Building the TSSDR ASRock Z790 Taichi Core I5-13600K Test Bench

CORSAIR 5000D TEMPERED GLASS ATX CASE 

The Corsair 5000 Series chassis has been our ‘go to’ case for some time and it is perhaps one of the best PC chassis available on the market right now. They have been the standard with our Test Benches for years now, our last two systems using the the 5000X RGB.  The physical build of the 5000D is exactly the same in all 5000 Series cases; it is the feature set such as glass top and front along with RGB fans, that differ from the 5000X of our previous builds.  This accounts for the significant price difference and the 5000D we are using in this build is priced at only $129 at Amazon right now. This chassis has tons of room regardless of your needs and the tempered glass side provides an amazing view. This is what the case is capable of…

The thing we like most about this case is that configurations for any PC build ideas are just about endless.  As an example, our other ASUS Hero Z790 i9-13900K Test Bench houses 14 fans as it includes 3 more forward facing fans where that rear wall is.  This case has tons of room, has been well thought out with respect to cable management and also has a 20GBps USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C port right on top.

We located a PCIe 4.0 x 16 white riser cable that did the job perfectly in our i9 Test Bench, based on the same chassis. Checking Amazon, we can find the Corsair iCUE 5000X RGB Tempered Glass Mid-Tower TX case at $129.99.

ASROCK TAICHI Z790 MOTHERBOARD 

The ASRock Taichi Z790 is PCIe 5.0 motherboard that incorporates its PCIe 5.0 M.2 access right on the board (pictured below), rather than a separate AIC as the ASUS Hero does.  Taichi is recognized as ASRock’s premium offering with such things as support for both 12th and 13th Gen Intel CPUs with speeds capable of reaching 6GHZ and higher, 4 x dual channel DDR5 capable of 7200+,  2 x ThunderBolt 4 Type-C ports, HDMI, Killer 2.5GbE Networking, as well as an onboard USB 3.2 2×2 header which provides for cases such as the Corsair 5000 series providing 20Gbps data transfer speeds right from the panel.

Most important for our use. however, is what this board is capable of with respect to PCIe and M.2 slots.  The ASRock Z790 Taichi has 2 x PCIe 5 x 16 slots and PCIe 4 x 16 slot along with a Gen 5 Blazing M.2 and 4 x Gen 4 M.2 slots onboard.

Worthy of note is that there is only passive cooling for the Blazing M.2 slot and the  ASRock Blazing M.2 Fan-Heatsink can be purchased separately if needed. It is shown in this photo below.

Next up, the ASRock Taichi backplate contains from left to right 2 x USB 2.0, HDMI, 2T2R Killer WiFi 6E (802.11AX), audio input with SPDIF, two Lightning Gaming USB Ports and two Ultra USB Power Ports, 2 x ThunderBolt 4 /USB 4 Type-C ports, four USB Type-A 5Gbps ports and dual network ports.

Checking Amazon, the ASRock Taichi Z790 motherboard is available for a price of $601 which is a respectable price in consideration of all that is available on this board.