ASUS ROG Maximus Z890 Extreme Motherboard Review

Over the holiday I decided to “treat yo self” and upgrade some systems around the Hardware Asylum Labs.  These upgrades were discussed on the Hardware Asylum podcast and included, an upgrade to the “Garage PC / Podcast / Streaming” computer to a Core i9 13900k enabled MiniITX system.  I also decided to upgrade the server that has been hosting Hardwareasylum.com so I can do some really fun stuff in 2025.

More on that later.

The highlight of my upgrade adventure is my personal build.  In the past I would almost exclusively pull hardware off the shelf and just build a daily driver.  My last one was the EVGA X99 FTW coupled with a 5960X and RTX 2080 Ti Kingpin.  At the time it was rather powerful but, by today’s standards, not so much.  That was going to be the plan this time around but, I was being a little greedy and really wanted an RTX 4090.  Strangely enough, I never got one in for review and didn’t want to pay 4 grand for the privilege.

So, instead I explored some of the bundles at Newegg and found the perfect combo of what I wanted along with some other worthless garbage all for less than an overpriced RTX 4090. 

Win Win.

In this review we will be looking at the ASUS ROG Maximus Z890 Extreme.  This is a flagship level motherboard offering from ASUS built on the Z890 chipset.  In terms of a series, the Extreme has always marked the top of the line often encompassing every feature from the lower tier boards with a little something extra sprinkled on top.

• 24+1+2+2 Teamed Power Solution
• AI Networking II
• AI Cooling II with One-click fan tuning
• Overclocking
• DDR5 Max. 256GB, NitroPath DRAM Technology,
• Extensive Gen 5 x3 onboard M.2 slots, and x2 PCIe 5.0 x16 slots
• ROG Q-DIMM.2 Adds x2 M.2 slots in a DIY-friendly shell
• WiFi 7
• EZ PC DIY
• Thunderbolt 5
• Full Color 5" LCD Display

ROG motherboards have been some of the most feature rich products on the market and while the list shown in this review seems rather short I urge you to check out the product page on the Asus website for more details.