Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero
Asus’ Hero steps up to the premium tier. $1,189 | www.asus.com
Asus’ ROG brand hardly needs an introduction. Since 2006, Asus ROG motherboards have rarely disappointed, and they continue to be popular with gamers and overclockers alike. But with premium hardware comes premium pricing, and at $1,189, the Crosshair X670E Hero is an expensive board.
At this price, you’d expect it to be packed to the hilt with features. And it is for the most part. Its M.2 complement stands out, with a total of ve slots. Three of them are PCIe 5.0 compatible, and one of those is via a very well built PCIe 5.0 add-in card.
It’s a good-looking board, with a large dose or RGB lit ROG branding atop the VRM heatsink. Its mirror-like middle section will be completely hidden by a large graphics card, meaning it’s predominantly black and easy to blend in with just about any system theme.
Asus ROG boards always feature good VRM solutions, and the X670E Hero does too. It mightn’t have the outright phase count of the Asrock or MSI, but don’t let that bother you. The 18+2 phase VRM with 110A stages won’t be remotely stressed by a heavily overclocked 7950X. The cooling is more than adequate too, if not quite as impressive as the MSI Ace’s which features a much larger surface area thanks to nned heatsinks.
The rear I/O is a real strength of the board, with one exception. Again, you’re limited to 2.5G LAN. At this price, at least 5G should be standard. That aside, the USB complement is about as good as it gets. 2x USB 4 ports are joined by a Gen 3.2 Gen 2x2 port and nine 3.2 Gen 2 ports. When combined with the internal headers, the board supports up to 23 USB ports!
The rest is mostly standard stu for a high-end board. Wi-Fi 6E is now all but a standard inclusion, and there’s a HDMI port for use with the new integrated graphics of Ryzen CPUs.
The BIOS of the X670E Hero follows the same layout that ROG boards have had for many years. It can be a bit daunting for newcomers but it’s chock full of settings. If you like to play around, the Hero probably isn’t going to miss out on much compared to upcoming overclocking focused boards. The X670E Hero felt like the most mature board of the bunch, along with the MSI.
The X670E Hero generally performed on par with the other boards. You can’t read much into results that fall within a margin of error, though the Hero managed to do well at lightly threaded tasks.
Asus usually comes out the gates well when a new CPU and platform is launched, and that’s again the case here. The BIOS feels mature, and though we haven’t had a chance to really delve into things like the Eco mode and PBO, the boot time and memory compatibility seem to be good for a v1.0 attempt.
It’s a solid oering, but – that price! Of course, a weak exchange rate bears some of the blame, but at $1,189, this is an expensive oering. If you don’t mind the lack of 5G or 10G Ethernet, you’ll be rewarded with a solid, reliable and well-built board that will surely last you through Zen 5 and 6 upgrades. At least that way you’ll get your money’s worth.
"The X670E Hero felt like the most mature board of the bunch, along with the MSI"
The Asus is a feature rich and refined board, but at $1,189 it’s too expensive right now. Chris Szewczyk
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