ASRock Phantom Gaming Z890 Nova WiFi ATX DDR5 Motherboard

ASRock Phantom Gaming Z890 Nova WiFi ATX Motherboard

ASRock’s top Phantom Gaming Z890 board: six M.2 slots, dual Thunderbolt 4, 5Gb plus 2.5Gb Ethernet and Wi-Fi 7 for Intel Core Ultra Series 2.

The ASRock Z890 Nova WiFi is aimed at enthusiasts who want an LGA1851 system with as much storage and connectivity as a single ATX board can carry. It is built on an eight-layer PCB with 2oz copper for clean power delivery to Core Ultra processors, and supports four DDR5 DIMMs up to 256GB at 9600+ MT/s when overclocked with XMP 3.0. ASRock’s Hyper BCLK Engine allows base-clock tuning beyond what the chipset normally permits. Punch can build it into a complete high-end gaming or workstation PC.

Storage and expansion

Six M.2 slots is unusual on any desktop board. The CPU-fed Blazing M.2 slot runs at PCIe 5.0 x4 for the fastest current SSDs, a second CPU slot runs at PCIe 4.0 x4, and four chipset-fed Hyper M.2 slots add PCIe 4.0 x4, one of which also accepts SATA drives. Four SATA 6Gb/s ports remain for bulk storage. The main graphics slot is PCIe 5.0 x16 with support for riser cards, and a second PCIe 4.0 x16 slot wired at x4 is shared with the M2_4 slot. ASRock’s package list includes an optional M.2 expansion card that adds four more PCIe 4.0 x1 sockets in that slot.

Connectivity

Two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports on the rear deliver 40Gb/s for docks and external storage and can drive displays from the processor’s integrated graphics, alongside an HDMI 2.1 port. There are four USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports, four USB 3.2 Gen 1 and two USB 2.0 ports, plus front-panel headers for a USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C, four Gen 1 and four USB 2.0 ports. Networking pairs a Realtek RTL8126 5Gb port with a Killer E3100G 2.5Gb port, and the pre-fitted 2×2 Wi-Fi 7 module supports 320MHz channels on 6GHz and Bluetooth 5.4. Audio uses the Realtek ALC4082 codec with optical S/PDIF output.

Cooling and control

Eight 4-pin fan and pump headers (two CPU, four chassis, AIO pump and water pump) with 3A capacity on most, three thermistor cable headers, one RGB and three addressable RGB headers, onboard power and reset buttons, a Dr. Debug LED readout, and rear Clear CMOS and BIOS Flashback buttons make it easy to build, tune and diagnose.

Ideal for

• High-end gaming PCs on Intel Core Ultra 9 and 7 processors
• Content-creation systems that need several NVMe drives and Thunderbolt 4
• Builders who want 5Gb Ethernet and Wi-Fi 7 without add-in cards

Specifications

• Chipset: Intel Z890
• Socket: LGA1851 (RL-ILM), Intel Core Ultra processors (Series 2)
• Form factor: ATX, 8-layer PCB, 2oz copper
• Memory: 4 x DDR5 DIMM, max 256GB, up to 9600+ MT/s (OC), non-ECC unbuffered, XMP 3.0, dual channel
• Expansion slots: 1 x PCIe 5.0 x16 (CPU, riser card support), 1 x PCIe 4.0 x16 at x4 (chipset; disables M2_4 when used), 1 x M.2 Key E for Wi-Fi
• M.2: M2_1 2280 PCIe 5.0 x4 (CPU); M2_2 2260/2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 (CPU); M2_3 2230-2280 PCIe 4.0 x4 or SATA; M2_4, M2_5, M2_6 2260/2280 PCIe 4.0 x4
• SATA: 4 x SATA3 6Gb/s
• LAN: 1 x 5Gb Realtek RTL8126, 1 x 2.5Gb Killer E3100G
• Wireless: 802.11be Wi-Fi 7 2×2, 2.4/5/6GHz, 320MHz channels, Bluetooth 5.4
• Audio: Realtek ALC4082 7.1-channel HD audio, Nahimic, optical S/PDIF out
• Rear USB: 2 x Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 Type-C (40Gb/s, PD 3.0 15W), 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A, 4 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 2 x USB 2.0
• Video outputs: 1 x HDMI 2.1 (4K 120Hz), 2 x Thunderbolt 4 Type-C (DisplayPort, up to 8K 60Hz)
• Internal USB: 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2×2 Type-C header, 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 headers (4 ports), 2 x USB 2.0 headers (4 ports)
• Fan headers: 2 x CPU, 4 x chassis, 1 x AIO pump, 1 x water pump (all 4-pin)
• Power: 1 x 24-pin ATX, 2 x 8-pin 12V
• Lighting: 1 x RGB header, 3 x addressable RGB headers
• Other: Dr. Debug LED, power and reset buttons, Clear CMOS and BIOS Flashback buttons, 3 x thermistor headers, SPI TPM header