Intel Socket LGA1851 will be the new infrastructure driving at least the next two generations of Intel desktop processors, and the new Core Ultra "Arrow Lake-S" will be the first processor generation to use it. These chips pack new "Lion Cove" P-cores, "Skymont" E-cores, an updated PCIe Gen 5 I/O, and new Xe2 "Battlemage" integrated graphics; with generational performance leaps to be had. At the ASUS Computex 2024 booth, we spotted some of the company's first high-end gaming PC motherboards for the platform, based on what could be the Intel Z890 chipset.

Our first find is the ROG Maximus Z890 Hero, or at least a variant of it featuring the ASUS BTF backside I/O connectivity. There will be a regular variant with conventional front-facing I/O, too. The LGA1851 socket looks almost identical to the LGA1700. In fact the two have the same physical dimensions, and are cooler compatible—your LGA1700-compatible coolers will work on LGA1851 motherboards. Intel added to the pin-count by tweaking the pin pitch, and reducing the size of the "courtyard" (the central void in the land grid meant for SMDs). LGA1851 is a pure-DDR5 platform, and has more PCIe Gen 5 connectivity than LGA1700, such as CPU-attached Gen 5 NVMe slots that don't subtract lanes from the x16 PEG slot. The ROG Maximus Hero appears to be a feature-packed motherboard geared for CPU overclocking, as well as connectivity galore. It also comes with Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 7, USB4, 5 GbE, and next-generation SupremeFX onboard audio.