ASRock has unveiled a full lineup of Z890 motherboards, led by the new Taichi series flagship models. This series offers a powerful mix of options for extreme enthusiasts, including the ASRock Z890 Taichi AQUA, Taichi OCF, Taichi, and Taichi Lite. Other ASRock Z890 motherboards include the gaming-focused Phantom Gaming series, featuring the Nova, Riptide, and Lightning models, as well as the popular Steel Legend, LiveMixer, and Pro series for mainstream users. The new Z890 motherboards support the latest Intel Core Ultra 200 series processors, offering more high-speed expansion such as PCI-Express 5.0 support for a graphics card, as well as M.2 SSD, and more importantly up to two Thunderbolt 4 ports for all Z890 motherboards.

The New Era of Taichi
The white-styled ASRock Z890 Taichi AQUA introduces a unique hybrid thermal design developed in collaboration with Alphacool, which combines air and water cooling for the VRM and M.2 block. The Z890 Taichi AQUA also features the first detachable M.2 water block for Gen-5 SSDs, simplifying and streamlining installation.

Elmor Labs unveiled plans for its own OCP (overclock panel) accessory, which combines the most important machine controls and diagnostic readouts from a compatble motherboard into a handy desktop gadget, so overclockers don't crane their neck over to the test bench while staring at a black screen between OC attempts. ASUS has developed such an accessory a few years ago, although the last such device was released almost a decade ago during the Socket LGA1150 days, and although ASUS continued to release high-end motherboards with the OCP headers, the panel itself has been hard to come by in the market. This is what Elmor hopes to address.

Elmor's panel looks like a scientific instrument, a big departure from the ROG aesthetic of ASUS's OCP. Each of its buttons is an bare SMD switch that imitates the look of some 2-pin threaded connectors on instruments. There is a monochrome LED matrix display that puts out pretty much all the real-time monitoring and diagnostic readouts as the ASUS OCP. Elmor Labs hasn't put out pricing information yet.