Whoops: ASUS Lists all (19) their upcoming Z390 motherboards on its support page
Guess what? Yep, you guessed it right, one more on Z390. I'm not going to explain what Z390 motherboards are, as really you've read it all by now. But ASUS made a rather sizable mistake, their support pages are list all new Z390 models, to date unannounced.
The company is set to release at least 19 models with the new Intel Z390 chipset. The models are divided into five different product categories. We see ATX, micro-ATX variants and mini-ITX formats. You will spot Six Maximus XI boards from Hero (with and without AC Wi-Fi) up-to-the Formula. These should be the sweet spot with an 8 core processor as they probably have a beefy VRM area. For mainstream, you will see four Strix models. Interesting will be the Z390-I Gaming, a mini-ITX motherboard. Also listed are three new Prime series models.
In the lower range bracket, ASUS is to offer five motherboards based on TUF branding. There is also a Z390-Dragon to spotted, that, however, will be a motherboard intended for the Chinese market segment, not reaching the EU and USA.
Maximus XI
- ROG MAXIMUS XI APEX
- ROG MAXIMUS XI CODE
- ROG MAXIMUS XI EXTREME
- ROG MAXIMUS XI FORMULA
- ROG MAXIMUS XI HERO
- ROG MAXIMUS XI HERO (WI-FI)
Z390 Strix
- ROG STRIX Z390-E GAMING
- ROG STRIX Z390-F GAMING
- ROG STRIX Z390-H GAMING
- ROG STRIX Z390-I GAMING
Z390 Prime
- PRIME Z390-A
- PRIME Z390M-PLUS
- PRIME Z390-P
Z390 TUF
- TUF Z390M-PRO GAMING
- TUF Z390M-PRO GAMING (WI-FI)
- TUF Z390-PLUS GAMING
- TUF Z390-PLUS GAMING (WI-FI)
- TUF Z390-PRO GAMING
Z390 Dragon
- Z390-DRAGON
Senior Member
Posts: 5642
Joined: 2012-11-10
I see what you're saying, but my point is there aren't really that many more bells and whistles between the high-end boards and their lesser counterparts, and a lot of the variants (like boards with or without wifi) aren't necessary. There is enough change to warrant 2 or 3 variations, but any more than that seems unnecessary. Remember, we're talking about a single chipset here, not the CPU socket as a whole.
You do have a valid point there, but, I still think the sheer amount of variants doesn't pay off in the end. Again, you have to consider this is just accounting for Z390.
Senior Member
Posts: 3379
Joined: 2009-09-08
For each of these boards, Asus has to pay someone for:
* The design
* The manufacturing process
* Testing
* Writing BIOS/EFI code
* Writing manuals
* Creating box art
* Advertising
And so on. It'd be much cheaper and less overwhelming to consumers if they didn't pull this crap.
I could be wrong but i think things are a little different and that´s why they have so many boards. From my understanding Asus only creates 3 or 4 different boards with all the bells and whistles and then they create several versions of the same boards but with less extras. So they create an high end board with everything they have then they create a cheaper version of that board without Wi-Fi and 3/4 way SLI, then they create another version of that cheaper one without other stuff and so on...
This way they only have to design, validate and create material for 3 or 4 different boards because all the others are just variations of those same boards without some expensive stuff so they can hit all the price points the market requires. All this to say that it´s probably very cheap to create 19 "different" boards...