Conclusion

The Asus Maximus X Hero has some of that special sauce, from a really useful, good-looking I/O shield, capable M.2 heatsink...

It is our belief that motherboards costing twice as much as entry-level models based on the same chipset need to be something special in order to deliver.

The Asus Maximus X Hero has some of that special sauce, from a really useful, good-looking I/O shield, capable M.2 heatsink, cooling opportunities through a raft of fan headers (including one dedicated to heavy-duty watercooling) and handy onboard buttons.

We'd recommend this board for folks who do indulge in proper watercooling; it seems as if it was made for them, and other than an awkwardly placed debug LED, we don't find too much wrong hardware wise. Our other observations rests with how Asus controls the RGB lighting, through the operating system alone, and we'd prefer to see this incorporated into the otherwise good Bios.

Users who don't need these extra features can opt for the Z370 Gaming and save themselves about £50 into the bargain. But for others, this is a fine choice. In fact, we like the board enough that it is currently residing in our brand-new test platforms, updated for the coming of 2018.

The Good		The Bad
Overclocks well Chunky M.2 cooling Great for watercooling Fantastic I/O shield Looks great		Debug LED in awkward place RGB control ought to be in BIOS

Asus ROG Maximus X Hero

HEXUS.where2buy*

The Asus ROG Maximus X Hero motherboard is available to purchase from Scan Computers.

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At HEXUS, we invite the companies whose products we test to comment on our articles. If any company representatives for the products reviewed choose to respond, we'll publish their commentary here verbatim.

*UK-based HEXUS community members are eligible for free delivery and priority customer service through the SCAN.care@HEXUS forum.

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I picked up the IX Hero last year and absolutely love it, if I was upgrading this year I would recommend this if you are looking to overclock, my 7700k is stable as a rock at 4.8Ghz on the IX, I probably could have pushed for 5Ghz but I'd rather have a bit of headroom for better temps under load.

Wow! £250 for a Hero board.

My Z97 Asus Hero cost £165 in late 2014.

That's some (unjustified) friggin price inflation..nearly 50% FFS.

Roll up, roll up ladies and gents to the great consumer rip off that is PC Components!

Bagpuss
Wow! £250 for a Hero board.

My Z97 Asus Hero cost £165 in late 2014.

That's some (unjustified) friggin price inflation..nearly 50% FFS.

Roll up, roll up ladies and gents to the great consumer rip off that is PC Components!

I would take the MSI board £70 less and performs just as well as both of those other boards (the Aurora is £100 more).

I can't believe the justification in price rises either, sure it's a new chips set but nearly all the components apart from 2 chips are the same.
Yes there will be tooling costs etc but component wise it shouldn't be that expensive.

The whole pc industry at the moment seems a huge rip of, for instance the SSD I bought 2 years ago is more expensive now (for the very same model…. work that one out?

Bagpuss
Wow! £250 for a Hero board.

My Z97 Asus Hero cost £165 in late 2014.

That's some (unjustified) friggin price inflation..nearly 50% FFS.

Roll up, roll up ladies and gents to the great consumer rip off that is PC Components!

I agree. The cost for 2 memory channel motherboards has gotten out of hand the last few years, and 4 memory channel boards are even worse.