ASRock has decided to show it all at Computex this year, showcasing all the X870E and X870 motherboards it plans to release, along with the Ryzen 9000 series CPUs. There’s no official date yet, but it’s a safe bet as each motherboard offers out-of-the-box support for the new AMD CPUs. It’s not just the old designs we’re used to, there are six new designs coming in the form of the Taichi, Taichi Lite, Nova WIFI, Riptide, Steel Legend & PRO RS series. Of course, they are all led by the flagship Taichi.
ASRock has been a somewhat underrated manufacturer in the past, at least in our opinion, but it looks like that could change this year. ASRock seems to have raised the bar in terms of dedication to its craft, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed. With AM5 support until 2027 and beyond, these new 800 series cards will remain relevant for some time to come.
ASRock’s X870 motherboard series
These are all the X870E and X870 motherboards shown by ASRock at Computex 2024.
X870E Tiachi
First up we have the ASRock X870E Taichi. This is the flagship motherboard for ASRock’s X870E line that features a healthy 27-phase power delivery system, perfect for all the overclockers out there. The motherboard is of course on the DDR5 standard, but what is far from standard are the dual PCIe Gen 5 X16 slots that the Taichi offers. 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 PC, you’ll be happy with the four M.2 slots this motherboard has (1x Gen5 + 3x Gen4).
This is perhaps the best looking motherboard ASRock has released to date, it has a mean and raw aesthetic, without being so heavy that it won’t look out of place in any build. There is plenty of RGB, especially on the I/O plate and on the bottom next to the second PCIe slot. All of this comes at a price, though, and we expect this motherboard to cost over $500 at launch.
X870E Taichi LITE
If you still need the power of the Tiachi but can’t afford to spend all that money, then you might be interested in the Taichi LITE. This motherboard has exactly the same specifications as the Tiachi, only without the beautiful RGB and accent plates. Something that might also interest you if you’re not a fan of RGB from the start.
X870E NOVA WIFI
The ASRock NOVA WIFI is the best Phantom Gaming motherboard on the market, it has an impressive arsenal of updated I/O, but falls just a little short of the Taichi’s specs. The Phantom features a 23-phase power design, which you still don’t have to worry about. This motherboard only has one PCIe Gen5 x16 slot, but SLI is pretty much dead anyway. What’s different about the NOVA is that it has 1 additional PCIe Gen3 M.2 slot, a total of 5 slots for M.2 drives; the configuration is otherwise the same as the Tiachi.
X870 Riptide WIFI
The X870 Riptide WIFI is the 2 of 2 Phantom Gaming motherboards that ASRock offers in this line, and it appears to be a stripped-down version of the NOVA. It features a 17-phase power design, a single PCIe Gen5 X16 slot and only 3 M.2 slots (1x Gen5 + 2x Gen4). Of course, this board will aim to be more budget-friendly in the absence of more, more expensive 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 model, but the white color scheme makes it seem a bit more advanced and less ‘gamy’. We can see this being the motherboard of choice for the budget gamer, provided the price is right.
We couldn’t get a clear picture of the X870 Steel Legend, but it is one of these motherboards.
X870 PRO RS WIFI
Finally, we have the second white motherboard on the list, and possibly the most budget-friendly option, the X870 PRO RS WIFI. The specs are again similar to the Riptide, but the PRO only has 3 M.2 slots and is configured as one of each, so 1x Gen5, 1x Gen4 and 1x Gen3. Everything else seems to be the same. We’ll likely see this motherboard priced around $220 when it launches.
We again couldn’t get a clear picture of the X870 PRO RS, but it is one of these motherboards.
What happened to the X770?
Some of you may be confused as to where the next logical step in motherboard progression went: the X770 series. We have a theory, but without confirmation from AMD itself, that’s all it’ll ever be – and previous rumors predicted this too. Intel released a second generation of LGA 1700 motherboards, the 700 series, in October 2023. AMD did not respond to this at the time, because AM5 was and still is sufficient for the hardware that AMD has on the market.
Now that AMD is releasing new chips and Intel is developing its own 800 series motherboards, AMD does not want it to appear as if its product is inferior. So AMD skipped the 700 series to release the 800 series, putting them on par with Intel. We all associate higher numbers with being better, well, in PC and tech cases. 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.