Asus Z890 motherboards emerge at a U.S. retailer — pricing starts at $280 and goes over $1,000

Retailer HSSL has revealed the pricing of ten upcoming Asus Intel Z890 motherboards for upcoming Core Ultra 200 (codenamed Arrow Lake) processors. Initially discovered by momomo_us on X, the ten SKUs include Asus ROG, TuF gaming, ProArt, and Prime models. The flagship ROG Maximus Extreme costs a whopping $1,111.87.

Out of the ten total models, six are ROG-branded, featuring the flagship Asus ROG Maximus Z890 Extreme, ROG Maximus Z890 Apex, ROG Maximus Z890 Hero, ROG Strix AZ890-A Gaming, ROG Strix Z890-I Gaming WiFi, and the ROG Strix Z890-E.

The Asus ROG Z890 Extreme is the most expensive board, weighing in at a hefty $1,111.87. This board is the successor to the Z790 Extreme and will most certainly be Asus's most feature-rich board. It packs many connectivity options and a robust power delivery system for overclocking. Pricing is roughly $100 more expensive than the Z790 Extreme.

The ROG Z890 Apex is the runner-up, priced at $812.29. The Apex lineup is geared towards overclocking, specifically memory overclocking. It is the Asus-only board series with just two DIMM slots, and the Z890 Apex will undoubtedly be no exception. Pricing has increased by almost $200 over its predecessor, which launched at $649.99.

The rest of the ROG boards share similar pricing traits; the Z890 Hero is $150 more expensive than its Z790 predecessor, priced at $780.66. The ROG Strix Z890-A Gaming WiFi is $145 more expensive than its predecessor, priced at $445.04. The ROG Strix Z890-I Gaming WiFi (which is most certainly a Mini-ITX board, counter to what the product image suggests) is priced at $502.37, roughly $50 more than its predecessor. The ROG Strix Z890-E Gaming WiFi is priced at $558.94, a roughly $160 premium over its Z790 predecessor.

For the non-ROG boards, the retailer has published listings for the Asus ProArt Z890-Creator WiFi, TUF Gaming Z890-Plus WiFi, Prime Z890-P WiFI, and a newcomer, the Z790 Max Gaming WiFi7. The ProArt board is priced at $548.23, the TUF Gaming board at $356.81, the Z890-P at $281.34, and the Max Gaming WiFi 7 at $268.28.

The non-ROG boards are roughly $100 more expensive than their 700 series chipset counterparts. Overall, it looks like Intel's LGA 1851 motherboards are going to be very expensive, with at least a $100-$200 premium on most boards, at least for Z890. Apparently, these sky-high prices have forced the introduction of the Max Gaming WiFi 7, a brand-new offering from Asus and, coincidentally, the cheapest board of the ten shown here.