ASUS Maximus VIII Hero ATX Motherboard - Grey/Red/Black

Product Information

There aren't too many digital PWMs on the market for Z170, but ASUS is using this one which is very similar in size and pin count to IR's latest digital PWM I have seen on an EVGA board I have. ports and perhaps most importantly from a modder/aesthetic-conscious PC enthusiast's point of view - two RGB LED strip headers that can be controlled using included software. WiFi 6E availability and features are dependent on regulatory limitations and co-existence with 5 GHz WiFi. Customize static, strobing and pulsating effects, or have the colors change in time with music or indicate CPU temperature.

I’d recommend investing in a water cooler for overclocking purposes and really unlocking the potential in this processor/mobo combo. There are only two USB 3 ports in addition to these, so if you have lots of SuperSpeed devices, you may find the Hero a little lacking. Built around the Intel Z170 chipset and featuring the LGA 1151 processor socket, the mainboard works with certain Intel CPUs such as Celeron, Core i3, Core i5, Core i7, and Pentium.

Boasting various awards you can be sure this high-grade Asus motherboard will do its part and then some in your next-gen gaming system - utilise the power of Maximus motherboards! Supply and demand of innovative ideas for enthusiasts to create some of the best looking and best performing rigs about. The chokes are even slanted a little to add style, and the PCH lighting and ROG symbol are also very nice. I then proceed into Windows and use software to increase the multiplier; in this case I opted to use TurboV Core.

It provides improved performance by utilizing serial point-to-point links, allowing increased bandwidth and stability. Forming the aforementioned set of features are Asus' enhanced – SupremeFX – audio solution, an Intel NIC with network prioritisation software, a diverse range of gaming-centric software applications, and a customisable lighting scheme for the chipset heatsink LED. The hardware base is a custom PCB using proprietary fiber weaves to maximize corrosion resistance and signal integrity through the traces in each layer.An IDT6V41538NLG is used as a secondary clock generator to provide much higher BLCK margins than the clock generator Intel provides. Although very similar to the VIII Formula, the Hero Alpha sacrifices some SATA3 real estate for an extra, but welcomed ultra-fast U. ASUS uses its Extreme Engine Digi+ power supply circuitry to manage the power sent to the CPU and DRAM. Maximus VIII Hero Alpha includes the amazing Aura lighting-control utility to cast stunning multi-color glows across your gaming rig, via the motherboard's powerful built-in RGB LEDs or attached RGB strips, or both — and in perfect synchronization! This is a big deal, as I don't know of any other motherboard with all headers supporting both PWM and voltage mode.

We are awarding the ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero with a gold award for performance and It will certainly be in our running for our “Top lists” at the end of 2016. The advantages of having PRO Clock embedded within your motherboard are a reduced boot up time, lower jitter under extreme conditions and enhanced stability under heavy overclocking. This is obviously a full-fledged ATX Intel Z170 offering with a lot of features packed under the hood including tons of overclocking tools such as Mem TweakIt, KeyBot II, LN2 mode and even on-board hardwired start/reset buttons. Around the LGA 1151 socket is a heat pipe-interconnected heat sink that is stylish and is tasked with managing the heat load from the VRM circuit. Intel's Z170 chipset just landed along with the 6600K and 6700K ( our full review here) and today I have ASUS's latest ROG motherboard, the Maximus VIII Hero, in house and ready for testing.

There is no real way to explain how this works without bombarding you with technical specifications which quite frankly even took me a while to get my head around. That being said, ASUS's UEFI is one of the most solid Z170 UEFIs I have worked with so far, and it has the most overclocking features I have seen as well. PCI slots allow you to connect peripherals to the motherboard, most commonly graphics cards but also others such as sound cards and network cards. While the ASUS ROG Maximus VIII Hero has a great feature set and brilliant aesthetics, it has all the right stuff to be an affordable overclocking motherboard aimed at breaking records. However, I believe that ASUS designed this board to be kind of like a barebones overclocker, and overclockers prefer chipset IO to hubs and controllers, and in that regard the USB 2.