I do not think there could be a better name than the ASRock X99 Taichi for this board from ASRock. The white and black aesthetic is something I never expected, yet when you put the Taichi into a complete system, it really does look fantastic. The feature set, slot arrangement, and everything else really works well. The lack of lighting is sure to please many a user, as will the use of Intel LAN controllers and a decent set of fan-control options. There's a lot to like here.

Motherboard reviews are a funny thing these days; there are a ton of boards out there, but only minor details separate them. It is those minor details ASRock tends to excel at above most other brands. Board makers take a reference design, decide which associated controllers to use for LAN, audio, USB and such, throw it all together, and a board is born. Yet it isn't exactly that simple, either. Doing that design process and creating a board's aesthetic can be tough, but I really like what I see with ASRock's X99 Taichi. This isn't your basic design, and that holds true for the BIOS, too. The BIOS is great, and it matches the board!

The benchmarks are a strange thing; the board itself could probably use a BIOS update to pull drive performance up to par, but that's a minor issue. There is a clear focus on CPU performance with this board you just can't deny, as evidenced by the top wPrime score. Our charts include Z170 numbers, and the raw clockspeed of Intel's 6700K keeps X99 performance comparison metrics down a bit, but nevermind that since the 6950X I use for testing has a rather modest 3500 MHz clock, so benchmarks that don't make use of all those cores this CPU offers do not do the X99 Express platform any favors. When you take that into consideration, this ASRock board catches my attention pretty well, and it should tickle your fancy too, especially considering the low pricing. I make a point of using the products I test for a couple weeks to make sure I have a good feel for what I'm reviewing, and the ASRock X99 Taichi left me feeling pretty darn good. It really does live up to its name. Got one? Let us know in the forums!