Intel Z890-based motherboards from major brands have been listed on Newegg starting from $189. Users can secure their preferred model while waiting for the launch of Arrow Lake-S chips.
In preparation for the launch of Intel’s Core Ultra 200K processors next week, ASRock, MSI, and Gigabyte have listed multiple motherboard models on Newegg. The list covers all kinds of budgets, from $189.99 all the way up to $799.99, with ASRock covering both the lowest and highest positions.
The cheapest board available is ASRock’s Z890 Pro-A at $189.99. For this price, you get an ATX motherboard packing 16+1+1+1+1 power phases, four DIMM slots supporting up to DDR5-8666 memory, a single Gen 5 PCIe x16 for the graphics card, plus four M.2 SSD slots – one of which is Gen 5.
While $189 is far from insignificant, it’s still low for a high-end chipset. Thus, these boards tend to ignore quality-of-life features such as debug displays, fancy coolers, and pre-installed I/O shields. Thankfully, connectivity remains decent for the price, offering Thunderbolt 4, 2.5GbE, plus a bunch of USBs.
Moving slightly up the price range unlocks more features like Wi-Fi 7 on Gigabyte’s Z890 Eagle WiFi 7 at $239.99, dual Gen 5 PCIe slots on Gigabyte’s Z890 Aero G, and ten Type-C ports on ASRock’s Taichi Aqua.
The latter is, in fact, the most expensive of the bunch, sitting at $799.99. For the price of a complete system, you get the aforementioned ten Type-C ports – two of which are Thunderbolt 4, a 10GbE Ethernet that’s four times faster than your usual, assuming your local network can keep up, and support for DDR5-9200 RAM. This time, the CPU can call for as much power as it wants, thanks to 28+1+2+1+1 110A liquid-cooled power phases. Lastly, in addition to dual Gen 5 PCIe, you also get two Gen 5 M.2 slots. What else could you ask for?
All Intel Z890 boards are expected to become available on October 24. Pre-orders are open, but there’s no word regarding shipping dates. More models should become available after the release, so don’t jump the gun just yet. It’s always best to wait for reviews, just in case.
