ROG Crosshair X870E HERO :
Architecture :
This ROG Crosshair X870E HERO is built around the new X870E chipset announced at the launch of the new AMD Ryzen 9000 processors. AMD also took the opportunity to announce the arrival of other chipsets in the coming weeks, including the AMD X870, B850 and B840. Here’s a table highlighting the differences between these four chipsets.
As you’ll have gathered, the X870E chipset used in today’s sample is of course AMD’s top-of-the-range model.
The bundle :
The box features a design that we’re already familiar with and that doesn’t deviate from what we’re used to seeing on motherboards in the ROG ‘ Republic Of Gamers ‘ series. The front has a matt black finish with red accents and the model name embossed for a premium look.
As soon as the box is opened, ROG highlights the new technologies on board the PCB of this Crosshair X870E HERO: “M.2 Q-Release”, “M.2 Q-slide”, “M.2 Q-Latch” and “Q-Release Slim”. ASUS has simplified the installation of NVMe drives with these features. These innovations allow the NVMe and its heatsink to be clipped in without the need for screws. This eliminates the difficulties of positioning the heatsinks on the screw threads. The ‘Q-Release Slim’ allows the graphics card to be clipped in and out without pressing any buttons. To remove it, simply pull gently on the left-hand side of the graphics card to unlock it automatically.
A quick look at the bundle for this ROG Crosshair X870E HERO to see if it has any “special accessories”. It’s a fairly comprehensive bundle, with perhaps one item that stands out from the rest – a ROG bottle opener. The Belgians have finally been heard.
Other accessories include an ARGB RGB extension cable, four SATA 6Gb/s cables, a WiFi antenna, a Q-connector, two M.2 Q-Latches, three M.2 Q-Slides, five M.2 pads, a ROG sticker, a ROG card, a bottle opener, a USB key and a quick start guide.
The AM5 socket is still present:
There’s no change as far as the AM5 socket is concerned, with AMD continuing to retain it and announcing that it will be compatible until at least 2027. Farewell to the AM4 PGA (Pin Grid Array) socket in which you used to mount your processor, and make way for the LGA (Land Grid Array) socket. The change has taken place since the AMD Ryzen 7000 processors because of the greater number of pins on the Ryzen 7000 (1718).
With the AM5 socket, AMD has retained a backplate that was already present on the AM4 socket. The 4 external holes that hold the retention system to fix your cooling system are still present. The distance between these 4 holes is identical to that of socket AM4, so you can still use your cooling system.
AMD has gone one step further and added 4 extra holes to hold the AM5 socket in place, as well as the backplate. This means that the backplate can no longer be removed, as was the case with the previous generation. The locking mechanism has a reinforcement frame, a force frame and a latch. Once your Ryzen 7000/9000 has been placed in the correct position, simply close the latch to hold it in place.
The different radiators :
The dimensions of the board are 305 mm x 244 mm, which corresponds to the ATX format. The dominant colours on the PCB are black and grey, which is unchanged from the previous generation of ROG X670E boards. So there’s no revolution on this model, and there’s also an ‘armour’ on the rear of the PCB, the aim of which is to optimise cooling with thermal pads placed around the power stages.
Let’s start with the heatsink, of which there are four!
Firstly, the three heatsink located on the top of the motherboard and covering the power stages. These two heatsink are linked together by a heatpipe. In reality, there are three of them, but this one is independent and hidden under the plastic cover, which covers part of the heatsink and the external connectors. We discovered it when we dismantled this area to reveal the power stages.
The cover has a backlight that displays the initials ‘ROG’. You can customise the rendering of the initials using the ‘Aura Sync’ application. This is an entirely passive system, meaning it doesn’t use any fans pre-installed on the motherboard.
The fourth heatsink is the one that covers the chipset and the many SSD slots. The height of this is low, so that the graphics cards can be easily inserted. The embossed ROG logo covers this large heatsink, compensating for the absence of RGB backlighting in this area.
Support for DDR5 and higher frequencies :
While DDR5 support has been assured since the arrival of the AM5 motherboards, it’s now getting better, thanks to the new BIOSes, with ROG announcing support for memory kits of up to 8600 MT/s (OC) for the Ryzen 8000 and up to 192 GB. We’ll have a chance to evaluate this in our tests. The Crosshair X870E HERO has four memory slots that benefit from the new ‘DRAM Nitropath’ technology. This technology involves a physical modification of the RAM slot. The gold pins are shorter than those traditionally used, which reduces signal noise on the slots. According to ASUS, this modification would enable a gain of 400 MHz in RAM overclocking. It would also considerably increase the resistance of the slot when RAM modules are repeatedly changed.
We also saw the arrival of ‘EXPO’ technology in the previous generation. This is an alternative to the XMP profile on INTEL models. As a reminder, this profile allows you, via the BIOS, to automatically activate the characteristics of your memory kit: frequency, timings and voltage.
Five M.2 SSD slots and PCIe 5.0 support:
The least we can say is that there’s plenty of room on the PCB, with no less than five slots. The first benefits from ‘M.2 Q-Release’ technology, which allows the heatsink to be removed with just the touch of a finger. Below this is the first slot for a type 2242/2260/2280 M.2 SSD compatible with PCIe 5.0 x4.
When you unscrew the 4 screws from the black aluminium plate, four new slots appear. In addition, you’ll be able to benefit from two PCIe 5.0 x4-compatible type 2242/2260/2280 M.2 SSD slots, one PCIe 4.0 x4-compatible type 2242/2260/2280 M.2 SSD slot and one PCIe 5.0 x4-compatible type 2280 M.2 SSD slot.
There are two PCIe ports, wired in PCIe 5.0 x16 (x16 or x8/x8) and compatible with the ‘Q-Release Slim’. This device allows the graphics card to be clipped in and out without pressing any buttons. To remove it, simply pull gently on the left side of the graphics card to unlock it automatically.
