Asus ROG Maximus Z890 Hero review

The launch of the fresh Intel Core Ultra 200S series of desktop processors has been met with a mostly negative reaction due to a drop in gaming performance compared to the previous generation of chips. However, they are quite good at content creation tasks and operate much less power in gaming, so they may be suitable for some people. But what motherboard are you buying?

The fresh Arrow Lake processors only fit into the LGA1851 socket, so they can’t fit on a previous-generation motherboard. There is only one chipset available at the moment (Z890), and most motherboard vendors have focused on making ATX models, which are quite exorbitant. On the other hand, if someone is going to spend over $500 on the Core Ultra 9 285K, it’s probably best to get a motherboard with the right specs to ensure the setup lasts as long as possible.

The ROG Maximus Z890 Hero isn’t at the very top of Asus’ Intel motherboard lineup, but it’s not far off as it offers as comprehensive a feature set as you could want. Naturally, this means the price is equally high, but this is par for the course with high-end motherboards these days.

Nearly everything about the ROG Maximus Z890 Hero is massive – opening the huge packaging reveals the motherboard, which weighs an astonishing 3.6 kg (8 lb). From the huge M.2 main slot heatsink to the massive polychrome display, there’s nothing subtle about it, even though there are no flashy graphics.

Just read the specs to see what I mean. Few motherboards come with six M.2 slots, and even fewer have two Gen 5 and four Gen 4 slots. If that’s not enough, you can take advantage of an additional four SATA ports and a SlimSAS connector for additional NVMe or SATA drives. How about 11 USB ports on the rear I/O panel and another 10 via headers?

If overclocking is your thing, you won’t be disappointed. Power is provided by a total of 27 stages (22 of which are rated at 110A), covered by some of the thickest heatsinks I’ve seen in a very long time. I’m a little surprised that Asus hasn’t opted for lively VRM cooling, but considering the reduced power consumption of Arrow Lake compared to Raptor Lake, perhaps it’s not necessary.

Asus engineers have worked difficult to make the motherboard more user-friendly (“EZ DIY” as Asus calls it) and include many so-called “Q” features – M.2 Q-Release, M.2 Q-Slide, M .2 Q-Latch, PCIe Q-Release Slim slot, Q-Antennae and so on. Fortunately, this isn’t just marketing nonsense, as these features really make installing and removing graphics cards, SSDs, and Wi-Fi antenna really uncomplicated and straightforward.

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However, I would like Asus to refresh the BIOS layout and structure. As always, it’s packed with options and now defaults to 1080p (so it looks pointed and clear), but it’s a bit overwhelming at times. The leap in complexity between uncomplicated and advanced modes can’t be very enjoyable for beginners, that’s for sure. Still, at least the Q-Dashboard is a nice touch, displaying an overview of your motherboard’s parts and connectors.

Testing the performance of motherboards is quite a challenging matter, mainly because in most tests the differences between different models are usually very tiny. It’s only when very detailed synthetic benchmarks are used that tiny differences begin to emerge, which rarely translate into noticeable discrepancies in real-world situations.

This is especially true for Z890 motherboards as they are all brand fresh on the market, so there aren’t many results to compare. Therefore, there are only two other boards in the results below: MSI MEG Z890 Ace and MSI MAG Z890 Tomahawk.

In most cases, there is little separating them, especially in games. However, the Factorio test really stands out, as the Asus ROG Maximus Z890 Hero scores 21% faster than any of the MSI boards. I spent some time talking to both companies about this, but without much success in understanding the outcome.

The only thing that comes to my mind is that the Asus motherboard uses a fixed clock frequency for the Core Ultra 9 285K’s internal ring bus, while the MSI boards allow this frequency to be changed. Intel says Asus’ approach is the right one.

However, the ROG Maximus Z890 Hero is slower in 7zip tests and shows no margin of error, scoring 14% lower in the decompression test. Games store all data in a compressed format and decompress it on the fly if required, so the 7zip number suggests that you may notice a drop in gaming performance when using an Asus motherboard. But as you can see from the game results, it doesn’t affect these specific games.

Tracking CPU power, VRM, and chipset temperatures during the main benchmarks will highlight any deficiencies in the motherboard’s power and cooling systems, and while there are some discrepancies between the three motherboards, they are not significant. The ROG Maximus Z890 Hero heatsinks do a great job of cooling everything, but considering the MSI board performs similarly, I wonder if their massive size was really necessary.

But I don’t have such concerns about the heatsink of the main M.2 slot. It’s a monstrous slab of metal, and as you can see, it does a great job of keeping the PCIe 5.0 SSD’s temperature in check.

At no point did the temperature exceed 70°C, and this is the only motherboard I’ve ever tested that managed to achieve this with a Gen5 SSD. The proverbial icing on the cake is the fact that it is so uncomplicated to take off and put back on.

The Asus ROG Maximus Z890 Hero has a lot to offer. Despite its massive weight, massive heatsinks, and nice polychrome display, it’s a relatively understated design that should please most PC enthusiasts.

Beneath all the metal is a motherboard filled to the hilt with ports, slots, and slots. If you want to build a fresh gaming PC with an Intel Core Ultra 200S processor, you will have no desire.

Well, apart from the price, that is. At a few dollars above $690, it’s very exorbitant – and while there are even more exorbitant Z890 motherboards on the market, that price is enough to make anyone look twice before purchasing.

The Asus ROG Maximus Z890 Hero is an excellent motherboard, there is no doubt about it, and it should easily last for many years of operate. It’s much less certain whether this will be enough to justify spending that kind of money, especially when more LGA1851 motherboards hit the market in 2025.