ASRock Z370 Taichi ‘Coffee Lake’ Motherboard Review

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This is the third motherboard in our Z370 review series, and we’re including the data for two of the Core i7-8700K’s predecessors while comparing the Z370 Taichi to the Gigabyte Z370 Aorus Gaming 7 and MSI Z370 Godlike Gaming. Those predecessors are the four-core Core i7-7700K that the six-core Core i7-8700K replaces, and the six-core Core i7-7800X that features additional PCIe lanes and DDR4 channels at a similar price.

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Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom
Thomas Soderstrom is a Senior Staff Editor at Tom's Hardware US. He tests and reviews cases, cooling, memory and motherboards.
3 Comments Comment from the forums
  • slicedtoad
    Yeah, the dilemma is real. Retesting with new bios updates sets a terrible precedent. For one, you'd have to continually update all motherboard reviews as new Bios versions appear. That'd be an extremely valuable service, but it'd also be insanely time intensive and beyond TH's scope. It'd also remove pressure from the manufacturers to get it right the first time.

    I like Bios updates. They fix bugs, improve compatibility with new releases, etc. But how hard is it to get the basics correct the first time? Bios updates that improve performance should be rare, blue moon types of updates. Calling 500mv vdroop a 'bug' is making me question their QA process.

    At the same time, if I'm looking to buy a mobo, I'm not really going to take into account the old bios. I want the best overclocking ability. I'm not sacrificing that to make a statement about proper QA before release. So the part of this review that matters to my purchasing decision is the Post-Game show. Except that I know that the comparison boards might also have updates that haven't been tested making the comparison kind of useless.

    So, I end up mostly ignoring OC results in these kind of reviews unless they are anomalous. Instead, I head over to somewhere like overclock.net's forums and make use of the data sets in one of the cpu clubs (usually a few months after launch).
    Reply
  • Crashman
    20346739 said:
    Yeah, the dilemma is real. Retesting with new bios updates sets a terrible precedent. For one, you'd have to continually update all motherboard reviews as new Bios versions appear. That'd be an extremely valuable service, but it'd also be insanely time intensive and beyond TH's scope. It'd also remove pressure from the manufacturers to get it right the first time.

    I like Bios updates. They fix bugs, improve compatibility with new releases, etc. But how hard is it to get the basics correct the first time? Bios updates that improve performance should be rare, blue moon types of updates. Calling 500mv vdroop a 'bug' is making me question their QA process.

    At the same time, if I'm looking to buy a mobo, I'm not really going to take into account the old bios. I want the best overclocking ability. I'm not sacrificing that to make a statement about proper QA before release. So the part of this review that matters to my purchasing decision is the Post-Game show. Except that I know that the comparison boards might also have updates that haven't been tested making the comparison kind of useless.

    So, I end up mostly ignoring OC results in these kind of reviews unless they are anomalous. Instead, I head over to somewhere like overclock.net's forums and make use of the data sets in one of the cpu clubs (usually a few months after launch).
    You understand the dilemma, which also explains why I asked a few 2nd and 3rd tier manufacturers "Are you CERTAIN that your firmware is ready?" before NOT reviewing their products a month ago. I'd rather give them a good review in Month 3 than a rotten review in Week 3.
    Reply
  • Lutfij
    Clean and honest truth laid out at the end of the review! Great work Thomas ;)
    Reply