ASUS ROG motherboards with Intel Z890 control bridge

The Maximus and Strix product lines have grown with a total of seven models, which cannot complain about their equipment.

Of course, ASUS did not forget about the launch of the boards using the Intel Z890 control bridge, and presented no less than seventeen new types, the first of which we take a quick look at the ROG series solutions.

From left to right: ASUS ROG Maximus Z890 Extreme, Hero and Apex (+)

The top category is the ROG Maximus Z890 Extreme, Herorespectively Apex represents, whose 24+1+2+2, 22+1+2+2 and again 22+1+2+2 phase VRMs are supported by respectable aluminum fins supplemented with heat-conducting tubes. The effective clock speed of DDR5 RAMs can climb up to at least 8800 MHz with overclocking, but it is a bit interesting that while the E-ATX Extreme and the ATX Hero benefit the manufacturer NitroPath DRAM of its technology (39 percent shorter gold-plated contacts in the sockets, which result in less electrical noise, which, combined with the optimization of the signal path, can mean a speed increase of up to 400 MT/s), they did not take advantage of this in the case of Apex, which is an ace in memory tuning and comes with two DIMM slots instead of four. Either way, all ROG boards support AEMP III (ASUS Enhanced Memory Profile III), which tries to squeeze as much as possible out of CUDIMM RAMs that vary their frequency and voltage dynamically.

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The fixed I/O shield, the USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C pin row on the front, the four SATA ports or the six M.2 connectors covered with ribs – of which at least two are PCI Express 5.0 – can be said to be standard, just like the Wi -Fi 7/Bluetooth 5.4 module, the presence of the two Thunderbolt 4 ports on the back, even though, like the Apex, the Extreme, which has two BIOS chips, already has a pair of Thunderbolt 5 sockets. The 5-gigabit Realtek Ethernet is the starting point, but on the Hero, which is the only one equipped with a PS/2 combo socket, and on the turbocharged Extreme with a 5-inch, color LCD display, a 2.5-gigabit Intel LAN has been squeezed in, and in addition, the primary network connector of the latter product powered by a 10 gigabit Marvell AQtion chip.

The trio, honed to clockwork magic and packed with every earthly good, of course rides the trending AI wave today, as it offers customers several applications working with artificial intelligence algorithms to make everyday life easier (tuning, cooling and Wi-Fi fine-tuning, or AI Advisor that helps answer technical questions ), although this can also be said about the constructions below.

From left to right: ASUS ROG Strix Z890-A, Z890-E, Z890-F and Z890-I Gaming WiFi (+)

A ROG Strix family az ATX-es Z890-A, Z890-E, Z890-Fas well as Mini-ITX Z890-I Gaming WiFi-vel expanded, and there is no shortage of M.2 sockets either, since the five can be considered basic. The only exception to this is the Z890-I, which provides two SATA ports instead of four (plus three USB 2.0 connectors) via the ROG FPS Card I/O card, but among other things – and the x16 PCI Express wired for x4 bandwidth By abandoning the 4.0 rail – we pay for compactness.

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The 2.5 gigabit Intel Ethernet passes the baton to a 5 gigabit Realtek controller on the most serious board of the quartet, identified as Z890-E, which, by the way, has NitroPath DRAM memory sockets for RAM up to 8800 MHz, similar to the ROG Maximus Extreme and Hero. -s. The Realtek ALC4080 sound codec with the Savitech SV3H712 amplifier is replaced by the ITX beast Realtek ALC4050, and while we are looking for a 3.5 mm jack on the back of it, the included desktop ROG Strix Hive II USB that includes the ESS Saber 9620Q DAC we will find it on the hub/sound module.