ASUS Z890 Motherboards for Upcoming Intel "Arrow Lake" Processors Leak

[AleksandarK]

Yesterday, we got a leak about Intel's "Arrow Lake" Core Ultra 200 series CPUs official public announcement on October 10 and the review embargo and official retail launch on October 24. However, today, we are able to look at some of the upcoming motherboards powering Core Ultra 200 CPUs, based on the Z890 chipset. Thanks to VideoCardz, we can look at ASUS high-end motherboard pictures and decipher some of the common features that will be present on high-end boards, like a hefty VRM configuration, along with some new color schemes. We notice that there are new GPU slot reinforcement and M.2 release mechanisms, alongside WiFi 7 and Thunderbolt 4. Some leaked pricing also suggests that ASUS ROG Maximus boards could be retailing for more than the highest-end Core Ultra 9 285K SKU, while there are more budget "Prime" series of motherboards present as well. Here are all leaked ASUS boards:

ASUS ROG Maximus Z890 Extreme:



ASUS ROG Maximus Z890 Hero:

ASUS ROG Maximus Z890 Apex:

ASUS ROG Strix Z890-A Gaming WiFi:

ASUS ROG Strix Z890-E Gaming WiFi:

ASUS TUF Gaming Z890-Plus WiFi:

ASUS Prime Z890-P WiFi:

ASUS Prime Z890M-Plus WiFi CSM:


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[Chaitanya]

Meh, also on Strix E which idiot designed that M.2 "heatsink"?

 

[TheLostSwede]

Meh, also on Strix E which idiot designed that M.2 "heatsink"?

Seems to be for 2+2 drives?

The Prime board should be perfect for those here complaining about not enough slots.

 

[persondb]

The prime is the only micro ATX option?
That is kinda sad, matx builds are underrated as they combine the ease of build of ATX with a smaller size.

 

[Upgrayedd]

The prime is the only micro ATX option?
That is kinda sad, matx builds are underrated as they combine the ease of build of ATX with a smaller size.

I agree, especially since SLI/CF is gone now.
They really should make the Gene again.

 

[natr0n]

Asus doesnt fool around with vrm's

Probably why they are so expensive.

 

[KLMR]

Asus doesnt fool around with vrm's

Probably why they are so expensive.

Yes because their VRM technology hasn't been there for a decade or so.

Less pcie, moar price, good move.


The state of consumer motherboards is a scandal.

 

[phints]

I agree, especially since SLI/CF is gone now.
They really should make the Gene again.

Same, ATX builds are so silly these days, I don't see the point of building something so large. I'd only even consider ITX or mATX. A case the size of like an AP201 is 'about right'.

 

[Vincero]

Same, ATX builds are so silly these days, I don't see the point of building something so large. I'd only even consider ITX or mATX. A case the size of like an AP201 is 'about right'.

I semi-agree - if you are designing an ATX board to only have 2 PCIe slots then it doesn't leave a lot of room for the more exotic use cases, be it people with multiple GPUs for actual productivity / rendering / other uses so might as well just stop at mATX - if they run out of space on one side they can always do the rick of putting sockets on the other or wire the additional lanes to a breakout connector (e.g. U.2 style).
But where I disagee is if you had a proper ATX board and a proper use for all those slots - then fair play to you.

Dare I say that some of these boards are designed to go in to cases that look more like:
this:View attachment 1727978242987.webp rather than this: View attachment 1727978326643.webp

I guess partly for the board makers it's easier to manage the PCIe signal traces a short distance to M.2 sockets and maintain PCIe4/5 speed vs the larger PCIe sockets and boards and fill out an ATX board without doing anything too exotic in terms of component choice or circuit arrangement - but still want $400+.
All those additional M.2 sockets could be normal PCIe connectors (maybe with just 4 lanes wired) so that they can be used for M.2 adapater cards, additional xGb/s LAN NICs, other types of HBA, or hell even a sound card or any other devices - those options are now limited on some of the upper end boards (which is kind of ridiculous).

Asus doesnt fool around with vrm's

Yeah they do.... and they regularly attach the 'prime' branding to junk at the low end.

 

[kapone32]

Confirmed Asus have given up on 8X8 Pcie lanes for the Strix board.

 

[RJIX69]

Who care about this when DDR6 RAM coming early 2025???

 

[Chaitanya]

Seems to be for 2+2 drives?

The Prime board should be perfect for those here complaining about not enough slots.

One about the 2 slot heatsink(which actually looks properly designed heatsink to cool SSDs).

 

[N/A]

Who care about this when DDR6 RAM coming early 2025???

That's at least one year away for server, and two for desktop with exorbitantly high prices at launch but yeah. this socket is dead. One gen only, no refresh.

Stop gap solution for people that can't wait or getting ultra 9 later.

 

[Gmr_Chick]

I keep saying it whenever ASUS releases new ROG boards, but I'll say it again: That eye just keeps getting bigger and bigger on these damn things, more obnoxious. They should just release a board in the shape of the damn thing and be done with it already.

 

[Minus Infinity]

I keep saying it whenever ASUS releases new ROG boards, but I'll say it again: That eye just keeps getting bigger and bigger on these damn things, more obnoxious. They should just release a board in the shape of the damn thing and be done with it already.

Wait for the Asrock Taichi Lite. Will be the most minimalist of the high-end boards based on the X870E releases so far.

 

[freeagent]

I don't mind the looks of the Hero.. The Strix Apex should have been black.. It probably still looks good.

 

[Waweq]

Gimme that APEX, i want the little RAM fan too

 

[Lifeless222]

No Strix-F, Gene-i, Formula because LGA1851 platform only for 1 gen CPUs lol. LGA 1851 will be the shortest-lived Intel platform. Nova Lake will be on a new socket, so if you plan to build a platform for a long term for upgrades, you'd better take a closer look at AMD
+ ASUS Z890 Mobos takes +100-150$ for price. Z790 Strix-A WiFi II - 340$ -> Z890 Strix-A -450$

 

[Vincero]

The Prime board should be perfect for those here complaining about not enough slots.

Well, it does offer much more flexibility - now if the BIOS supports settings all the x16 slots to a x4/x4/x4/x4 split then technically you get much better (storage) IO capability vs even the maximus boards - but it probably will not offer such a thing.

What I'm more curious about is the usage of that 5th DIMM slot on the 'extreme' boards...
Never mind... remembered its a throwback to what they had on Z790 with their dual M.2 heatsinked near the RAM....

 

[QUANTUMPHYSICS]

I'll take one of these, a 4TB SSD for the OS, 15900K, 1000W PSU, RTX 5090, 64GB DDR5 and AIO liquid cooling

 

[RogueSix]

Gimme that APEX, i want the little RAM fan too

Also the one I am most interested in. I finally want peace of mind when installing RAM. My ROG STRIX Z790-E could not run my 32GB DDR5-7200 kit above 6800MHz and it currently can not run my 64GB DDR5-6800 kit above 6600MHz (i.e. it can "run" it as it boots up fine but it's not Prime95-stable). I'm sure the APEX can/could.

Speaking of the APEX, does anyone here have 1st hand experience with the M.2 DIMMs? Does that work well? Are the temps low? Any caveats? I need to install three M2 SSDs and M2 placement is always a concern for me as I want my SSDs to run as fast and cool as possible. The Z890 APEX looks slightly worrisome as it kinda looks like the CPU-connected M2 slots will be in the hot spot area between the GPU and CPU (ugh).

 

[Upgrayedd]

Who care about this when DDR6 RAM coming early 2025???

Are you high?

 

[Super Firm Tofu]

Speaking of the APEX, does anyone here have 1st hand experience with the M.2 DIMMs? Does that work well? Are the temps low? Any caveats? I need to install three M2 SSDs and M2 placement is always a concern for me as I want my SSDs to run as fast and cool as possible. The Z890 APEX looks slightly worrisome as it kinda looks like the CPU-connected M2 slots will be in the hot spot area between the GPU and CPU (ugh).

The M.2 DIMM works well enough. I don't really like the design as you're putting the heat output of two NVMe drives in the same area as your RAM, and blocking traditional airflow to the RAM at the same time.

That said, I never had temperature related issues with RAM or the NVMe drives with my Apex Encore/14900KS/8200MT/s RAM.

 

[Upgrayedd]

Same, ATX builds are so silly these days, I don't see the point of building something so large. I'd only even consider ITX or mATX. A case the size of like an AP201 is 'about right'.

I don't let size determine what board I use. I find the one board I want and make it work. Can't want the gene is it doesn't exist.
O11 Air Mini fits eATX boards. I like the case size, it's small enough

The M.2 DIMM works well enough. I don't really like the design as you're putting the heat output of two NVMe drives in the same area as your RAM, and blocking traditional airflow to the RAM at the same time.

That said, I never had temperature related issues with RAM or the NVMe drives with my Apex Encore/14900KS/8200MT/s RAM.

If you air cool on a dual dimm board you can hang the front intake fan of the cpu cooler over the ram. Hardly ever see it done, feel like I'm the only one in this AIO age.

I don't mind the looks of the Hero.. The Strix Apex should have been black.. It probably still looks good.

The encore should be black. What they'll add to it I really don't know. All that was really added last time was Wifi7.

 

[RogueSix]

The M.2 DIMM works well enough. I don't really like the design as you're putting the heat output of two NVMe drives in the same area as your RAM, and blocking traditional airflow to the RAM at the same time.

That said, I never had temperature related issues with RAM or the NVMe drives with my Apex Encore/14900KS/8200MT/s RAM.

‘Thanks . Sounds good. I think the ASUS fan bracket should help quite a bit keeping that area well cooled and I will be buying a Corsair 6500D Airflow case for my ARL build with three 140mm Noctua fans in the front and three at the top so that whole area should hopefully be getting sufficient air…