, that is, dual cards use x8/x8, and the third PCIe3 is PCIe 4.0 x4.

From the left edge of the motherboard: front audio, ARGB, RGB, FAN, USB 3.2 Gen 1, USB 2.0, Debug Code, FAN, Rest / Power button, FAN, and front panel pins.

PCIe, M.2 heatsink.

The motherboard has 5 M.2 slots, but the M.2_1 and M.2_2 slots physically conflict, so only one of them can be used. First of all, the Blazing M2_1 below the CPU uses the PCIe 5.0 x4 channel split by the CPU, while the Hyper M2_2 uses the original PCIe 4.0 x4 channel of the CPU. As for the Hyper M2_3, Hyper M2_4, and Hyper M2_5, all support PCIe 4.0 x4 channels.

M.2 slot.
Right Blazing M2_1, Left Hyper M2_2, only one of the two can be used.
M.2 heat sink.

The motherboard adopts an integrated backplane, and the rear I/O provides 2 USB 2.0, HDMI, Wi-Fi antenna, 3.5mm headphone/microphone/SPDIF, Lighting Gaming USB, 6 3.2 Gen 1, 2 USB 3.2 Gen 2, 2 Thunderbolt 4 Type C.

Motherboard rear I/O.

ASRock Z790 Taichi Carrara motherboard material / 24-phase 105A, 4 x M.2, TB4

After talking about the functions and beautiful appearance of ASRock Z790 Taichi Carrara, remove the Carrara-painted VRM, M.2 / PCH radiator, this generation There are also many components and small details in the design. Here, I will disassemble the motherboard to share with you.

The metal back plate dissipates heat for the back of VRM and PCH.
Z790 Taichi Carrara motherboard appearance.
Back of the motherboard.
The CPU adopts 24+1+2 phase 105A Smart Power Stage, and each phase uses RAA22010540.
PWM controller RAA229131; GL850G USB 2.0 HUB in the picture; and power supply and RTS5452E Type-C Power Delivery Controller used by TB4.
Intel JHL8540 Thunderbolt 4 controller chip.
ASMedia ASM3042 PCIe to USB 3.2; and Intel I219V, Killer E3100G network chip.
Killer 1675x 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6E 2×2, BT 5.2 Wi-Fi Chip.
Realtek ALC4082 5.1ch audio chip.
ESS SABRE9218 DAC and sound capacitor.
Renesas RC26008 Clock Generator.
2 JYS13008MF01 PCIe 5.0 Redrivers provide M.2 channel segmentation.
NUVOTON NCT6686D Ring Control Chip.
Front ASM1074 USB 3.0 HUB.
Intel Z790 Chipset.
There are 4 JYS13008MF01 PCIe 5.0 Retrievers on the back, providing PCIe2 channel segmentation.
Two ASM2480B PCIe Switches on the back.
Motherboard heatsinks and heatsinks.

ASRock Z790 Taichi Carrara Accessories

Motherboard accessories include manuals, SATA cables, antennas, USB 2.0 expansion, M.2 screws, etc.

Motherboard accessories.
USB 2.0 expansion.
Wi-Fi antenna.

ASRock Z790 Taichi Carrara BIOS Function

The Z790 Taichi Carrara BIOS interface is also painted with Carrara. In the easy mode, in addition to viewing the computer, CPU, RAM, storage, fan and other information, you can also adjust the boot sequence. In advanced OC Tweaker, individual settings can be made for CPU, DRAM, voltage, FVIR, etc.

Easy mode.
OC Tweaker.
CPU overclocking.
CPU settings.
CPU power limit turned off.
Overclocking voltage setting.

In the advanced setting, Chipset can adjust the CAM function, and the default is to enable CAM. The tool interface has a Polychrome RGB adjustment function and an Auto Driver Installer switch.

CAM settings.
Polychrome RGB.
Auto Driver Installer.
Monitoring.
Fan control.
Startup settings.

Polychrome RGB / Killer network management and Nahimic sound

ASRock’s new boards also begin to provide the Auto Driver Installer function. When the system is installed for the first time, it will automatically ask if you want to install this function. It will automatically list the driver information and perform online installation through the software. After the installation is complete, the Auto Driver Installer applet will remove itself, giving players a relatively clean new system.

Auto Driver Installer.

The lighting effect control of the motherboard is to adjust all the lighting effects of the motherboard through PolyChrome RGB and synchronize the lighting effect changes with the supported devices.

PolyChrome RGB.
The lighting effect of the motherboard is mainly under the M.2 heat sink below.

Killer network management function adopts automatic and intelligent sorting of application categories, such as games, real-time, streaming, general, web page downloads, app downloads, etc., to automatically adjust the priority order, and after enabling Killer DoubleShot Pro, you can manually adjust the assignment to different Class-level applications use Wi-Fi or limited networks to more efficiently utilize the bandwidth of multiple networks.

Killer Webmaster.
Killer DoubleShot Pro Custom Assignment.
Effective use of Wi-Fi and LAN networking channels.

Nahimic sound effects can be enhanced by software to enhance the sound experience, and have various functions for microphone and sound tracking that can be adjusted by yourself.

Nahimic.

ASRock Z790 Taichi Carrara motherboard performance test

n terms of performance testing, several common sets of CPU rendering, computer performance testing and game performance are used for testing. The processor uses Intel Core i9-13900K, G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 NEO DDR5-6000 16GBx2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090. The motherboard is set to AUTO, the EXPO function is turned on, and the radiator uses 3600mm AIO water cooling. The following scores are provided for your reference.

Test Platform
Processor: Intel Core i9-13900K
Motherboard: ASRock Z790 Taichi Carrara
Memory: G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 NEO DDR5-6000 16GBx2
Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090
System Disk: Samsung NVMe SSD 960 PRO M.2
Cooler: 360mm AIO water cooling radiator
Power supply: Seasonic PRIME PX-1000
Operating system: Windows 11 Pro 21H2

CPU-Z View Intel Core i9-13900K processor information, codenamed Raptor Lake Intel 7 10nm process 8+16 core 32 threads The processor is tested with ASRock Z790 Taichi Carrara motherboard, the BIOS has been updated to 3.03, and the memory is dual-channel DDR5 16GBx2 6000MHz.

CPU-Z.

CINEBENCH R20 and R23Developed by MAXON based on Cinema 4D, it can be used to evaluate the 3D graphics performance of computer processors. It is also a common test software currently used to evaluate CPU computing performance.

The i9-13900K can achieve a CPU score of 15553 pts in the R20 version test, and the R23 version also has a CPU score of 40733 pts; the single-core performance has a performance of 880 pts and 2294 pts, respectively.

CINEBENCH R20 and R23.

AIDA64 memory and cache test, memory uses G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 NEO DDR5-6000 16GBx2, with Z790 Taichi Carrara has memory read 95955 MB/s, write 84166 MB/s, copy 86485 MB/s, latency 66.9 ns performance.

AIDA64 memory.

CrossMark, a cross-platform computer performance testing tool, is a free testing tool developed by BAPCo. It supports platforms such as Windows, iOS/iPadOS, macOS, and Android, and is aimed at computer productivity, such as text editing, spreadsheets, web browsing, and Creative photo editing, organizing and video editing work, plus computer response speed for testing.

The i9-13900K achieved a total score of 2553 points, Productivity productivity of 2287 points, Creativity creation of 3003 points, and Responsiveness response of 2180 points of high performance.

To carry out, you can score the basic computer work of Essentials, such as app startup speed, video conference, and web browsing performance, while the Productivity productivity test uses spreadsheets and paperwork as test items. Digital Content Creation video content creation, It is tested with photo/video editing and rendering and visualization.

The i9-13900K with RTX 4090 scored 10,097 points, the computer benchmark performance Essentials has 12,415 points, and productivity has 11,709 points. In digital content creation that requires more CPU operations, it achieved a high score of 19,215 points; the recorded data shows the CPU clock during the test. Up to 5.8GHz.

PCMark 10.

3DMark CPU Profile is a test designed for the processor. It mainly tests the physical operation and custom simulation of the CPU, and tests the performance of the processor at 1, 2, 4, 8, 16 and the maximum thread. So there will be different thread tests, because the number of threads used by different applications and games is different.

For example, the Max threads test can show the maximum performance of the CPU, but this does not mean that the game can also play the same performance, only movie-level rendering, simulation or scientific analysis applications will use the performance of full threads; in the same way, 16 threads also have a good performance for computing and digital content creation and has little impact on games.

The i9-13900K Max threads can reach a score of 17005, which meets the needs of film-level rendering, simulation or scientific analysis applications, while the main game is 8 threads 8810 points and 4 threads 4665 points.

3DMark CPU Profile.

3DMark Fire StrikeThe test uses the RTX 4090 graphics card, and its CPU physical physics score has 56835 points; in the Time Spy test designed for DirectX 12, the CPU scored 23895 points.

3DMark Fire Strike.
3DMark Time Spy.

Z790 Taichi Carrara: TB4, USB 3.2 Gen 2×2, PD 3.0 test

Z790 Taichi Carrara provides 2 Thunderbolt 4 Type C ports, so using Thunderbolt 3 SSD HP P800 for testing, it can achieve sequential read performance of 2887 MB/s, which is quite Approaching the speed limit for Thunderbolt data transfer. (This SSD was only 500GB in its early days, so write speeds were pretty slow.)

Thunderbolt Control Center.
Thunderbolt SSD test.

The front USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type C of the motherboard is tested with a USB 20Gbps SSD. The sequential read and write performance can reach 1889.87 MB/s and 2016.38 MB/s, and it can indeed reach the transmission performance of 20Gbps.

USB 20Gbps SSD.

In addition, the front USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type C can provide USB PD 3.0 20V/3A/60W fast charging function as long as it is connected to PCIe 6-pin for power supply. The test uses a laptop for charging, which can reach 20V/2A/40W fast charging capability.

USB PD testing.

Summarize

The 20th-anniversary board Z790 Taichi Carrara not only has a super beautiful white marble pattern, but also has an upgraded 24-phase 105 SPS power supply, which meets the power supply and overclocking performance required by Intel Core i3-13900K, and this generation also supports PCIe 5.0 x16 graphics card and PCIe 5.0 x4 SSD and other expansions, but due to the design of the previous generation Z690, only a maximum of 4 M.2 can be used.

In addition to 8 SATA and 4 M.2 expansion, high-speed external interfaces such as Thunderbolt 4 and USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 are also standard, allowing players to obtain the most complete specification support for external transmission; of course, Killer DoubleShot Pro combined 2.5GbE LAN and Wi- Fi 6E, can use multiple network interface channels more effectively through Killer software.

The 12th and 13th generation Intel Core processors can be used with Z790, Z690, B660 and other motherboards, allowing players to have more flexibility in choosing and installing machines, depending on whether the player wants to supply the latest Z790 Taichi Carrara, or is more cost-effective now For the excellent Z690, this flexibility is left to the player’s discretion.

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Title: ASRock Z790 Taichi Carrara Out-of-Box Test / 24 Phase 105A, 4 M.2, TB4 and USB PD Fast Charge