Maxsun iCraft Z890 Arctic Motherboard Review – White Aesthetics Straight Outta North Pole

Maxsun iCraft Z890 Arctic Unboxing & Close Up Inspection

The Maxsun iCraft Z890 Arctic motherboard comes in a stylish box with blue and white colors. The packaging lists out Core Ultra Series 2 CPU support on the front along with the chipset.

The backside of the package lists the specifications and special features of the motherboard such as the 20+1+1 SPS power system, a 3.4-inch full color LCD, dual USB 4.0 ports and PCIe 5.0 lanes.

Inside the package is another box that contains the accessories and is located right below the box holder for the board itself.

You get:

• 4 x SATA Data Cables
• 1 x WiFi 2.4/5/6 GHz Antenna
• 1 x ARGB Splitter Cable

With all the accessories done, it's time to put that box aside and take the motherboard out of its package.

The Maxsun iCraft Z890 Arctic motherboard is an ATX offering that measures 245 x 305 mm. The motherboard carries a white color scheme with reflective patterns on the various heatsinks and shields.

The Maxsun Z890 Arctic is part of the iCraft lineup which is a premium segment featuring very nice aesthetics.

The board uses the LGA 1851 socket to support Intel Core Ultra 200S "Arrow Lake" processors. At launch, the LGA 1851 socket will only support the Arrow Lake CPUs though we can expect a brand new family in the coming years.

Next to the socket are four DDR5 DIMM slots that can support up to 256 GB of dual-channel (24/48/64 GB modules) memory.

These slots are rated to support XMP profiles up to 8800 MT/s (OC Plus). Each slot is labeled, making it easier to install DIMMs in the proper orientation. DDR5 memory comes with a different latch position so forcing a DDR4 module into a DDR5 slot will cause permanent damage. Each slot is also combined with a reinforced design to make sure signal integrity remains good while keeping the slots durable for long-term usage.

The full QVL list can be found here. The motherboard supports 4800 MT/s natively. The 8800 MT/s apply to 1DCP (1 Rank) configurations.

The Maxsun iCraft Z890 Arctic motherboard features a 20+1+1 (VCore/ VccGT/VccAUX)  phase SPS VRM power delivery that utilizes the Renesas RAA 229130 PWM controller, and R2209004 HBD (110A) stages for the VCore. All capacitors are labeled with 20K "270C E31" ratings.

The VRMs and power delivery solution are scattered around the LGA 1851 socket. The board uses an 8-layer server-grade PCB with 2oz Thickened copper in a low-loss design, retaining signal integrity for stable CPU and memory operations.

The VRMs receive ample cooling from the Composite VRM heatsink solution which covers the VRMs, M.2 slots, and the PCH.

The CPU is supplied power through an 8+8 pin power connector configuration. This will feed the CPU with up to 300 Watts of power. Intel's Arrow Lake "Core Ultra 200S" Desktop CPUs can sip up to 250W of power by default.

Coming to the cooling solution, we first have the Arctic Cooling Armor which covers the VRMs and the M.2 slots The heatsink features a heat pipe solution that connects the heatsinks, offering a larger surface for thermal dissipation. There's also a LCD on the front panel IO plate which offers statistics in real-time.

Underneath the VRM heatsink are Thermal pads which transfer heat from the VRMs to the heatsink.

Expansion slots include four PCI Express x16 (1 x Gen 5.0 x16, 1 x Gen 5.0x8 or Gen 4.0x4 & 2 x Gen 4.0 x4) and four M.2 slots.

• 1 × PCIe 5.0 x16 slot (configurable as x8/x8, x8/x4, x4/x4)
• 1 × PCIe x16 slot (physical size x16, supports PCIe 5.0 x8 or PCIe 4.0 x4)
• 2 × PCIe x16 slots (supporting PCIe 4.0 x4)

The motherboard utilizes a full metallic slot and Maxsun also implements its Graphics Card E-touch release mechanism which allows easy removal of graphics cards without having to release the PCIe lock manually.

The motherboard also has a vast array of M.2 slots, all of which are featured under dedicated M.2 Arctic Cooling M.2 heatsinks.

Following is the full list of M.2 ports and their details on the Maxsun iCraft Z890 Arcrtic motherboard:

• 1 × M.2 slot, supporting PCIe 5.0 x4/x2 mode, compatible with 2242/2280/2280K lengths
• 3 × M.2 slots, supporting PCIe 4.0 x4/x2 mode, compatible with 2242/2280/22110 lengths
• 4 × SATA 6Gb/s ports

The Z890 PCH is housed beneath a large heatsink with a stylish Maxsun iCraft accent plate that features a reflective surface and also has the iCraft/Maxsun logo embedded into it.

Storage options include four SATA III ports rated to operate at 6 GB/s. These can support 4 different storage devices at once. There are also 1 USB 3.2 and 2 USB 2.0 front panel connectors are also included which offers up to 3 USB 5G and 2 USB 2.0 ports. There's also a single USB 4.0 Type-C header.

Maxsun uses a 5.1 CH HD audio design with the latest Realtek ALC1220 CODEC, providing up to 130db SRN. There is a large selection of connectors on the motherboard such as the Power On/Off, Reset buttons, a DEBUG LED, and more.

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The full list of connectors on the motherboard is listed as follows.

• 1 × 24-pin ATX Power Connector
• 2 × 8-pin +12V Power Connectors
• 2 × 3-Pin ARGB Headers
• 1 × 4-Pin NRBG Header
• 1 × COM Port Header
• 1 × CLR_CMOS Reset Button
• 1 × 4-Pin CPU Fan Header
• 1 × 4-Pin PUMP Header (supports DC and PWM modes)
• 4 × 4-Pin System Fan Headers

Maxsun is using the latest WIFI 7 (BE200) Module to power wireless connectivity with a 320MHz channel bandwidth and Bluetooth 5.4. In terms of Ethernet, there is a single 5 GbE (RTL8126) chip.

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