During Computex 2024, ASRock held an event to unveil some of its upcoming X870E motherboards, designed for AMD's Zen 5-based Ryzen 9000 series processors. ASRock's announcement includes a pair of Taichi-branded boards, the X870E Taichi and the lighter X870E Taichi lite, which uses AMD's X870E (Promontory 21) chipset for AM5.

The current flagship model announced from ASRock's X870E line-up for Ryzen 9000 is the ASRock X870E Taichi. ASRock is advertising a large 27-phase power delivery through 110A SPS, suggesting this board is designed for overclockers and all-around power users. Two PCIe 5.0 x16 slots (operating in either x16/x0 or x8/x8) provide high-speed bandwidth for cutting-edge graphics cards and other devices. Meanwhile, ASRock has gone with 4 DIMM slots on this board, so system builders will be able to max out the board's memory capacity at the cost of bandwidth.

The storage offering is impressive; besides the obligatory PCIe Gen5 x4 M.2 slot (Blazing M.2), ASRock has outfit the board with another three PCIe Gen4 x4 (Hyper) M.2 slots. Also present are two USB4 Type-C ports for high-bandwidth external I/O, while networking support is a solid pairing of a discrete Wi-Fi 7 controller with a Realtek 5Gb Ethernet controller (and the first AM5 board we've come across with something faster than a 2.5GbE controller).

The audio setup includes a Realtek ALC4082 codec and ESS SABRE9218 DAC supporting high-fidelity sound. The BIOS flashback feature is also a nice touch, and we believe this should be a feature on all mid-range to high-end motherboards, which provides an easy way to update the firmware without installing a CPU. And, as no high-end board would be complete without it, ASRock has put RGB lighting on the X870E Taichi as well.

Ultimately, as ASRock's high-end X870E board, the X870E Taichi comes with pretty much every last cutting-edge technology that ASRock can fit on the board.

Comparatively, the ASRock X870E Taichi Lite is a more streamlined and functional version of the X870E Taichi. The Lite retaining all of the latter's key features, including the 27-phase power delivery with 110A smart power stages, dual PCIe 5.0 x16 slots operating at x16 or x8/x8, four DDR5 DIMM slots, and four M.2 slots (1x Gen5 + 3x Gen4). The only significant difference is aesthetics: the Taichi Lite features a simpler silver-themed design without the RGB lighting, while the standard Taichi has a more intricate gold-accented and fanciful aesthetics.

In terms of availability, ASRock is not disclosing a release date for the board at the show. And, checking around with other tech journalists, Andreas Schilling from HawrdwareLUXX has heard that X870E and X870 motherboards aren't expected to be available in time for the Ryzen 9000 series launch. We will investigate this and contact the motherboard vendors to confirm the situation. Though as X870E/X870 boards barely differ from the current crop of X670E/B650E boards to begin with, the Ryzen 9000 series won't be fazed by a lack of slightly newer motherboards.

MSI on Thursday published the first image of a new desktop motherboard that supports the innovative DDR5 compression attached memory module (CAMM2). DDR5 CAMM2 modules are designed to improve upon the SO-DIMM form factor used for laptops, alleviating some of the high-speed signaling and capacity limitations of SO-DIMMs while also shaving down on the volume of space required. And while we're eagerly awaiting to see CAMM2 show up in more laptops, its introduction in a PC motherboard comes as a bit of a surprise, since PCs aren't nearly as space-constrained.

MSI's Z790 Project Zero Plus motherboard, which supports Intel's latest 14^th Generation Core processors, is to a large degree a proof-of-concept product that is showcasing several new technologies and atypical configuration options. Key among these, of course, is the CAMM2 connector. The single connector supports a 128-bit DDR5 memory bus, allowing for a system to be fully populated with RAM with just a single, horizontally-mounted CAMM2 module. And in terms of design, the Zero Plus also features backside power connectors for improved cable management.

CAMM2 is designed to replace traditional modules in an SO-DIMM form-factor and is meant to occupy up to 64% less space than two DDR5 SO-DIMMs. In addition, CAMM2 greatly optimizes signal and power traces inside the motherboard, primarily by ensuring all memory trace lengths are identical, reducing some of the signaling penalties that normally come from supporting multiple SO-DIMM slots in a system. With DDR5 being particularly sensitive here – to the point where 2 DIMM Per Channel (2DPC) configurations take a max frequency hit even on desktop systems – CAMM2 modules are expected to simplify and, to a degree, improve laptop designs to better match DDR5's limitations.

Though whether CAMM2 sees widespread adoption remains to be seen. Unlike it's LPDDR5X counterpart, LPCAMM2, DDR5 CAMM2 hasn't attracted the same interest from laptop vendors quite yet, in large part because it doesn't introduce any new functionality (e.g. socketed LPDDR5X).

Meanwhile CAMM2 in ATX desktops is all but unexplored right now, which is why we're seeing experimental products like MSI's motherboard. The space savings alone aren't as important in desktops due to their size – though CAMM2 does cut down on Z-height, keeping memory away from CPU coolers. But PC makers will be looking at other factors such as inventory, as equipping desktop boards with CAMM2 connectors would allow them to use the same memory modules in both laptops and desktops. And longer term there is the question of whether CAMM2 can deliver tangible signaling benefits over traditional DIMMs.

MSI plans to showcase its Z790 Project Zero Plus platform at Computex, alongside memory partner Kingston. The latter will be at the show to demonstrate its Fury Impact CAMM2 memory module, which is one of the first DDR5 CAMM2 modules to be announced.