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FRONTPAGE ASRock Z890 Taichi OCF Motherboard Review

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ASRock_Z890OCF_pht1fp.jpg
Overclockers and PC enthusiasts had a break from ASRock OC Formula motherboards, and many couldn't wait to see them again. We are happy that the OC Formula made its comeback, and we can present to you the Z890 Taichi OCF. The motherboard has been with us for a couple of weeks already, so we have had a chance to try various settings, multiple BIOS/UEFI versions, and the unique OCF features.
Click here to read more!
 
Would have been cool if they put back in the NickShi Memory OC profiles like the Z77 OCF had i always thought that was the coolest thing as a working starting point.
Select the Mem Type and it would change most of the timings/sub timings that typically work at those frequency's and you could attempt the boot if it was stable you could start tightening things down a bit or bump the voltage to stabilize it.
On my old Z77 OCF i Ran a bunch of different kits and most of them just worked and often i could tighten them down far past the more Expensive kits that sold officially at those speeds.
It really made it so much simpler and with the range of DDR5 speeds / and chip capability's out there now it would be such a insanely good feature.

They also had a Water-cooled cmos/phase cooler on that board but it doesn't seem necessary now with how efficient they are now.

Heh if i was up for a new Intel setup I'd probably jump on this mobo.
 
Would have been cool if they put back in the NickShi Memory OC profiles like the Z77 OCF had i always thought that was the coolest thing as a working starting point.
Select the Mem Type and it would change most of the timings/sub timings that typically work at those frequency's and you could attempt the boot if it was stable you could start tightening things down a bit or bump the voltage to stabilize it.
On my old Z77 OCF i Ran a bunch of different kits and most of them just worked and often i could tighten them down far past the more Expensive kits that sold officially at those speeds.
It really made it so much simpler and with the range of DDR5 speeds / and chip capability's out there now it would be such a insanely good feature.

They also had a Water-cooled cmos/phase cooler on that board but it doesn't seem necessary now with how efficient they are now.

Heh if i was up for a new Intel setup I'd probably jump on this mobo.

There are various profiles, including raw MHz for 10k+ clock, G2, G4 profiles, and some additional options. The OCF has multiple of them, while other models have fewer, like 1-2.
If you love older OCFs, you will love the new one, too. There are even more settings than in the previous series. Nick Shih is still responsible for these top models. I don't know the details of his work nowadays, but I was exchanging some emails with him while testing the Z890 OCF for review.
 
That's so great he's still involved contributing.
Kind of wish they had a AMD OCF
 
I already said that in another thread, but even though AMD is the first choice of gamers who generally flood the web, it's still not the first choice in general and not for hardware manufacturers. Intel still has over 60% market shares, and "new" brands like Qualcomm or other ARM-based devices take some % nowadays.
The same is with other motherboard brands, because high-end AMD motherboards don't sell well. Mid/high AMD CPUs are usually sold with low/mid mobos. The same is with other brands. There is no AMD ASUS Apex, no Gigabyte Tachyon (on open market), no MSI Unify (anymore as they released it for one chipset gen), and no ASRock OCF. There are also no other special series like ASRock AQUA, ASUS and Gigabyte skipped their top models too. On the other hand, there are also fewer enthusiast ITX models with the latest AMD chipsets. I guess we will see something more with the upcoming B series chipsets.
I'm still not complaining, as ASRock X870/X870E motherboards are well-designed and can still max out available CPUs and RAM. At least overclocking and support out-of-the-box are not limited by motherboards.
 
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