ASUS ROG Maximus Z890 Hero "Arrow Lake" Motherboard Pictured

[btarunr]

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.



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[Chomiq]

I love how focus on the first picture went for the eyes of the lady with face mask.

 

[Chaitanya]

I love how focus on the first picture went for the eyes of the lady with face mask.

Even for the pic of IO focus seems to be on something in background.

 

[W1zzard]

I love how focus on the first picture went for the eyes of the lady with face mask.

It was so crazy crowded everybody fighting too get photos, and the tw president and jenhsun, all in that hall

let me try to get you better pics

 

[Chomiq]

It was so crazy crowded everybody fighting too get photos, and the tw president and jenhsun, all in that hall

let me try to get you better pics

I don't mind it really, you can still see the board clear enough.

 

[JWNoctis]

I love how focus on the first picture went for the eyes of the lady with face mask.

It was so crazy crowded everybody fighting too get photos, and the tw president and jenhsun, all in that hall

let me try to get you better pics

Looks like a good use case for a "tap to focus and shoot" feature, somewhat common on digital cameras, but less so on smartphones for some reason.

What's that slot on the third picture? It looks like it could take some wattage.

 

[Chomiq]

What's that slot on the third picture? It looks like it could take some wattage.

That's ASUS' solution for BTF on GPUs. It should have 12VHPWR on the other side of the board.

 

[W1zzard]

Looks like a good use case for a "tap to focus and shoot" feature, somewhat common on digital cameras, but less so on smartphones for some reason.

What's that slot on the third picture? It looks like it could take some wattage.

I know how to use tap to focus, and did in the second set of shots. Usually the cam gets it right, but not in the horrible lighting conditions at ASUS

 

[Arrakis9]

I know how to use tap to focus, and did in the second set of shots. Usually the cam gets it right, but not in the horrible lighting conditions at ASUS

The words Asus and horrible seem to be a pretty common occurrence lately.

 

[JWNoctis]

I know how to use tap to focus, and did in the second set of shots. Usually the cam gets it right, but not in the horrible lighting conditions at ASUS

Some cameras could also be set to tap to focus and release shutter after obtaining proper focus and exposure, without a second tap on shutter release, useful for highly dynamic circumstances like this. It confused me for a while, coming off fresh from phone cam world.

Back on topic, wonder what would the "next-generation SupremeFX" entail? They don't seem to be visibly advertising isolation and golden audio caps anymore with all that cladding. More motherboard with a proper headphone amplifier, and separate output for line out and headphone on the back panel would be delightful.