ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Hero Motherboard Review

It has been a little over two years since I reviewed an ASUS motherboard.  This is not an uncommon occurrence and largely depends on market conditions and budget allocations it does mean that we tend to miss out on new motherboard features that tend to stick with the ROG series.

While there has been some time between ROG reviews it has been literal YEARS since I last reviewed anything from AMD.  For the longest time Intel ruled the performance sector offering the highest per clock performance, the best memory controller and options to allow the factory “boost” to take over overclocking duties.  This left many enthusiasts to wonder if there was any reason to keep on living.

There were some notable cracks in the wall.  Back in 2020 I went all in on the 3000 series TRX4 Threadripper thinking it might offer a nice alternative to the Intel HEDT.  The AMD Ryzen Threadripper 3960X was quite the monster but didn’t offer much in the way of gaming performance but, had some really cool motherboard designs.

For my last AMD motherboard review we have to go back to the original Ryzen 1700 processor launch in 2017.  AMD was nice and sent me a processor and Aorus motherboard combo which allowed me to also check out the MSI X370 Krait Gaming a short time later.   Sadly, I was less than impressed with the new processor and would ultimately fuel my preferences for years to come.

Computex 2024 was largely an AI dissapontment but, there were some gems including lots and lots of AMD overclocking, with every vendor showing off their AMD options and the GSKill booth doing their memory overclocks on AMD hardware.  This piqued my interest with a renewed enthusiasm towards the multitude of Zen cores.

In this review we will be looking at the ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Hero motherboard.  This is a flagship board offering from ASUS built on the X870 chipset supporting all of the latest technology including the new Ryzen 9000 series Granite Ridge processors.

As with most every ASUS ROG motherboard you can glean a lot from their dedicated product pages including a full list of Tech Specs and some rather detailed looks into the various features.

The AI PC-ready ROG Crosshair X870E Hero offers unyielding power delivery, robust thermal management, hyperspeed connectivity, comprehensive PCIE 5.0 and DDR5 support to unleash the performance of AMD Ryzen™ 9000 Series processors. Dark hues predominate across this motherboard, drawing your attention to premium metallic textures, nickel-plated surfaces, sleek contours and a stereoscopic visual effect on the large M.2 and chipset heatsink. This board also features the Polymo Lighting II effect. This upgraded lighting module built into the I/O shroud provides more dynamic RGB illumination for the signature ROG logo.

• 18+2+2 Teamed Power Solution
• AI Networking II
• Overclocking - Effortless performance boost
• AI Cooling II - One-click fan tuning
• DDR5 - Max. 192GB, NitroPath DRAM Technology, AEMP
• PCIe Gen 5
• WIFI 7
• EZ PC DIY
• Polymo Lighting II
• USB4®