ASUS introduced a pair of new workstation motherboards based on the new C246 chipset, designed for Xeon E-2100 series socket LGA1151 processors. These include the WS C246 Pro (ATX form-factor) and WS C246 M Pro (micro-ATX). Both boards also support 8th generation Core, Pentium, and Celeron "Coffee Lake" processors. The cornerstone of both boards is a zero-bling design that focuses on features relevant to workstations. The WS C246 Pro draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, and an optional 6-pin PCIe power. An 8-phase VRM conditions power for the CPU, which is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots supporting up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory with ECC support. Expansion slots include two reinforced PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x8/x8 with both populated), two additional x16 slots that are electrical gen 3.0 x4 and wired to the PCH; and two gen 3.0 x1 slots.

Storage connectivity on the WS C246 Pro includes eight SATA 6 Gbps, an two M.2 slots with PCIe gen 3.0 x4 wiring, each. USB connectivity includes two USB 3.1 gen 2 (one each type-A and type-C), and four USB 3.0 ports on the rear panel. Two USB 3.0 ports are put out as internal headers. There's also an internal type-A USB 3.0 port meant for USB TPMs and security keys. Display outputs include one each of D-Sub, DVI, HDMI, and DisplayPort. There are two 1 GbE interfaces, both driven by Intel-made controllers. 8-channel HD audio makes for the rest of it.The WS C246 M Pro looks better laid out for the enterprise environment, with four DDR4 UDIMM slots along the top of the PCB, and power connectors (24-pin ATX + 8-pin EPS) along the right corner. The CPU VRM is a simpler 6-phase fare. Expansion slots include one each of PCI-Express 3.0 x16, PCI-Express x8, and PCI-Express 3.0 x1. Display outputs include DP, HDMI, and D-Sub. 2x 1 GbE ports make up networking. Blank traces reveal there could be a variant in the works with a proper IPMI remote management chip.