ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Hero Review

Gamers know the best CPU for their new PC is an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D, so the question we currently face is to decide on a socket AM5 motherboard that will bring your PC together. Today we are reviewing the ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Hero which is a solid and stylish piece of engineering. It also carries a substantial cost…

Time stamps

00:00 Start
01:09 Accessories/Unboxing
04:00 A technical tour of the board
07:30 Rear IO panel
08:32 Getting setup to check the BIOS
11:25 Armoury Crate Software
12:01 Overclock and testing methodology
13:49 Geekbench 6 multicore
14:44 Geekbench 6 single core
15:19 Cinebench R23 multicore
16:00 CPU Power Consumption
16:32 3DMark CPU Profile
16:49 3DMark Time Spy
17:21 Far Cry 6
17:57 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
18:36 Assassins Creed Mirage
19:08 Cyberpunk 2077
19:39 Total War Pharaoh
20:03 Leo's Closing Thoughts

Specification:

• Chipset: AMD X870E
• CPU Support: AMD Ryzen 9000/8000/7000 desktop processors.
• VRMs: 18+2 x110A +2x80A Vishay Smart Power Stages with Asus Digi+ ASP2205 controller
• Memory support: 4 DIMMs, Dual Channel DDR5-8200+, Maximum Memory Capacity 192GB
• Expansion slots: 2x PCIe Gen 5.0 x16 slot (x16 or x8/x8 or x8/x4/x4)
• Storage:
  • 3x M.2 Gen 5.0 x4 from CPU. (M.2 2 and 3 use bandwidth from 2nd PCIe slot)
  • 2x M.2 Gen 4.0 x4 from chipset.
  • 1x SlimSAS.
  • 4x SATA 6Gbps
• USB support:
  • 2x USB4 40Gbps Type-C (Rear)
  • 2x USB 20Gbps Type-C (Front, one is 60W)
  • 2x USB 10Gbps Type-C (Rear)
  • 6x USB 10Gbps Type-A (Rear)
  • 4x USB 5Gbps Type-A (Front)
  • 4x USB 2.0 (Front)
• Graphics output: HDMI 2.1
• Ethernet: Realtek 5Gbps and Intel 2.5Gbps Ethernet
• Wireless: MediaTek MT7927 Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
• Audio: Realtek ALC4082 and ESS ES9219 DAC 7.1-Channel Audio
• Form Factor: ATX 305mm x 244mm

Testing and Performance

As you will see in our video, the test system we used for the ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Hero consisted of the following parts:

CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D
Graphics Card: MSI RTX 4090 Ventus 3X 24GB
Memory: 32 GB G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo DDR5-6000
Storage: 1TB Crucial T700 PCIe Gen5 NVMe M.2 SSD
CPU Cooler: Phanteks Glacier One 360D30
Power Supply: Seasonic Focus GX-1000 ATX3.1 Gold
Operating System: Windows 11 24H2

Closing Thoughts

The Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero uses high quality components from end-to-end and has a sensible layout that places the various ports, connectors and headers in logical positions. Asus has even managed to avoid a potential annoyance by using the ATX form factor where high end motherboards so often slip over to E-ATX.

If you build your new AMD PC around this motherboard we are confident you will be happy with the results and will enjoy superb performance.

There are a couple of significant points to consider, and the first is price. If you care about money you will find plenty of other motherboards that will do a similar job for considerably less. One obvious candidate is the MSI MPG X870E Carbon WiFi which we reviewed HERE.

The second annoyance is the way the second and third Gen 5 M.2 slots share PCIe bandwidth with the second x16 slot. If you simply ignore that expansion slot you may find the Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero makes a good deal more sense.

You can buy the Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero for £590 HERE.

Discuss on our Facebook page HERE.

Pros:

• Huge number of USB ports including Type-C.
• Impressive VRM and cooling system.
• 8x PWM fan connectors.
• RGB panel over the rear I/O looks good.

Cons:

• The price is sky high.
• Populating M.2 slots eats into the available PCIe bandwidth.
• Installing M.2 drives is awkward as the heatsink covers multiple drives.
• Including a SlimSAS connector on a desktop motherboard seems peculiar.

KitGuru says: We are impressed by the Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero however the price is too steep to ignore.

Become a Patron!