ASUS ROG MAXIMUS Z690 HERO Motherboard Review

A Closer Look

ASUS has really pushed things to the next level with the HERO. In fairness, with a name like HERO, this motherboard really should stand out from the crowd, and the amount of raw materials used in its construction tells me it’s not going to be cheap. There’s a lot of expertly finished metalwork going on here, providing powerful cooling and protection to all the major hardware, and also it just looks really freaking cool too. The Z590 version was hardly drab, but this design is still much cleaner and more premium looking.

The CPU gets an impressive 20+1 Teamed Power Stages rated at 90A. This is backed up by MicroFine Alloy Chokes and Metallic Capacitors. This is a HUGE step up from the Z590 model, which only had a 14+2 configuration.

The VRM heatsink design is very robust, with a thick heatpipe joining them all together to ensure an even heat distribution/dissipation.

The board uses their ProCool II connectors too, which are shielded and reinforced to reduce heat and interference. There’s two of them, obviously, allowing for more power and more stable voltages when boosting/overclocking.

Of course, this board features the latest DDR5 DIMMS, which even allow you to unlock the power management IC on DDR5, which I doubt anyone but the most enthusiastic record breakers will bother with, but either way, you’re covered for flagship performance here. There’s also built-in power controls and a debug LED.

The lower part of the motherboard is pretty hardcore too, with a pair of PCIe 5.0 slots giving you some impressive future proofing. They also feature their new armoured design, making them more robust than ever.

There are three large M.2 heatsinks here, and two M.2 backplates ensuring your drives are kept nice and cool. All M.2 slots are the super-fast PCIe Gen 4.0 standard too, and don’t forget that fantastic Hyper M.2 card which is an ideal use of the bottom PCIe slot.

If that’s not enough, there’s even 6 SATA3 ports for your SSDs/HDDs.

Audio is certainly getting a big boost on this motherboard too. It features the ROG SupremeFX ALC4082 with ESS^® ES9018Q2C DAC, offering powerful 8-channel processing.

RGB is included, of course, and it’s actually hiding behind this gorgeous mirror finish.

It’s also an absolute mare to photograph, but I assure you, it’ll look better in person.