ASRock X299 Taichi XE Motherboard Review

1. Introduction2. Packaging and Bundle3. Board Layout and Features4. UEFI5. Software6. Testing Methodology7. Tests: CPU Related8. Tests: Memory Related9. Tests: Gaming Related10. Tests: Motherboard Features Performance11. Overclocking & Power Consumption12. Closing Thoughts13. View All Pages

ATTO Disk Benchmark

The ATTO disk benchmark is a Windows-based utility for testing storage performance of any storage drive or controller. We use the default benchmark setup.

M.2 PCIe Performance

For M.2 testing we use a Toshiba OCZ RD400 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe SSD.

M.2 performance is typical and M.2 cooling is non-existent since all three slots are “exposed” to the elements with no form of cooling mechanism. The drive did throttle after 2 runs of ATTO, approximately 7 minutes into our 10 minute test, but the throttling didn't last too long.

USB Performance

We test USB 3.0 and 3.1 performance using a pair of Transcend SSD370S 512GB SSDs in RAID 0 connected to an Icy Box RD2253-U31 2-bay USB 3.1 enclosure powered by an ASMedia ASM1352R controller.

USB 3.0 performance met expectations but USB 3.1 was about 100 MB/s down where we’d expect it to be. There was no obvious explanation for this performance since the rear USB 3.1 ports use the same ASM3142 controller as the MSI X299 motherboards on test and aren't routed through any additional hubs or controllers.

SATA 6Gbps Performance

For SATA 6Gbps testing we use an OCZ Trion 150 480GB SSD.

SATA performance was standard for the X299 chipset ports (0-7) while the two ports on the ASMedia controller performed about 150MB/s slower.

This isn't unusual for third party SATA controllers see for example the ASRock Fatal1ty Z270 Professional Gaming i7 and ASRock Z270 Extreme4 both which also ran ASM1061 controllers and returned similar performance figures.

Audio

Rightmark Audio Analyser is a freeware benchmarking utility designed to objectively test the performance characteristics of audio solutions. We setup a line-in line-out loop and execute the record/playback test before generating the results report you see below. A sampling mode of 24-bit, 192 kHz is tested where available. If unavailable the closest alternative operating mode available is used and clearly marked.

Audio performance came back as Excellent in 7 out of 8 categories and Good in the eighth. In the real-world this translates into high-quality, stutter- and crackle-free audio with operational amplification for most high-quality consumer and gaming headsets.

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