Asus has released the Pro WS Z890-ACE SE motherboard for creating workstations based on Intel Arrow Lake-S (Core Ultra 200) processors. It is noteworthy that the new product uses a chipset for regular consumer boards.
Image source: ASUS
In the future, Asus plans to release boards based on the special Intel W880 chipset for entry-level and mid-level workstations, but the manufacturer did not waste time and has so far created a model based on the flagship Intel Z890 system logic, which was originally intended for gaming computers.
The Asus Pro WS Z890-ACE SE board immediately attracts attention because its LGA 1851 processor socket is rotated 90 degrees. The DIMM slots for RAM are also not in the usual place, on the right side of the board, but in its upper part. As a result, the motherboard’s power subsystem also changed its location. By the way, it is 21-phase, with a phase diagram of 16+2+1+2. One of the M.2 slots is located on the right side of the board.
The new product claims to support up to 192 GB of DDR5 UDIMM RAM, as well as new DDR5 CUDIMM modules with speeds of up to 9066 MT/s. There is no support for ECC memory. Two PCIe 5.0 x16 slots operate in x8/x8 mode when installing two video cards. The board also has a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot powered by the Z890 chipset. To connect storage devices, there are four M.2 (one PCIe 5.0 and three PCIe 4.0), four SATA III, as well as Slim SAS with PCIe 4.0 x4 mode.
The Asus Pro WS Z890-ACE SE is equipped with a 10 Gbit network port powered by a Marvell AQtion controller and a 2.5 Gbit port driven by an Intel controller. In addition, the new product received a 1-gigabit LAN based on a Realtek chip, working in tandem with the AST2600 BMC controller for remote system management. IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) is also implemented through it.
The board has one Thunderbolt 4 port (40 Gbps), one USB-C with a speed of 20 Gbps, and six USB-A with a speed of 10 Gbps. For output to the front panel, the manufacturer has allocated an additional USB-C 20 Gbps and two USB-A 5 Gbps. Asus Pro WS Z890-ACE SE is made in the usual ATX form factor and offers many other features, more details of which can be found on the manufacturer’s official website.
The cost of the Pro WS Z890-ACE SE has not been announced.