ASRock XFast LAN yay or nay? & X870E Taichi (Lite) whats the difference?

[Mineplayz]

I'm looking to buy a new Motherboard and basically narrowed it down to two contestants:

• ASRock X870E Taichi Lite (426€)
• ASRock X870E Taichi (501€)

The main (and only) difference between the two seems to be that the Lite comes with "ASRock XFast LAN" which seems to be a rebrand of cFosSpeed, is that program worth it (i.e. does it improve Latency/Internet Speed), is it useless (no effect) or even just bloat (making the Latency/Speed worse) that one should avoid?

Additionally it explicitly states for the Taichi (under "Slots") "Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks, which is missing for the Lite, but then under "Storage" it states "Supports NVMe SSD as boot disks" for both, so does the Lite now support it or not (or only for a certain slot?)

Thanks in advance for any replies!

[RONOTHAN##]

7 minutes ago, Mineplayz said:

• ASRock X870E Taichi Lite (426€)
• ASRock X870E Taichi (501€)

They're the exact same motherboard, the Lite just has less RGB and cheaper to produce heatsinks. Unless you're a sucker for blinking lights, get the Lite. 

 

11 minutes ago, Mineplayz said:

is that program worth it (i.e. does it improve Latency/Internet Speed), is it useless (no effect) or even just bloat (making the Latency/Speed worse) that one should avoid?

From what I know, it's bloat and not worth installing. Even so, there's no reason it wouldn't just work on the Lite outside of licensing since it's just a rebrand of that cFosSpeed program, so if you really wanted it, it's probably cheaper to still get the lite and buy that software separately if the ASRock branded one doesn't just work. 

 

 

What are you doing with your motherboard anyway? Options like the Taichi are usually very overkill for most people and you're usually going to be perfectly fine with a board half the price. 

[Mineplayz]

i have a requirement for 2x PCIEx8 (GPU & NIC), so that eliminates a lot of boards, my preselection where these boards:

Brand	Name	Form Factor	Memory (Max GB)	LAN (Gb/s)	WIFI	WIFI Gen	Bluetooth	PCIE Bifurcation	SATA Ports	Price (Ascending)	Link
ASUS	ProArt B650-CREATOR	ATX	192	2,5	FALSE		FALSE	TRUE	4	226,00 €	https://webshop.asus.com/de/Mainboards/ASUS-PROART-B650-CREATOR-Mainboard-Sockel-AMD-AM5/90MB1C40-M0EAY0
MSI	MPG X670E CARBON WIFI	ATX	256	2,5	TRUE	6	TRUE	TRUE	6	418,00 €	https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/MSI-MPG-X670E-CARBON-WIFI-AMD-X670E-So-AM5-Dual-Channel-DDR5-ATX-Retail_1467327.html
ASRock	X870E Taichi Lite	EATX	256	5	TRUE	7	TRUE	TRUE	6	426,00 €	https://www.galaxus.de/de/s1/product/asrock-x870e-taichi-lite-am5-amd-x870e-e-atx-mainboard-49690734
Gigabyte	B850 AI TOP	ATX	256	10	TRUE	7	TRUE	TRUE	4	452,00 €	https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/Gigabyte-AI-TOP-AMD-B850-So-AM5-DDR5-ATX-Retail_1604422.html
ASRock	X870E Taichi	EATX	256	5	TRUE	7	TRUE	TRUE	6	501,00 €	https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/ASRock-Taichi-AMD-X870E-So-AM5-DDR5-EATX-Retail_1590863.html
Biostar	X870E VALKYRIE	ATX	256	2,5	FALSE		FALSE	TRUE	6	520,00 €	https://www.alternate.de/Biostar/X870E-VALKYRIE-Mainboard/html/product/100096746
ASUS	ProArt X870E-Creator WiFi	ATX	192	10	TRUE	7	TRUE	TRUE	4	534,00 €	https://www.arlt.com/Hardware/PC-Komponenten/Mainboards/ASUS-ProArt-X870E-Creator-WIFI-AM5-PCIe-5-0-DDR5-USB-4-0-Thunderbolt.html?listtype=search&searchparam=ProArt%20X870E-Creator%20WiFi
ASUS	ROG CROSSHAIR X870E HERO	ATX	256	5	TRUE	7	TRUE	TRUE	4	630,00 €	https://www.notebooksbilliger.de/asus+rog+crosshair+x870e+hero+mainboard+sockel+am5+863502
Gigabyte	X870E AORUS XTREME AI TOP	EATX	256	10	TRUE	7	TRUE	TRUE	4	800,00 €	https://www.mindfactory.de/product_info.php/Gigabyte-X870E-AORUS-Xtreme-AI-TOP-AMD-X870E-So-AM5-DDR5-ATX-Retail_1585056.html
MSI	MEG X870E GODLIKE	EATX	256	10	TRUE	7	TRUE	TRUE	4	1.339,00 €	https://www.alternate.de/MSI/MEG-X870E-GODLIKE-Mainboard/html/product/100093721
ASUS	ROG CROSSHAIR X870E APEX	ATX	128	5	TRUE	7	TRUE	TRUE	4		Not Buyable?

and the Taichi (Lite) are by far the best value, the ASUS ProArt is also a nice board, but only has 4 SATA Connectors and a max of 192Gigs of RAM (although it has a 10G LAN Port, which for me doesnt really matter, since i use my NIC anyways)

Edited January 24 by Mineplayz

[Mineplayz]

4 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

They're the exact same motherboard, the Lite just has less RGB and cheaper to produce heatsinks. Unless you're a sucker for blinking lights, get the Lite. 

 

From what I know, it's bloat and not worth installing. Even so, there's no reason it wouldn't just work on the Lite outside of licensing since it's just a rebrand of that cFosSpeed program, so if you really wanted it, it's probably cheaper to still get the lite and buy that software separately if the ASRock branded one doesn't just work. 

 

 

What are you doing with your motherboard anyway? Options like the Taichi are usually very overkill for most people and you're usually going to be perfectly fine with a board half the price. 

Considering the Heatsink, i assume u mean VRM heatsink, could that be a concern when i plan on running an 9800X3D at (ideally) full throttle over sometimes extended periods of time (around 8 hours)?

[RONOTHAN##]

3 minutes ago, Mineplayz said:

and a max of 192Gigs of RAM

I wouldn't read too much into this, you can't buy the 64GB DIMMs that would be needed for 256GB of RAM yet and so ASUS probably just has it set at 192GB because of that. There's no reason that board can't run 256GB of RAM with a BIOS update. 

 

4 minutes ago, Mineplayz said:

i have a requirement for 2x PCIEx8 (GPU & NIC)

There are other boards that support it for even less. The B850 AI TOP is the first one that comes to mind (it's affordability does seem to be regional, so double check this), there's the B650 PROART, and the X670E Carbon is usually a bit cheaper than the Taichi but still a good option. 

 

16 minutes ago, Mineplayz said:

Considering the Heatsink, i assume u mean VRM heatsink, could that be a concern when i plan on running an 9800X3D at (ideally) full throttle over sometimes extended periods of time (around 8 hours)?

Not in the slightest. The VRM on that motherboard is so overbuilt that you can run a 9950X in Prime95 for 8 hours straight with no VRM heatsink installed and still not overheat the board. The 9800X3D is a pretty low power chip on the scale of AM5, so as long as the motherboard isn't literal e-waste this should be the last thing on your mind. 

 

Besides, the VRM heatsinks are cheaper in the sense that they just don't look as good, they're not any less functional because of that. They're just easier to manufacture so it helps bring the price down. 

[podkall]

24 minutes ago, Mineplayz said:

i have a requirement for 2x PCIEx8 (GPU & NIC), so that eliminates a lot of boards, my preselection where these boards:

is there a reason you're only looking at X870E chipset motherboards?

[Mineplayz]

1 hour ago, podkall said:

is there a reason you're only looking at X870E chipset motherboards?

im upgrading from an Intel i5-3570K 5th Gen (almost 13 years old by now) and am planning on having my new system to also last somewhere in that range (with the possiblity of maybe upgrading to a newer CPU if that should rly be required during AM5's lifetime), so i just decided to go with the newest chipset in the hopes (i know u should buy based on what u get now and not on promises) that they will receive support and new features for longer

[Mineplayz]

1 hour ago, RONOTHAN## said:

There are other boards that support it for even less. The B850 AI TOP is the first one that comes to mind (it's affordability does seem to be regional, so double check this), there's the B650 PROART, and the X670E Carbon is usually a bit cheaper than the Taichi but still a good option. 

Added those to my list, for some reason when I went on to the Gigabyte website and applied the AM5 800 filter it excluded that board...
For the 600 Series Chipset boards, is there any disadvantage that would justify them being so much cheaper, since it surely cant just be the same but number go up right???

[RONOTHAN##]

1 hour ago, Mineplayz said:

For the 600 Series Chipset boards, is there any disadvantage that would justify them being so much cheaper, since it surely cant just be the same but number go up right???

When comparing X670(E) to X870, the main difference is just USB 4, though realistically it'll depend on a board to board basis for which one you'd prefer. There's also the fact that the 600 series chipsets will need a BIOS update to work with the newest CPUs, but since BIOS Flashback is so ubiquitous I wouldn't worry too much about that.