Asrock announces Z790 and B650E Taichi Lite motherboards, and I hope it's the start of a trend.

pcgamer.com:

A few weeks back at Computex, Asrock unveiled a pair of interesting motherboards: The Z790 Taichi Lite and the B650E Taichi Lite. As of today they have been officially announced. And I for one am happy to see them.

The idea behind the Lite series is simple. They're otherwise identical to their existing Taichi counterparts, but with a simpler aesthetic. At Computex 2023, an Asrock rep told me the complicated cogs and wheels heatsinks of recent Taichi boards were quite expensive to make, and swapping these out for something simpler allowed it to sell the same motherboard at a cheaper price. Hoorah!

I've reviewed many Taichi boards, including the Z690 Taichi and B550 Taichi Razer Edition. I believe the first one I reviewed was the X99 Taichi in 2016 or 2017. This was during the era of excessive RGB and 'gamification' of entire product lines. Adding the word gaming to a board supposedly made it more appealing. The Taichi was a refreshing change.

At the time the Taichi really stood out with its blend of affordability, relatively simple non-gamer black and white aesthetic and solid feature set. In recent years, Asrock has elevated the Taichi brand, and it's now its flagship series, with the exception of limited edition models like the Aqua. Taichis are typically very good boards, but their appeal has diminished a bit due to excessive pricing

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The same can be said of all high end motherboards though. No matter the reason, whether its component shortages, electrical complexity, feature creep, or the need for bigger profit margins,