The new big trend in motherboards is hiding your cables entirely which ASUS have taken in full stride with their Back To The Future series of motherboards featuring not only hidden power connectors for the motherboard, but also a dedicated custom 600W GPU power connector. Todays new release is for the high end market with the new Z790 HERO BTF launching at a price of €799.
ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 HERO BTF
The ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 HERO BTF is the companies latest product which was originally introduced at CES alongside other products including a ROG STRIX RTX 4090 BTF to pair up with this motherboard. The design principle behind it is simply to hide the cables by placing their connectors on the rear side of the motherboard, this has also been achieved with the GPU by incorporating a PCIe like 600W power connector on the front for a specific ROG GPU to connect into. Recently a listing for this motherboard was spotted at ldlc.com by momomo_us (Via WCCFtech) with a price tag of €799.95 which is quite costly.
This is the first ROG motherboard in the BTF eco-system and it utilises the Z790 chipset capable of utilising Intel 12th, 13th, and 14th gen processors. Being Z790 it contains some of the latest in motherboard technology including PCIe Gen 5 M.2 and PCIe slots, WiFi 7 support, support for up to 192GB of DDR5 memory, and support for 2.5Gb ethernet.
All of the power connectors, fan cables, USB, front panel I/O cables for this motherboard are placed on the rear which allows for the visual part of your PC to be cable-free with the rest all crammed round the back, this of course requires a supporting case such as the TUF Gaming GT302 or Thermaltake Ceres 330. ASUS goes further with this motherboard and also includes dedicated 600W slot for a custom BTF ROG STRIX GPU which means you’ll be effectively locked into the ROG ecosystem using this motherboard.
Rear I/O
- 2 x Thunderbolt™ 4 USB Type-C® ports
- 6 x USB 10Gbps ports (5 x Type-A + 1 x USB Type-C®)
- 4 x USB 5Gbps ports (4 x Type-A)
- 1 x HDMITM port
- 1 x Wi-Fi Module
- 1 x Intel® 2.5Gb Ethernet port
- 5 x Gold-plated audio jacks
- 1 x Optical S/PDIF out port
- 1 x BIOS FlashBack™ button
- 1 x Clear CMOS button
Where Can I Learn More?
The BTF design as well as MSI’s equivalent will likely grow over time, but for now it’s a very niche and premium product segment especially with this motherboard being listed for €799.95 which is €110 more than its non-BTF equivalent.
If you would like to learn more visit rog.asus.com.
