An amazing AMD motherboard for a big price

With a worth of practically $700, the Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero is significantly costlier than comparable choices from the competitors, and we’ll get straight to the purpose right here – this board gained’t run your AMD Ryzen CPU sooner than a less expensive possibility. Nevertheless, fortunately that additional value does purchase you a sackful of additional options that go some solution to justifying the huge price ticket.

If you happen to’re after the best gaming motherboard, maybe for a shiny new Ryzen 7 9800X3D rig, then there are many choices on the market proper now, and also you’re not simply restricted to AMD’s new 800-series chipsets, however older 600-series motherboards too. The argument for the Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero, although, is that in case you’re planning on retaining your PC for a number of years, then spending slightly extra pays dividends in the long run, particularly in comparison with choosing an outdated, mid-range B650 board.

There are different causes to go high-end too, reminiscent of getting all of the bells and whistles it’s essential build a gaming PC with high-end specs, and perhaps even water-cool your PC or overclock its CPU.

This board additionally provides you sufficient M.2 ports to create an impressively big and quick storage array utilizing the best gaming SSD choices, whereas additionally providing sufficient energy out of your case’s entrance USB-C port to cost a laptop computer. It could be overkill for many PC avid gamers, however when you’ve got severe motherboard wants, and a suitably fats pockets, then it’s nicely price a glance, plus it’s enjoyable for the remainder of us to dream.

Specs

Options

As you’ll anticipate, there’s an enormous abundance of options accessible on the Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero, with much more gizmos than earlier iterations of the Crosshair lineup. A lot of that is additionally now crammed onto the PCB, slightly than included within the accent field, which is admittedly disappointingly skinny.

Asus has its personal array of tool-free slogans and options on supply with its new 800-series motherboards, they usually’re in full drive on the Crosshair X870E Hero. Let’s begin with PCIe Slot Q-Launch Slim, which supplies you a very completely different strategy to eradicating your graphics card with out having to take care of the slot latch. As typical, the latter is now utterly inaccessible due to huge M.2 heatsinks sitting proper subsequent to it, however Asus hasn’t opted for a button mechanism right here.

As a substitute, you merely pull up the graphics card from the enlargement slot finish at an angle and this releases the latch. It’s disconcerting at first, as a result of in case you’ve ever forgotten to launch the latch earlier than pulling out your graphics card, you’ll know the way badly that may go (Ed: I actually do!), and this seems like step one in the direction of that sort of catastrophe. The mechanism works, however it isn’t fairly as confidence-inspiring as MSI or Gigabyte’s button-based mechanisms.

The Hero’s M.2 SSD ports are largely tool-free as nicely, however the big decrease heatsink that covers 4 of the 5 M.2 ports makes use of screws, whereas the competitors has largely adopted tool-free heatsinks even when they’re bigger than typical. Nonetheless, the higher heatsink’s M.2 Q-Launch mechanism is simple to make use of and, mixed with the M.2 Q-Latch tool-free SSD set up, it takes seconds to put in an SSD and heatsink, and three of the 5 ports supply heatsinks above and under the SSD too.

One other tool-free half is the antenna for the Wi-Fi 7 adapter. That is now screw-less and the 2 connectors easy press onto ports on the I/O panel, which is actually far much less fiddly than the outdated screw fittings. Persevering with with the I/O panel for a second, Asus additionally consists of 4 USB-C ports right here, two of that are USB 4.0, with the opposite two restricted to 10Gbps, in any other case often known as USB 3.2 Gen 2.

The six USB-A ports are all USB 3.2 Gen 2 as nicely, however this quantity is slightly missing for this worth, with Gigabyte and MSI together with extra USB-A ports on cheaper boards. That quantity is sufficient for many of us, however we’re speaking a couple of high-end buyer right here, who’s more likely to have at the least half a dozen USB-A gadgets to plug into their motherboard. Even eight could be an enormous enchancment, however six is a tad disappointing, as nobody desires to have to purchase extra hubs.

It’s additionally slightly unhappy to see 5Gb Ethernet, slightly than 10Gb, right here too, as you’ll have discovered the latter on boards on the this worth a number of years in the past. The remainder of the I/O panel gives USB BIOS FlashBack and CMOS-Clear buttons, plus an HDMI port, and people USB-C 4.0 ports additionally operate as DisplayPort outputs. In the meantime, the audio is Asus ROG SupremeFX branded, however is actually made by Realtek utilizing its 4082 codec, with two gold-plated 3.5mm jacks on the rear panel, plus an optical output.

The primary PCB additionally has some fascinating options along with the same old stuff you’d anticipate to see on a high-end Asus motherboard, reminiscent of energy and reset buttons, an LED POST code show and inputs for thermal probes and movement sensors. Firstly, there are two USB-C entrance panel ports, one in all which gives assist for QC4+ charging with an output of as much as 60W, which must be sufficient to cost any gadget within the foreseeable future. It’s an important place to cost your Steam Deck or laptop computer.

There’s additionally a considerably obscure SlimSAS connector, which can be utilized to develop the variety of storage ports, reminiscent of SATA, utilizing non-compulsory cables. Asus has additionally tweaked its EFI, which seems snazzier, particularly due to the brand new Q-Dashboard. The latter is a digital map of your motherboard that reveals linked elements, and clicking on the assorted components takes you to the required choices within the EFI. The fan management part within the BIOS is as much as Asus’ typical glorious normal too.

Design

The Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero is undeniably gorgeous, however whereas it doesn’t characteristic a lot in the way in which of RGB lighting and lacks the nifty removable M.2 heatsink illumination of the MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi, the brand new Polymo Lighting II array on the I/O shroud seems wonderful, and mimics a holographic gentle present utilizing cleverly-positioned LEDs and acrylic panels. The remainder of the PCB is all-black, however it will be good to have different white variations of the board, as Asus and others have completed with different fashions.

The PCB structure design can also be glorious, with a great unfold of ports, together with the fan headers, which don’t undergo the identical poor placement we’ve seen on Gigabyte’s X870 boards. We’d wish to have seen extra of the PCB coated, as Asus has completed with the audio circuitry, however there’s a lot occurring with the PCB that we are able to’t be too choosy right here.

The one elements we’d change in regards to the design are having the entire M.2 heatsinks being tool-free, and maybe having slightly extra onboard RGB lighting on a board at this worth, though you do get three 3-pin ARGB ports to develop the lighting your self.

Benchmarks

As typical, the Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero didn’t supply way more by the use of efficiency than different boards we’ve not too long ago examined, with its scores of two,314 and 140 in Cinebench R24’s multi-core and single-core assessments being on par with different X870 motherboard outcomes we’ve seen. The audio was noticeably higher, although, in line with RightMark’s Audio Analyzer software program, with a dynamic vary of 112dBA and noise degree of -113dBA, with these outcomes simply matching the standard of normal discrete sound playing cards.

Gaming efficiency in Whole Struggle: Warhammer 3 efficiency was slightly higher than that of the MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi, with a minimal 99th percentile of 165fps versus 159fps, and a median of 224fps in comparison with 220fps, although. Energy consumption was a lot decrease at 315W versus 373W as nicely, though we had been utilizing a model new BIOS for the Asus board.

Lastly, as we’ve seen beforehand, the bigger decrease M.2 slot on the Auss board was higher at cooling SSDs, with our check PCIe 5.0 SSD sitting at 70°C, in comparison with 82°C within the prime slot, whereas the VRM heatsinks saved the 18+2+2 energy phases at or under 58°C in our stress check.

Value

The Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero worth is $679.99 proper now within the US, which isn’t nice worth for cash, however this board does have a extra aggressive worth in different markets, such because the UK, the place it solely prices round £100 greater than the likes of MSI’s MPG X870E Carbon WiFi, often going for £569.99. Even so, wherever you reside, that is nonetheless an enormous quantity to spend on a motherboard that gained’t make your PC go any sooner.

It is a board designed for individuals who want cutting-edge options, have extraordinarily giant budgets, and should nicely have already factored in the price of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090, a number of 4TB SSDs, and a customized water-cooling loop. These fortunate few gained’t be dissatisfied with this motherboard, although, and the Crosshair Hero continues to be removed from the costliest X870E motherboard too.

Alternate options

MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi

If you need a handsome premium motherboard in your AMD Ryzen CPU, however can’t stretch to the price of this luxurious Asus board, it can save you some cash by choosing this very good board from MSI. This attractive board options high quality tool-free options in your graphics card and M.2 SSDs, and its RGB lighting seems incredible, with its light-up dragon on the I/O protect, and even SSD heatsink lighting. It additionally has a great deal of USB ports, and it’s over $100 cheaper than the Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero.

Learn our full MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi review.

Gigabyte Aorus Elite X870 WiFi7 Ice

Primarily based on the X870 chipset, slightly than AMD’s flagship X870E, this Gigabyte motherboard doesn’t have the expansive characteristic set of the Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero, however it nonetheless nails all of the necessities, together with tool-free GPU and SSD entry, and it runs your CPU simply as quick. It additionally seems completely attractive, regardless of its low worth, with its white PCB making a great basis for a white PC construct.

Learn our full Gigabyte Aorus Elite X870 WiFi7 Ice review.

Verdict

Whether or not the Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero’s premium options are definitely worth the excessive worth of this board largely depends upon how you’ll use it. You do get some nice options, together with a 60W USB-C entrance panel output, a superb EFI, nice management over your PC’s cooling, plus tool-free paraphernalia, however spending extra money on the very best graphics card you’ll be able to afford, or forking out on the very best gaming SSD, will likely be way more helpful when it comes to efficiency for most individuals.

Nevertheless, in case you’re a serial upgrader or overclocker who dabbles in high-end cooling, and also you need a board that’s going to maintain you content for the following half a decade, or at the least till AMD ditches Socket AM5, then you definitely’re unlikely to ever discover the ROG Crosshair X870E Hero wanting. Nevertheless, the premium it calls for could be significantly better spent elsewhere in case your price range is even remotely restricted.

If you happen to’re trying to build a water-cooled PC primarily based on this motherboard, be sure to additionally try our information to the best gaming CPU to seek out the very best chip in your wants.