ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Hero Motherboard Review

A Closer Look

Wow, this is easily one of the most impressive looking X870 boards we’ve seen yet, but that’s no surprise, given that the Crosshair is one of the flagship series for ASUS, and that means it comes with some of the most extreme hardware, features, and most prominently the most impressive looking armour and heatsinks. With an 18+2+2 100A power stages VRM, this is an overclocking beast.

Storage options are extreme too, with five M.2 slots, and three of those are running full-fat PCIe 5.0 x4 speeds.

Two more are tucked into the bottom of the board, operating at PCIe 4.0 x4, so your storage configurations will be incredibly versatile. However, there are also two full-length PCIe 5.0 x16 slots, allowing for multiple high-end GPUs to aid with gaming, rendering, AI applications and more.

It’s no surprise the rear I/O is packing some serious hardware too, perhaps now as many USB ports as their Creator series, but everything that is here is designed for high-speed performance. You get two USB4 Type-C ports with 40Gbps speeds, and 8 x 10Gbps ports, alongside both 2.5Gbps and 5Gbps LAN, WiFi7, and more.

 Ports

• 2 x USB4^® (40Gbps) ports (2 x USB Type-C^®)
• 8 x USB 10Gbps ports (6 x Type-A + 2 x USB Type-C^®)
• 1 x HDMI™ port
• 1 x Wi-Fi module
• 1 x Intel^® 2.5Gb Ethernet port
• 1 x Realtek 5Gb Ethernet port
• 2 x Gold-plated audio jacks
• 1 x Optical S/PDIF out port
• 1 x BIOS FlashBack™ button
• 1 x Clear CMOS button

It’s also one of the few motherboards we’re reviewing today that has a comprehensive backplate for increased durability and heat distribution.