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Value and Conclusion
In case we haven’t belabored the point enough, this board is not intended for extreme use cases, but instead for entry-level HEDT and gaming content creators. Tweaking ASRock's existing popular designs to hit this audience comes with the omission of relatively few features, while not sacrificing performance. So let’s talk value. When we first lauded the Micro-ATX sized Taichi, we were thrilled with its mid-$300 price. But the Phantom Gaming 6 beats that in spades with a further savings of $90.
Bottom Line
Yeah, that’s pretty crazy. Typically, we’d see that type of price gap between different grades of chipsets, like A320 vs X470. Chipset grades like the A320 typically come with significant build quality discrepancies and removal of functionality--is this starting to sound familiar? The ASRock X399 Phantom Gaming 6 does not reach these levels of sacrifice in functionality or quality, but still maintains the price difference. It tacks on an enhanced Ethernet controller (if your infrastructure supports it), offers similar performance compared to the big boys, and does so by removing what's arguably some extra feature fat from the equation.
All that said, with first-gen X399 boards coming down in price while still providing similar performance, better overclocking, and arguably better features, this board doesn't become our Editor’s Choice. It does, however, land a solid recommendation from us for anyone who wants to build their first HEDT system based around AMD’s workhorse of a processor.
Image Credits: Tom's Hardware
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