One company out of the big four has been missing from our coverage of Computex 2026: ASRock. This year’s Computex 2026 is tied to an anniversary for ASRock as well, as the company is celebrating the 10 years of its Taichi hardware lineup. The occasion is being marked with new hardware too: ASRock has unveiled new motherboards, graphics cards, power supplies with protection against cable melting, as well as coolers and fans.
10 years of Taichi hardware
The Taichi lineup has been most closely associated with motherboards, historically, although today ASRock ended up using the brand for other products as well. At Computex 2026, the company displayed the motherboard that started it all—the X99 Taichi for Haswell-E and Broadwell-E processors in the LGA 2011-v3 socket. It predates the X370 Taichi for Ryzen processors, which AMD enthusiasts will probably remember more readily.
According to ASRock, the Taichi brand was originally intended to embody a balance between features, design, and price, rather than serving as a premium lineup of the company’s most expensive products. As a result, these motherboards became quite popular and appealing to more than just a handful of enthusiasts.
As a fresh new product on the opposite end of that ten-year span, the company showcased the X870E Taichi 10th Anniversary motherboard. It is one of those design-focused models, but it has to be said that in this case the decorative elements work well, creating a fairly elegant and tasteful impression—without the loud excess that sometimes plagues gaming hardware when designers try to cram in as many cool-looking gimmicks and embellishments as possible.
Naturally, this is an AM5 motherboard for Ryzen processors. The fact that AMD has become the preferred choice in high-performance gaming PCs—which are the most important segment of the retail market—while Intel’s Arrow Lake processors have not gained much traction, is very evident this year. In the past, similar special and upscale motherboards were usually built for Intel processors.
The power delivery uses a 24+2+1-phase design, with the MOSFETs or power stages used for the primary power rails (VCore, SoC) each rated for up to 110 A. The board features onboard audio with an ESS Sabre9219 DAC, a Wi-Fi 7 module, and 10Gb Ethernet. It also includes a 64 MB SPI Flash chip for the BIOS, which should allow seamless support for all future AM5 processors—including those based on the Zen 7 architecture expected around 2028—although 64 MB BIOS Flash capacity is likely already becoming standard on higher-end motherboards.
ASRock also showcased a graphics card commemorating the 10th anniversary—the Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi 10th Anniversary. The card comes factory-overclocked to 2570 MHz / 3100 MHz (game clock / boost clock) and features a 14-phase VRM for the GPU.
We do not yet know when this model will go on sale. Unfortunately, like last year’s Radeon RX 9070 XT Taichi model (which used a different cooler design), this card relies on a 12+4-pin power connector following Nvidia’s example. Given the continuing incidents involving failures of these connectors, which can damage cables as well as connectors on both the graphics card and power supply, that is not exactly reassuring. Fortunately, the risk of problems should be lower than with the GeForce RTX 5090 cards that are the most frequently affected model, since the Radeon RX 9070 XT has substantially lower overall power consumption.
Power supplies with protection against overheating of the 12+4-pin cable
For the anniversary, ASRock has also released special power supplies: the Taichi TC-1650T 10th Anniversary and Taichi TC-1300T 10th Anniversary (with wattages corresponding to their names). These are ATX 3.1 power supplies with 80 Plus Titanium efficiency certification and FDB-bearing fans.
ASRock uses the familiar dual-color connector design on its 12V-2×6 cables to help detect incomplete insertion, but more importantly, these power supplies integrate the TempGuard feature: the PSU monitors connector temperature and disconnects GPU power if overheating is detected.
The TempGuard feature is also present in other ATX 3.1 power supplies on display: the TC-3200P, TC-3000P, and TC-2600P. Yes, the most powerful model can deliver up to 3200 W (probably only on the 230V/50Hz EU-style power grid, the US 115V/60Hz wall sockets usually can’t supply enough current). The PSU also supports short-term power excursions of up to 200%, as required by the ATX 3.0/3.1 specification. These models carry an 80 Plus Platinum 230V EU efficiency rating, which is below Titanium.
They use a 135 mm fan with a dual ball bearing that is said to deliver airflow of up to 156 CFM and static pressure of up to 6.8 mmH2O. ASRock also highlights the use of exclusively Japanese capacitors from NCC, Rubycon, and Nichicon.
A strong focus on AIO coolers
Although it may come as a surprise, ASRock devoted significant attention at Computex to cooling products, particularly closed-loop liquid coolers (AIOs). Several models were on display, but the company places the greatest emphasis on two: the Taichi Aqua 360 LCD and the Taichi 360 Holo.
Taichi 360 Holo
The Holo model is available in both black and white versions, and its name comes from the decorative element mounted on the water block, which is not an ordinary display. This cooler uses a 40 mm-thick radiator and an eighth-generation Asetek pump, which in this design is housed within the water block. The water block should also contain a fan between the pump and the display to cool the VRM area around the socket.
The “Holo” display is neither an LCD nor an OLED panel, but rather a rotating element that creates the illusion of a holographic image floating above the block. It relies on an persistence of vision optical illusion. The effect is quite interesting. I would not have expected it, but together with the stylish and elegant motherboard, ASRock ultimately presented some of the most visually interesting designs we saw at Computex.
The included fans use FDB bearings and operate at up to 2400 RPM (±10%), delivering airflow of up to 61.28 CFM and static pressure of up to 3.11 mmH2O at maximum speed, where noise levels reach up to 31.4 dBA. The fans are covered by a shared shroud lined with ARGB illumination, while the impellers themselves also include ARGB lighting.
Taichi Aqua 360 LCD
The Aqua is a white cooler (no dark version is available) featuring a 38 mm-thick 360 mm radiator. It uses a transparent CPU water block. Optionally, a 3.4-inch IPS display with a resolution of 480 × 480 pixels can be magnetically attached to the block to display system information, animations, and similar content—as current trends dictate—but the ability to see inside the block is arguably the more interesting feature.
The cooler incorporates a pair of pumps for redundancy and will reportedly issue an audible warning if one of them fails. These pumps are integrated into the radiator, allowing the transparent water block to reveal its internal structure.
In addition to the transparent block itself, coolant can also be seen flowing through another small flow indicator integrated into the loop. This proides a visual check that coolant is circulating and contains a small propeller under a transparent cover that spins while the pumps are operating.
The cooler is reportedly capable of handling processors with TDP ratings of up to 500 W—actually, “500 W+” was stated—which may indicate readiness even for future extreme 52-core Nova Lake processors, whose multithreaded power consumption is expected to reach similarly extreme levels. Both coolers support Intel LGA 1700 and 1851 platforms (the latter being compatible with the future LGA 1954 socket for Nova Lake) as well as AMD processors in AM4 and AM5 sockets.
LCP fans
The radiator of the Aqua cooler (but not the Holo model) uses non-ARGB 120 mm fans made from LCP material, a category of plastics with improved rigidity that includes Noctua’s revolutionary (at the time of introduction) Sterrox material. Fans made from these materials offer higher performance and better operating characteristics than conventional designs. According to ASRock, the material is even of aerospace-grade quality, although how much of that is more than a marketing phrase is difficult to say.
The fan blades use the efficient shape known from products such as the NIDEC Gentle Typhoon or the first generation of Noctua’s Sterrox fans. Additionally, the impeller features a ring around its perimeter, which prevents air leakage around the blade tips while also stabilizing the blade ends against expansion and aerodynamic flutter. If the specifications are accurate, the impellers use an above-standard thickness (the frame profile is 28 mm instead of the usual 25 mm), which could further improve performance, albeit at the expense of some compatibility.
The fans use dual-ball bearings with a central impeller hub made from a metal alloy. Maximum speed is 2500 RPM (±10%), airflow reaches up to 76.70 CFM, and noise levels at full speed are rated at 38.3 dBA. Static pressure is specified at up to 4.16 mmH2O.
ASRock has also implemented a daisy-chaining mechanism for these fans. Connectors on the side allow adjacent units to be linked together during installation, enabling an entire fan array to be powered and controlled through a single cable.
Sources: ASRock, on-site reporting
On-site photography: Jozef Dudáš
English translation and edit by Jozef Dudáš
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