The ASUS ROG STRIX Z890-A GAMING WIFI is a premium LGA1851 motherboard designed for white-coloured Intel "Arrow Lake" Core Ultra 200 series PC builds, where it should support Intel's upcoming "Arrow Lake Refresh" line-up of processors too with a BIOS update.

As a quick recap, Intel released its current-gen “Arrow Lake” Core Ultra 200 series of processors for sale to the public in October last year, alongside motherboards powered by the range-topping Intel Z890 chipset. The Arrow Lake line-up didn't fare well at launch and still languishes today in the face of its competition (i.e. AMD). This can be attributed to the fact that its performance wasn’t really all that much better than the predecessor 14th Generation "Raptor Lake Refresh" parts, especially on the gaming performance front; from Day 1 media reviews, it was clear that there were numerous instances of performance regression when comparing Arrow Lake to Raptor Lake Refresh product offerings. To Intel’s credit, productivity performance and power efficiency were improved with Arrow Lake, but by and large AMD’s “Zen 5” Ryzen 9000 series are arguably still the better processor offerings available on the market today.

In any case, let’s hope Arrow Lake Refresh is going to improve things in Intel’s favour when they finally arrive, likely in early 2026. In the lead-up to that, let’s take a look at the ASUS ROG STRIX Z890-A GAMING WIFI that, as its name implies, sports the Intel Z890 chipset, and sits within the performance-oriented ROG STRIX series of gaming motherboard offerings, where it places below the range-topping ROG Maximus series, and sits above the mainstream TUF Gaming lineup as well as the budget-friendly PRIME series of motherboard offerings by ASUS.

Summary of Specifications

Processor Support: Intel Core Ultra 200S series
Chipset: Intel Z890
Memory: 4x DDR5 slots, max 256GB, up to DDR5 9066+ (OC) support (as of October 2025), CUDIMMs supported
Audio: Realtek ALC4080 audio codec with Savitech SV3H712 amp
LAN: Intel I226-V 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet
WIFI: Intel BE200NGW WIFI 7 module with Bluetooth 5.4 support
Expansion Slots: 1x PCIe 5.0 x16, 1x PCIe 4.0 x16 (operates at x4 mode)
Storage: 4x SATA III, 1x PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2, 4x PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2; only one PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slot supports either a M.2 SATA or M.2 NVMe drive, the other slots support M.2 NVMe drives only
Form Factor: ATX
Official Product Page: https://rog.asus.com/motherboards/rog-strix/rog-strix-z890-a-gaming-wifi/

Packaging & Contents

As a motherboard targeted at white-coloured PC builds, the ROG STRIX Z890-A GAMING WIFI comes in a box that sports a white, light grey and silver colourway that looks pretty nice, with a smattering of gamer-oriented Republic of Gamers motifs all around.

The board comes with the following accessories:

• WIFI antenna
• Quick Start Guide
• ASUS WebStorage promotional leaflet
• ROG sticker sheet
• 2x SATA III cables
• 3 packs of M.2 drive rubber pads
• 1x M.2 Q-Latch
• Pack of cable ties
• 1x extension thermal pad for M.2 22110 drives
• 1x ROG keychain

Board Aesthetics

In the aesthetics department, we see that ASUS has gone for a predominantly white-and-silver aesthetic with some black components for contrast – the PCB is white in colour and on the whole, I do think that the board is pretty good-looking, though the board might not pander to those of you looking for a pure white aesthetic for your PC build due to its use of black-coloured hardware bits. As a premium motherboard offering, no surprises here that ASUS has gone with an integrated I/O shield design, with a smattering of silver heatsinks all around.

Over on the rear of the board, we see that the PCB is coloured in grey, where we also get a slew of ROG motifs that are a nice touch, in spite of the fact most of these motifs would likely never see the light of day when the board is installed inside of a PC case.

Fans of RGB lighting for their PC builds will be pleased to note that the board comes with what ASUS calls a "Polymo" lighting feature on the integrated I/O shield shroud, which I think looks pretty neat.

In terms of heatsink coverage, the Z890 chipset is cooled by a passive heatsink that is emblazoned with no shortage of ROG marketing text and motifs; we do also get full heatsink coverage for all five of the board’s M.2 slots.

VRM & Memory Support

The VRM heatsinks for this board are sizeable, and ASUS has included 16+1+2+2 power phases.

For memory support, the ROG STRIX Z890-A GAMING WIFI comes with four DDR5 slots that as of the time of publishing this article, comes with support for up to 256GBs of RAM and the DDR5 9066+ standard when overclocked, with plastic slots of a single-tab design. The board also supports Intel’s XMP technology, which are built-in overclocking profiles for DDR5 memory.

It’s great to note that the board also supports the latest DIMM format on the block, Clocked Unbuffered DIMMs (CUDIMMs), which come with a clock driver on the memory module to improve signal stability, thereby paving the way for even higher operating frequencies.

Front Panel USB Headers

In terms of front panel USB connectivity, we get a USB 20Gbps Type-C front panel header next to the RAM slots, and beneath it, a single USB 5Gbps Type-A front panel header that provides support for up to two USB 5Gbps Type A ports.

Over on the bottom edge of the board, we also get two USB 2.0 front panel headers, where each header provides support for two USB 2.0 Type-A ports, for a total of four ports.

Expansion Slots & Storage Options

For your graphics card, ASUS has included a single PCIe 5.0 x16 slot that comes with the SafeSlot feature, which reinforces the slot for use with heavy graphics cards.

The said slot also boasts the PCIe Slot Q-Release Slim feature that makes removing a graphics card an even simpler affair – there's no need to release a latch or even push down on a button anymore, all you have to do is to pull the graphics card out at a certain angle towards the latch mechanism, and it'll come free.

Along the bottom edge of the board, we get a full-length PCIe 4.0 x16 slot that operates at x4 mode.

For your storage drive needs, ASUS has included four SATA III ports, with all ports in a right-angled configuration so as to aid with cable management.

For M.2. slots, the ROG STRIX Z890-A GAMING WIFI comes with a single PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot and four PCIe 4.0 x4 M.2 slots. Do note that four of the slots support M.2 NVMe SSDs only, while the last slot (M.2_5) supports either a M.2 NVMe or a M.2 SATA drive.

The board's PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slot comes with a pretty fancy heatsink, where it features the M.2 Q-Release mechanism - pushing down on the metal latch pictured above will release the heatsink from the slot.

The Gen 5 M.2 slot also features a new quality-of-life feature called Q-Slide, which is a mechanism that slides along a track and snaps into place to securely hold a M.2 drive of varying lengths other than the typical M.2 2280 form factor (e.g. 22110, 2260 etc).

The remainder of the board’s Gen 4 M.2 slots feature an improved Q-Latch, which makes installing and removing M.2 drives pretty easy.

Audio & Internet Connectivity

The ROG STRIX Z890-A GAMING WIFI's audio is powered by a high-end Realtek ALC4080 audio codec that's paired with a Savitech SV3H712 amplifier chip.

Wired internet connectivity is courtesy of Intel’s I226-V chip that provides support for 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet, while WIFI support is courtesy of an Intel BE200NGW WIFI 7 module that supports the 320 MHz channel width, and also serves up Bluetooth 5.4 support.

Fan & RGB Headers

The ROG STRIX Z890-A GAMING WIFI comes with eight fan headers:

• 1x CPU_FAN
• 1x CPU_OPT
• 1x AIO_PUMP
• 5x CHA_FAN

The board also comes with three Gen 2 addressable RGB headers - do note that the board does not come with a traditional 12V RGB header.

Other Features

Along the top edge of the board, we get a CPU overvoltage jumper that enables higher CPU voltages for overclocking purposes.

Beneath the CPU overvoltage jumper is a set of Q-LEDs that can help with troubleshooting PC startup issues, as well as a Start button that, you guessed it right, allows end-users to power on the PC.

Over on the bottom edge of the board, we get a Thunderbolt header that's to be used with an optional ASUS Thunderbolt add-on card for more Thunderbolt ports.

Within the vicinity of the Thunderbolt header is a thermal sensor header that allows one to connect an optional thermistor cable so as to monitor the temperature of devices within the PC case, as well as a chassis intrusion header.

Rear I/O

The ROG STRIX Z890-A GAMING WIFI comes with an integrated I/O shield in white, with the following ports on the rear I/O:

• 1x DisplayPort 1.4 (supports display output of up to 8K resolution at 60Hz)
• 1x HDMI 2.1 port (supports display output of up to 4K resolution at 60Hz)
• Clear CMOS button
• BIOS FlashBack button
• 5x USB 10Gbps Type-A ports
• 2x USB 5Gbps Type-A ports
• 2x Thunderbolt 4 USB Type-C ports (supports DisplayPort and Thunderbolt video output; on the Thunderbolt display output mode, supports either 1x 8K display at 60 Hz via a single port, or two 4K displays at 60Hz via two ports)
• 1x USB 10Gbps Type-C port (supports up to 30W Power Delivery for fast charging)
• 2.5 Gigabit Ethernet port
• WIFI antenna connectors (Q-Antenna)
• Audio jack connectors

The BIOS FlashBack feature allows end-users to update the motherboard's BIOS without needing to install a processor, RAM and graphics card - a handy feature to have on hand for sure once Arrow Lake Refresh is launched, seeing as support for these new processors would likely require a BIOS update.

Conclusion

To sum up, the ASUS ROG STRIX Z890-A GAMING WIFI is a high-end Intel Z890 motherboard designed for premium white-coloured Intel Core Ultra 200 series PC builds, where it has plenty of bells and whistles to satisfy the needs of PC hardware enthusiasts without going too overboard in terms of the feature list. It comes with a pretty solid VRM setup with 90A power stages, PCIe 5.0 support for both a graphics card and a M.2 drive, plenty of M.2 drive slots without any bifurcation shenanigans, 2.5Gbit Ethernet, built-in WIFI 7, dual Thunderbolt 4 ports alongside a plethora of USB Type-C and Type-A connectivity options. We also get lots of quality-of-life features such as Q-Release Slim, Q-Slide and so on.

The downsides that I can think of is the fact that the Intel Arrow Lake platform isn’t at its most competitive – hopefully with the rumoured arrival of Arrow Lake Refresh, this will allow Intel to give the LGA1851 platform a much needed boost, though this also brings me on to the next con, which is the fact that the LGA1851 socket will reach its end-0f-life once Intel’s next generation Nova Lake desktop processors launch, perhaps in end-2026 or even early 2027.

As of the time of publishing this article, the ROG STRIX Z890-A GAMING WIFI is available to purchase for a price of around US$369 from Amazon. In Singapore, this board can be purchased for a price of around $722 Singapore dollars.

Get this motherboard from Amazon: https://amzn.to/4qs3SKK (affiliate link)

Get this motherboard from Lazada Singapore: https://s.lazada.sg/s.XG2l4 (affiliate link)

Get this motherboard from Shopee Singapore: https://s.shopee.sg/7V7p8arNv4 (affiliate link)

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The motherboard featured in this article was a marketing sample sponsored by ASUS Singapore.