ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Hero

[Launcestonian]

Think I'll wait for B850 boards atm...

 

[Gigaherz]

he Gene is more of a micro ATX form factor solution than a proper extreme overclocking motherboard like the Apex.

That is just not true. But yeah why not get a dedicated xoc AMD line. Id gladly sacrifice TUF or the pro art line for that.

 

[W1zzard]

One answer is virtualization. Depending on the hyper visor you want to avoid or need certain configurations. For example, with Hyper-V your best bet of having a VM with internet access, wake on LAN for the host and no networking related blue screens is to have two Ethernet controllers connected by pcie or direct to CPU/chipset.

What I don't get is why put dual LAN on that ROG board. It has nothing else that someone who cares about virtualization wants. Usually it's the ProArt boards that have all the other things that you want alongside dual LAN.

I doubt even 1% of people who buy the Hero use such an intricate level of virtualization, if any virtualization at all (I know they all use VBS automagically).

Doesn't Hyper-V let you control the virtual adapters? In VMWare Workstation this is a total non-issue. I have VMs without internet access to unpack the chinese spyware, others where I can toggle it, and others with full access, some NAT'd some bridged

Typo on the VRM section. Vishay SiC639A and the picture shows Vishay SiC629.

Fixed

 

[Super XP]

Nice motherboard, most ASUS ROG mobo's are great. But if I was to upgrade to this generation, I would probably wait for the 2nd revision of this motherboard.

 

[Chrispy_]

I still honestly don't understand why anyone needs a $700 motherboard.

Yeah, the latter half of @Combatus' conclusion nails it - it's hard to justify when a $200 board does what 99% of people need, and you can afford multiple platform replacements at $200 that will vastly outlast this board, and likely outperform it when considering that this $700 will lock you into AM5, rather than you taking some of that $500 saved to buy AM6 once that replaces AM5.

These flagship boards feel like the everything-including-the-kitchen-sink approach, when that 1% of what a $200 board can't do is often solved with a cheap add-on card to go in all of those empty, unused PCIe slots that rarely get touched in most ATX boards.

 

[Dr. Dro]

That is just not true. But yeah why not get a dedicated xoc AMD line. Id gladly sacrifice TUF or the pro art line for that.

It is true and I don't see why can't both exist. You don't need to discontinue TUF or ProArt for it to happen.

Also let me remind you the first Gene was an Intel HEDT board - Rampage II Gene for socket 1366/X58, Gene is mATX, not AMD branding

What are you talking about? Do you think I am talking about GPUs? Do you think that is the only use for a PCIe slot?

Effectively yes. If you require Gen 5 for anything else you're stepping out on a niche. By that point getting the Hero is a bargain.

 

[Gigaherz]

It is true in

The Gene is very much an XOC board hence why everone uses it on LN2. It has everything youd want.

You don't need to discontinue TUF or ProArt for it to happen.

Yes, but I would love for them to die

Gene is mATX, not AMD branding

Yes, but that comes from a lack of mATX existing on AMD Rog boards so they couldnt be bothered to think of a new brand. They didnt replace an already existing one.
They also recycled names with the Ranger for whatever reason. (Tbf it was differentiated with "maximus" or "crossblade")
And Itx on intel got the "impact" brand and AMD none. (Strix counts as none).
If they make a Full-size 2 dimm XOC board id prefer Asus to give it its own line instead of another naming-scheme fuckup.

Would have been cooler if they brought back "Blitz/Striker/Commando" for Intel and gave "Apex" to AMD boards in the first place

 

[Kapone33]

Effectively yes. If you require Gen 5 for anything else you're stepping out on a niche. By that point getting the Hero is a bargain.

This statement is truly out of touch. The first thing you mentioned was that the X870E E Strix was the same board as the Hero. I simply replied that it only has 1 PCie slot and you made a comment about SLI being dead. Why do you think that the top end AM4/5 MBs come with add in cards? You see in today's World, people make videos or play Games. You like Ray tracing and the like so guess what that adds to the size of the Game. Then maybe you want a nice scratch drive for those videos you make. How about this one. Using the Add in card you can have 3 5.0 drives connected to the CPU. That leads to my lament on the X870E E strix. Yes it gives you all of those M2 slots but I can already install 5 on my X670E of which 4 are able to run at 5.0. That also means that my chipset is not running in the 70s keeping tabs on all of those drives connected to 4 lanes. There are another 4 lanes from the other chipset though so this was just lazy on their part. My X670E also already has 3 USB C ports on the rear. USB4 is not a hook for me. I am from a time when PCIe slots were like USB in terms of cards but there are still plenty of uses for PCIe. At the cost they are charging the X870E Strix is the only high end board that comes with 1 Pcie slot. For those of us who have been on AMD for a while that is like those budget X470 boards that also gave you one slot. If I was building a PC the Carbon looks way more flexible anyway and is a little cheaper. It is what you want at the end of the day though.

 

[rusTORK]

Look's like typo on motherboard box? It saying 256GB. Other documents saying max is 192GB.

 

[Dr. Dro]

This statement is truly out of touch. The first thing you mentioned was that the X870E E Strix was the same board as the Hero. I simply replied that it only has 1 PCie slot and you made a comment about SLI being dead. Why do you think that the top end AM4/5 MBs come with add in cards? You see in today's World, people make videos or play Games. You like Ray tracing and the like so guess what that adds to the size of the Game. Then maybe you want a nice scratch drive for those videos you make. How about this one. Using the Add in card you can have 3 5.0 drives connected to the CPU. That leads to my lament on the X870E E strix. Yes it gives you all of those M2 slots but I can already install 5 on my X670E of which 4 are able to run at 5.0. That also means that my chipset is not running in the 70s keeping tabs on all of those drives connected to 4 lanes. There are another 4 lanes from the other chipset though so this was just lazy on their part. My X670E also already has 3 USB C ports on the rear. USB4 is not a hook for me. I am from a time when PCIe slots were like USB in terms of cards but there are still plenty of uses for PCIe. At the cost they are charging the X870E Strix is the only high end board that comes with 1 Pcie slot. For those of us who have been on AMD for a while that is like those budget X470 boards that also gave you one slot. If I was building a PC the Carbon looks way more flexible anyway and is a little cheaper. It is what you want at the end of the day though.

I never said that they are the same board. I said that the Strix-E offers most of the Hero's functionality - and that is true. You only need one PCIe 5.0 slot for whatever next-gen card from Nvidia is coming up - you won't even need it for RDNA 4 which is targeting RTX 4080 performance. Gen 5 AIC SSDs are a niche upon a niche, and both of these motherboards will support Gen 5 NVMe drives in M.2-2280 format. Which makes your point pretty much entirely moot. That the Strix-E doesn't have two x16 Gen 5 slots is nothingburger, that's all it ever was and all it will ever be.

Look's like typo on motherboard box? It saying 256GB. Other documents saying max is 192GB.

I don't think 64 GB sticks have released yet, but board should work with them once those come about. Both would be correct.

 

[Kapone33]

I never said that they are the same board. I said that the Strix-E offers most of the Hero's functionality - and that is true. You only need one PCIe 5.0 slot for whatever next-gen card from Nvidia is coming up - you won't even need it for RDNA 4 which is targeting RTX 4080 performance. Gen 5 AIC SSDs are a niche upon a niche, and both of these motherboards will support Gen 5 NVMe drives in M.2-2280 format. Which makes your point pretty much entirely moot. That the Strix-E doesn't have two x16 Gen 5 slots is nothingburger, that's all it ever was and all it will ever be.

To you

 

[Dr. Dro]

To you

Then buy the Hero. Choice is beautiful isn't it?

 

[Kapone33]

Then buy the Hero. Choice is beautiful isn't it?

Indeed when the MSI Carbon has about the same I/O for $300 less where I live. Choice is indeed good as the AS Rock Taichi is about $370 cheaper for the same I/O as the Hero. You may not be interested in it but I promise you that because those boards have more PCIe lanes that they will sell better than the Strix E. You don't pay this much for something you can get on B650 or the new B850. PCIe flexibility is what separates boards on AM4 and AM5. That is why the Asus B550XE (Daughter's PC) is the best B550 board ever made. As I stated before Asus is not trying. The X870E E Strix will be the first board of that designation that does not have 2 PCIe lanes connected to the CPU. I would rather be able to use an Add in card than have 2 5.0 drives sit under my GPU. Some of us buy MBs to use the entire I/O. If not I would just get B650 and be done with it. Blame Threadripper as that is what sent me down this NAND based memory rabbit hole in the first place. Funnily I still have my X399 Strix. That should inform you on how long I have been using that line of boards. It is not that I cannto afford the Hero but paying $999 (Where I live) is just ridiculous for any MB.

 

[David Fallaha]

Indeed when the MSI Carbon has about the same I/O for $300 less where I live. Choice is indeed good as the AS Rock Taichi is about $370 cheaper for the same I/O as the Hero. You may not be interested in it but I promise you that because those boards have more PCIe lanes that they will sell better than the Strix E. You don't pay this much for something you can get on B650 or the new B850. PCIe flexibility is what separates boards on AM4 and AM5. That is why the Asus B550XE (Daughter's PC) is the best B550 board ever made. As I stated before Asus is not trying. The X870E E Strix will be the first board of that designation that does not have 2 PCIe lanes connected to the CPU. I would rather be able to use an Add in card than have 2 5.0 drives sit under my GPU. Some of us buy MBs to use the entire I/O. If not I would just get B650 and be done with it. Blame Threadripper as that is what sent me down this NAND based memory rabbit hole in the first place. Funnily I still have my X399 Strix. That should inform you on how long I have been using that line of boards. It is not that I cannto afford the Hero but paying $999 (Where I live) is just ridiculous for any MB.

And on 870 vs 670 those CPU m.2 Gen5 slots are useless -installing them takes the GPU down to 8x lanes

Why on Earth did motherboard makers do this?

Then buy the Hero. Choice is beautiful isn't it?

Dro it’s worse than that -on 870 vs 670 those superficially lovely m.5 Gen5 slots are actually shared with the GPU

So either have just 1 drive else use the extra slots and drop your GPU to 8x

Foolish design from mobo makers…

 

[chrcoluk]

A $700 mainboard should have DUAL 10Gbps ethernet. It's damn near 2025.

I would expect all of the following on a $700 board.

2 NIC's one been 10gigabit.
Bios flashback.
10+ USB ports.
At least 26 lanes for PCIe expansion including the 16 from CPU. No slots disabled by sharing.
4 M.2, none shared with PCIe slots or NIC or USB.
On board power/reset/diagnostic code.
Dual bios.
Clear cmos button at back.
Either onboard Creative or Realtek best audio chip.
Top of the line RAM traces/speed compatibility.
CPU mounting system akin to the new mounting brackets.
Easy latch for M.2 installation along with proper heat sink covers.
5 year warranty.
Isolated iommu group routing on chipset and CPU lanes.
Onboard wifi 7.
8 SATA.
Bios that works properly and adheres to CPU vendor spec out of the box.

Charge more than a high end CPU for a board, yes I become quite demanding.

 

[Panchovix]

I mean, it'd certainly help differentiate it from say, the STRIX-E models which usually offer almost everything the ROG Hero tends to at a nicer price. These boards are plenty expensive as is, so I don't see why not. This generation's STRIX-E even includes an external clock generator and the 18+2+2 phase VRM, it's basically just missing the Hero branding and the extra NIC

ROG STRIX X870E-E GAMING WIFI | ROG Strix | Gaming motherboards｜ROG - Republic of Gamers｜ROG Global

The ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi elevates builds with 18 power stages, DDR5 slots and extensive PCIe 5.0 connectivity. It features five M.2 SSD slots with heatsinks, USB4® support, WiFi 7, AI Overclo

rog.asus.com

Sorry to bump, but the Strix E-E also doesn't support PCI-E bifurcation from the main X16 slot (even if adding something like this https://c-payne.com/products/pcie-gen4-gen5-bifurcation-adpater-fpc-cable-x8x8-2w-2u-60mm)

ASUS deliberately hide the option for X8/X8, even on AMD PBS options. You can only do X16, X8/X4 (you waste 4 lanes for nothing) and X4/X4/X4/X4. They only let you choose X8/X8 on the ProArt-Hero or above tier.

 

[Dr. Dro]

Sorry to bump, but the Strix E-E also doesn't support PCI-E bifurcation from the main X16 slot (even if adding something like this https://c-payne.com/products/pcie-gen4-gen5-bifurcation-adpater-fpc-cable-x8x8-2w-2u-60mm)

ASUS deliberately hide the option for X8/X8, even on AMD PBS options. You can only do X16, X8/X4 (you waste 4 lanes for nothing) and X4/X4/X4/X4. They only let you choose X8/X8 on the ProArt-Hero or above tier.

Now that is screwed up. There's no reason for this limitation either as far as I know.

Dro it’s worse than that -on 870 vs 670 those superficially lovely m.5 Gen5 slots are actually shared with the GPU

So either have just 1 drive else use the extra slots and drop your GPU to 8x

Foolish design from mobo makers…

I believe this is because the X870E and X670E are effectively the same chipset, but AMD now mandates an USB 4 controller (right now most motherboards are using the AsMedia ASM4242), which has to be added in and usually takes up to 4 PCIe lanes. This means that a X870E motherboard potentially has 4 fewer lanes available against a comparable X670E model. Usually one M.2 slot removed, or as you mentioned, it eats into the graphics lanes.

 

[Panchovix]

Now that is screwed up. There's no reason for this limitation either as far as I know.



I believe this is because the X870E and X670E are effectively the same chipset, but AMD now mandates an USB 4 controller (right now most motherboards are using the AsMedia ASM4242), which has to be added in and usually takes up to 4 PCIe lanes. This means that a X870E motherboard potentially has 4 fewer lanes available against a comparable X670E model. Usually one M.2 slot removed, or as you mentioned, it eats into the graphics lanes.

I'm not sure why they hide the option, it seems all the strix on both X670E-X870E, -A/-E/-F/-I hide that option, asked on the OC forums and also saw the PEG32 Image of each BIOS and yeap, sadly no option. I was looking for it and had a shock when I saw it wasn't able to bifurcate to X8/X8 on those boards (but you have the option on the crosshair ones and proart)

 

[Kapone33]

I'm not sure why they hide the option, it seems all the strix on both X670E-X870E, -A/-E/-F/-I hide that option, asked on the OC forums and also saw the PEG32 Image of each BIOS and yeap, sadly no option. I was looking for it and had a shock when I saw it wasn't able to bifurcate to X8/X8 on those boards (but you have the option on the crosshair ones and proart)

On the X670E the 2nd slot share lanes with the 2nd M2 slot. It looks like with the new Strix they just straight up wired it as 2 M2s. The first slot is wired at x16 and does support bifurcation but only if you use the IGPU on a 7000 or 9000 series GPU. That is not recommended. You can still run RAID 0 on any M2 slot though.

Now that is screwed up. There's no reason for this limitation either as far as I know.



I believe this is because the X870E and X670E are effectively the same chipset, but AMD now mandates an USB 4 controller (right now most motherboards are using the AsMedia ASM4242), which has to be added in and usually takes up to 4 PCIe lanes. This means that a X870E motherboard potentially has 4 fewer lanes available against a comparable X670E model. Usually one M.2 slot removed, or as you mentioned, it eats into the graphics lanes.

Nope it is just lazy. There are boards more flexible like the Godlike with 7 USB C ports on the rear. Yep I said 7. It even has 2 internal USB C headers. MBs are supposed to be about flexibility., If you had X399 you would understand, boards like the As Rock Gaming that decided to wire all PCIe lanes at x16 with x4x4x4x4 support and then give you some M2 slots as well we a joy to work with.

 

[Dalton Sleeper]

There seems to be an ongoing discussion about this but I'm not sure I understand, can someone answer plain and simply if this board can run 1 x GPU and 2 x M.2 SSDs all at full speed? (This is a requirement if I'm ever going to upgrade)

Thanks!

 

[Panchovix]

There seems to be an ongoing discussion about this but I'm not sure I understand, can someone answer plain and simply if this board can run 1 x GPU and 2 x M.2 SSDs all at full speed? (This is a requirement if I'm ever going to upgrade)

Thanks!

It depends if which slots.

You can use 3 M2 slots without hurting the GPU lanes (1 at 5.0 at the top and 2 at the bottom at 4.0)

Running 2 M2s at PCI-E 5.0 (from cpu lanes, either M2_1 and M2_2, or M2_1 and M2_3, or M2_1, M2_2 and M2_3, or M2_2 and M2_3) will always halve the main PCI-E from X16 to X8.

If you notice, the former 2 will just waste 4 lanes (using 12 of a total of 16)

Even if JUST using M2_2, or M2_3 (just 1 SSD on those slots) will halve the main lane to X8.

In the X670E Hero, if not using USB4, you can run all the 4 M2 slots without reducing the main PCI-E from X16 (here the USB4 shares lanes with the first M2 slot)

 

[Dalton Sleeper]

It depends if which slots.

You can use 3 M2 slots without hurting the GPU lanes (1 at 5.0 at the top and 2 at the bottom at 4.0)

Running 2 M2s at PCI-E 5.0 (from cpu lanes, either M2_1 and M2_2, or M2_1 and M2_3, or M2_1, M2_2 and M2_3, or M2_2 and M2_3) will always halve the main PCI-E from X16 to X8.

If you notice, the former 2 will just waste 4 lanes (using 12 of a total of 16)

Even if JUST using M2_2, or M2_3 (just 1 SSD on those slots) will halve the main lane to X8.

In the X670E Hero, if not using USB4, you can run all the 4 M2 slots without reducing the main PCI-E from X16 (here the USB4 shares lanes with the first M2 slot)

Thanks!

That is not as bad as I thought, but still not optimal. This is going to be a build that will live for several years, having 4.0 speeds on one of the main SSDs is... less than great. It does seem that this is a gaming board only, which seems a bit weird as it is quite expensive. I was thinking of a thread ripper with quad channel at first, but a 9950X3D would be cheaper while offering excellent gaming performance.

Programming, 3D modeling, Unreal Engine, some hobby projects and some gaming.
Previous system: 5950X, 64GB 3600CL14, 3090 24GB
New system: 9950X3D, 96-128GB 6400CL30, 5090 32GB

I do not really care about USB4 that much, I'll read up on the X670E boards.

 

[Kapone33]

There seems to be an ongoing discussion about this but I'm not sure I understand, can someone answer plain and simply if this board can run 1 x GPU and 2 x M.2 SSDs all at full speed? (This is a requirement if I'm ever going to upgrade)

Thanks!

Thanks!

That is not as bad as I thought, but still not optimal. This is going to be a build that will live for several years, having 4.0 speeds on one of the main SSDs is... less than great. It does seem that this is a gaming board only, which seems a bit weird as it is quite expensive. I was thinking of a thread ripper with quad channel at first, but a 9950X3D would be cheaper while offering excellent gaming performance.

Programming, 3D modeling, Unreal Engine, some hobby projects and some gaming.
Previous system: 5950X, 64GB 3600CL14, 3090 24GB
New system: 9950X3D, 96-128GB 6400CL30, 5090 32GB

I do not really care about USB4 that much, I'll read up on the X670E boards.

Look at the X870E Pro Art.

 

[Panchovix]

Look at the X870E Pro Art.

IMO the X670E Pro Art is better (if you need to use the 2nd PCI-E slot). The X870E ProArt halves the 2nd slot from X8 to X4 if using M2_2. I think in theory it suffers the same fate as the X870E Hero (probably it halves the bandwidth of the main slot from X16 to X8 as well, ASUS hasn't uploaded the manual yet)

The only "but" of the X670E Pro Art is that the PCI-E_3 slot shares lanes with the M2_4 slot (so they run at X2 4.0 each, from the chipset if using both at the same time). If not (like running exclusively an AIC for example in the X4 4.0 PCI-E slot or just a M2 in the M2_4 slot), it should run at the full 4.0 X4.

 

[quadraticus]

Am I correct in concluding that I would be better off with the X870E-E if I need to use the second PCI-E slot for an x4 10GBE card? It sounds like the GPU slot on that motherboard has a dedicated 16 lanes, while this one will immediately halve each if you try to use both. (It seems bizarre for the higher-end board to be so constrained.)