Introduction

For the Intel fans out there, few motherboards result in as much justified drooling than an ASUS ROG Maximus model. The Maximus Hero now sits in the upper echelons of the ROG range and has a price to match, hitting up your wallet for $700. While European pricing for its AMD X870E cousin, the Crosshair, was far more reasonable, the same can't be said for the ROG Maximus Z890 Hero as you'll struggle to see any change from £650 in the UK for example.

It's a shame, then, that Intel's Arrow Lake CPUs haven't been received well, and subsequent updates haven't seen them leapfrog their AMD equivalents either. This pushes the board we're looking at today into even more niche territory, especially as it seems Intel will switch to a new CPU socket after launching an Arrow Lake refresh range of CPUs. Still, if you're in the market for a monster Intel motherboard, have a suitable budget, and are happy with a single generation upgrade path after what is likely to be your shiny new Core Ultra 9 285K, then keep reading.


As we've seen elsewhere in other reviews, spending more on a motherboard doesn't necessarily give you better performance. We've seen well-cooled VRMs and our flagship Core Ultra CPU running perfectly happy flat out using boards costing less than a third of the price. Overclocking is of course one reason to consider a board of this caliber, but that is often part of the usual CPU lottery. What this does offer are head-turning looks, a massive feature set and judging by its heatsinks, monstrous cooling too.

Specifications