Thursday, February 2nd 2017

ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Hero Flagship Motherboard Detailed

Feb 2nd, 2017 12:22 Discuss (68 Comments)

Crosshair is the brand that kicked off ASUS' coveted Republic of Gamers (ROG) series. The NVIDIA nForce chipset based ROG Crosshair socket AM2 motherboard was the board to have, in AMD's hayday as the leader in CPU performance. Over the years, the Crosshair brand received lesser love from ASUS, as AMD's chipset releases became infrequent, due to the company's slower CPU product development cycle than Intel. With the new socket AM4 platform and its companion AMD X370 chipset for the high-end segment, ASUS is back with a Crosshair branded motherboard, the ROG Crosshair VI Hero. It's interesting that ASUS chose not to give it the "Formula," "Extreme" or "Apex" extensions, and instead with the "Hero" extension it reserves for the $200-230 ROG branded boards.

Nevertheless, the ROG Crosshair VI Hero looks to be one of the most elaborately designed socket AM4 motherboards, and will compete with the likes of the Aorus AX370 Gaming 5 and the MSI X370 XPower Gaming Titanium. Built in the ATX form-factor, the Crosshair VI Hero draws power from a combination of 24-pin ATX, 8-pin EPS, and 4-pin ATX power connectors, and conditions it for the CPU with a 12-phase VRM. The board features a "monochromatic design," so you can deck it up with your own LED lighting. It does feature RGB LED headers, with support for ASUS Aura Sync platform. The board has its own diagnostic LEDs that guide you through the POST sequence. Besides the ROG stylized chipset and CPU VRM heatsinks, the board features plastic I/O shield covers that run the length of the board.

The AM4 socket is wired to four DDR4 DIMM slots, which support up to 64 GB of dual-channel DDR4 memory; and two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots (x8/x8 when both are populated). The third x16 slot is electrical gen 3.0 x4, and wired to the chipset. Both primary x16 slots feature metal-reinforcements that minimize PCB bending. Storage connectivity include eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and one 32 Gb/s M.2 slot with NVMe boot support. The board is packed to the brim with USB connectivity, including 12 USB 3.0 ports (eight on the rear panel, four by headers), and four USB 3.1 ports (two on the rear panel, including a type-C port; two via headers).

Networking connectivity includes 802.11ac WLAN, Bluetooth 4.0, gigabit Ethernet driven by an Intel-made controller. The board features ASUS' highest grade onboard audio solution, featuring an ESS 9023P DAC, RC4580 buffer chip, a high-precision clock-generator, a de-pop circuit, Nichicon Muse audio-grade capacitors, ground-layer isolation, and EMI shielding over the key components.

Add your own comment

68 Comments on ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Hero Flagship Motherboard Detailed

#26

TheLostSwede

News Editor

SparksDTTo my point, I don't feel the target buyers of this mobo, considering the price point it will likely sit at, will be interested in running 2x x16 PCIe 2.0 equivalent. A lot of people don't know enough or take the time to look up the information or have very poor understanding of what the shit means, so now you get someone who throws a pair of 1060 ref's on there and expects to kill it on 4k on max. They don't and then trash talk because they didnt do their homework.

Now, people will flame them and tell them their faults, but the collateral is that the next person doing research sees this trash talk while doing a quick Google search and says na, I'll stay away from that. A self inflicted wound that could have been avoided.

This is why I think it's better to just make a solid performing, and slightly more targeted product if your already in this end of the market. Something else could be substituted or beefed up in lieu of having 2 very limited PCIe.

Obviously there are other overlaying issues with the example argument I used above, but I would wager it is a situation most if not all here have seen in the past.

And you clearly didn't read my post.
The tldr summary is, the Ryzen CPU's has the same PCI Express lane count limit as Intel's mainstream processors, i.e. 16 lanes. You can't get dual x16 (32 in total) with only 16 to start with, can you now?

#27

Solidstate89

gigabit Ethernet driven by an Intel-made controller.

Hallelujah! If I do actually upgrade to an AM4 board, pretty sure this'll be the one. I've had nothing but a pleasant experience with my Haswell-era HERO board, and Intel ethernet chips are the best in the business. None of that Killer-NIC shit.

#28

Solidstate89

SparksDTTo my point, I don't feel the target buyers of this mobo, considering the price point it will likely sit at, will be interested in running 2x x16 PCIe 2.0 equivalent. A lot of people don't know enough or take the time to look up the information or have very poor understanding of what the shit means, so now you get someone who throws a pair of 1060 ref's on there and expects to kill it on 4k on max. They don't and then trash talk because they didnt do their homework.

Now, people will flame them and tell them their faults, but the collateral is that the next person doing research sees this trash talk while doing a quick Google search and says na, I'll stay away from that. A self inflicted wound that could have been avoided.

This is why I think it's better to just make a solid performing, and slightly more targeted product if your already in this end of the market. Something else could be substituted or beefed up in lieu of having 2 very limited PCIe.

Obviously there are other overlaying issues with the example argument I used above, but I would wager it is a situation most if not all here have seen in the past.

Why do you insist on lying about the bandwidth issues when running two GPUs with x8/x8. At PCI-e 3.0 speeds you could run at x4/x4 and still barely notice a single difference. The bandwidth necessity for running dual-GPUs is nowhere near as high as you seem to think it is.

#29

GC_PaNzerFIN

Times. They are changing.

You know something great is about to happen when AMD motherboards actually starts to look pretty good again. I think we are also going to see Impact (ITX) board for AM4, which should put Ryzen in very interesting form factor while keeping overclocking a thing.

#30

Kanan

Tech Enthusiast & Gamer

YautjaLordY'know what? F*ck it. This board's color layout,or how'd ever ya call it, looks like something sealife vomitted & that sat @ seabed for a really prolonged time. God-f*kcin-dangit, this one is lookin really f*ckin hideous. lol Just look no further than ASRock's X370 Fatal1ty Prof.Gaming - black n red + all the LED RGB stuff to make one sigh with a f*ckin excitement. Here, i said it. Will wait, still - looks beefy. :)

Not so fast. Wait for the RGB lightning before you say it's ugly or not. :laugh:

#31

SparksDT

holy crap, completely missing what I am saying.......I am saying that the board is overloaded on PCI-e 16 ports in my opinion. The benefit from multi-GPU is small, SLI doesn't even support 3 way anymore, so how many gamers (which is mostly the target of this mobo) will load all those up.

Simply saying I think the real estate occupied by the 3rd (could probably even remove two) could have probably been put to better use. Guess I could have gone about it better.

#32

TheLostSwede

News Editor

SparksDTholy crap, completely missing what I am saying.......I am saying that the board is overloaded on PCI-e 16 ports in my opinion. The benefit from multi-GPU is small, SLI doesn't even support 3 way anymore, so how many gamers (which is mostly the target of this mobo) will load all those up.

Simply saying I think the real estate occupied by the 3rd (could probably even remove two) could have probably been put to better use. Guess I could have gone about it better.

You're aware that other things use the same slots, right? Like RAID cards, PCIe SSD's and various other add-in cards. The third slot is obviously not for graphics cards for one. And no-one's forced to use all the slots on a motherboard...

#33

YautjaLord

KananNot so fast. Wait for the RGB lightning before you say it's ugly or not. :laugh:

Look at it, LOOK AT IT!!!! lol

Plaster the plastic shield over rear I/O, remove PCI slots (ugh, lol) & that NB heatsink (Ryzen, or actually R7 1800X is both CPU & NB, it's SoC :)) add all this reinforced PCIe & RAM shielding=instant success & captures the hearts of the likes of me & rest that dig black n red mobo color palette/layout. I got used to black n red, i don't buy black & red themed E V E R Y T H I N G for my AM4/EKWB cooled/4k gaming & Blender'ing rig for nothing. Aesthetics man, ffs. :laugh: I'll wait like i said, let them roll out something like Crosshair VI Formula-X or some such sh!t. Maybe i did exaggerated with calling this CVIH how i called it, but i had to get it off the chest. lol I sure interested in seeing how this thing performs with highest tier CPUs regardless, i.e. R7 1800X or Pro.

#34

Kanan

Tech Enthusiast & Gamer

YautjaLordLook at it, LOOK AT IT!!!! lol

Plaster the plastic shield over rear I/O, remove PCI slots (ugh, lol) & that NB heatsink (Ryzen, or actually R7 1800X is both CPU & NB, it's SoC :)) add all this reinforced PCIe & RAM shielding=instant success & captures the hearts of the likes of me & rest that dig black n red mobo color palette/layout. I got used to black n red, i don't buy black & red themed E V E R Y T H I N G for my AM4/EKWB cooled/4k gaming & Blender'ing rig for nothing. Aesthetics man, ffs. :laugh: I'll wait like i said, let them roll out something like Crosshair VI Formula-X or some such sh!t. Maybe i did exaggerated with calling this CVIH how i called it, but i had to get it off the chest. lol I sure interested in seeing how this thing performs with highest tier CPUs regardless, i.e. R7 1800X or Pro.

Haha okay. All I meant is simply, you have to look at it with RGB lighting in use, you can also set it up like you want (red and so). It's not so bad if you look at it like this.

#35

Dethroy

Those plastic shield covers are hideous.
I'm much more interested in mini-ITX anyways. Pretty sure ASRock won't let me down...

#36

YautjaLord

KananHaha okay. All I meant is simply, you have to look at it with RGB lighting in use, you can also set it up like you want (red and so). It's not so bad if you look at it like this.

Feb 27th or March 2nd is when NDA lifts off? I'll wait till then, will have enough for mobo & case (CoolerMaster's HAF X). I really hope the plethora of ROG X370 based mobos will be unleashed by then. :) AMD says they will launch CPUs before GDC 2017? Still interested in seeing flagship 8c/16t beast benchmarked on this mobo here. :)

#37

Kanan

Tech Enthusiast & Gamer

YautjaLordFeb 27th or March 2nd is when NDA lifts off? I'll wait till then, will have enough for mobo & case (CoolerMaster's HAF X). I really hope the plethora of ROG X370 based mobos will be unleashed by then. :) AMD says they will launch CPUs before GDC 2017? Still interested in seeing flagship 8c/16t beast benchmarked on this mobo here. :)

Ryzen: early March!

Yes wait for it, I think Asus are doing a great job.

#38

YautjaLord

KananRyzen: early March!

Yes wait for it, I think Asus are doing a great job.

Come to think of it, yeah - Crosshair VI Hero=200 or 250$ price range, Crosshair VI Formula(?)*=250-300$ range, Crosshair VI xxxx something=400$ range? I mean, there are Z270 variants like Maximus IX Hero, Formula & Code, gotta be the same for AM4/X370, methink? Also, early March? I think it was previously announced mobos & CPUs gonna launch prior to GDC (Feb 27 thru March 2nd or 3rd). Anticipation is one nasty mofo. lol

*Just making up names, really got used to Crosshair V Formula-Z. :)

#39

Kanan

Tech Enthusiast & Gamer

YautjaLordCome to think of it, yeah - Crosshair VI Hero=200 or 250$ price range, Crosshair VI Formula(?)*=250-300$ range, Crosshair VI xxxx something=400$ range? I mean, there are Z270 variants like Maximus IX Hero, Formula & Code, gotta be the same for AM4/X370, methink? Also, early March? I think it was previously announced mobos & CPUs gonna launch prior to GDC (Feb 27 thru March 2nd or 3rd). Anticipation is one nasty mofo. lol

*Just making up names, really got used to Crosshair V Formula-Z. :)

Yeah I think so as well. That mb is just the entry model of the Crosshair VI models. Probably others will have more pci-e lanes / more anything.

I also think it depends on success of Ryzen. If the demand is high it's likely just the beginning. A avatar model just for now to show off and have something great, with option to have something even greater later.

#40

SkOrPn

TheLostSwedeAnd you clearly didn't read my post.
The tldr summary is, the Ryzen CPU's has the same PCI Express lane count limit as Intel's mainstream processors, i.e. 16 lanes. You can't get dual x16 (32 in total) with only 16 to start with, can you now?

What I am hoping for is that either the board is intelligent enough to properly assign PCIe lanes, or at least allow you to assign them based on what you have installed in said slot, but I doubt it. For example I will only have one Vega card and one 960 Pro SSD in a PCIe x4 adapter. That way let's say if there are only 16 lanes in total maybe we can assign 12 to the graphics card and the remaining 4 to the SSD? I'm not willing to use the built in M.2 slot, i want to use my adapter instead.

#41

nemesis.ie

Maybe the higher model motherboards will be some kind of enthusiast class board that takes the 16c/32t model (server chip) but that presumably will need a new socket. Maybe AM4+ next year or more likely whatever the new server socklet is.

I still have a 2x dual core Athlon/DDR1 board running some long-term storage. ;) At the time it came out, it was stunning.

I would love to see something like that at a good price (i.e. limited to 1S) to really shake things up from the (very) top to bottom.

#42

SkOrPn

GC_PaNzerFINTimes. They are changing.

You know something great is about to happen when AMD motherboards actually starts to look pretty good again.

With Ryzen prices looking to be 70% cheaper then Intel, I would say Yes something VERY good is about to happen. People who spent $1100 on a 8C16T CPU from Intel recently will be angry, that's one thing that is about to happen, lmao.

Another thing about to happen, is that the single biggest PC shakeup since 2003 when AMD64 hit the shelves. And this time AMD doesn't need a new bit number to make it happen again, lol. All they needed 4 years ago was to re-hire Jim Keller apparently. And he pulled it off yet again....

#43

TheLostSwede

News Editor

SkOrPnWhat I am hoping for is that either the board is intelligent enough to properly assign PCIe lanes, or at least allow you to assign them based on what you have installed in said slot, but I doubt it. For example I will only have one Vega card and one 960 Pro SSD in a PCIe x4 adapter. That way let's say if there are only 16 lanes in total maybe we can assign 12 to the graphics card and the remaining 4 to the SSD? I'm not willing to use the built in M.2 slot, i want to use my adapter instead.

That's now how it works, nor are most M.2 slots connected to the PCIe lanes from the CPU. At least on Intel boards, the 16 lanes from the CPU are either exclusively for the graphics card, or split between the first two x16 slots as x8/x8 for two graphics cards or whatever else you might add to that slot.
There's really nothing intelligent about PCIe lane assignment, as it's up to the motherboard designers to assign the lanes to whatever they want to assign them to. Sometimes lanes are shared though, for example, if you use the M.2 slot, you might lose two SATA ports that share the same mulitplexed lanes in the chipset on an Intel board.

It's still not 100% clear how AMD will assign the PCIe lanes beyond the 16 lanes for graphics.
The pictures below suggests that you can get one x4 NVMe slot that's directly connected to the CPU and that will be the only PCIe lanes fast enough for an NVMe drive, as the chipset looks like it'll only be PCIe 2.0 rather than 3.0 for the lanes from the CPU itself. Again, this will depend heavily on the board layout. It also means you only get four SATA ports. It's also not clear of the SATAe ports mentioned are the ones from the CPU (which i guess) or if the chipset provides them in addition to the SATA ports from the CPU.

#44

SkOrPn

Yeah Ryzen has 16 PCIe lanes dedicated to graphics, 4 for NVMe, and 4 for chipset communication, and the chipset itself adds another 8 max (for the X370 anyway). Total of 32 to work with. However, like you said its not clear how exactly they will be implemented. From what I can see most of the Ryzen boards seem to have missing Ultra M.2 slots, which is strange considering M.2 will likely continue its rise to fame. Unless AMD has some better chipset sku's in the works, say X390 with 20 additional PCIe lanes then I am not sure how they expect us to utilize M.2, unless they plan on including PCIe x4 adapters in all the Motherboard retail boxes, lol.

Anyway, I would have expected Ultra M.2 to be on every AM4 board in 2017, but so far I only see one from MSI. I guess we need to wait for March to know for sure.

#45

YautjaLord

Prepping myself, bought G.Skill's Ripjaws V XMP 2.0 2x16GB sticks of DDR4 2400MHz & CM's HAF X. Will be a nice looking tank when Crosshair VI Formula* & R7 1800X hit the shelves, just it'll take month or more for these 2 to hit store shelves in Israel after they released in Feb 28th.

*Anything that falls into pitch black+blood red category will look awesome, only exception will be Samsung's 512GB M.2 SSD in case & i'd actually buy it. You can see i'm making up names, ain't it? :)

#46

nemesis.ie

That sounds very like my Bulldozer buiild from a few years back. ;) tT will not doubt be a "bit" faster though. It did look stunning though.

I was actually installing RAM in it for the current owner last weekend and it still looks modern/tasteful today.

#47

YautjaLord

nemesis.ieThat sounds very like my Bulldozer buiild from a few years back. ;) tT will not doubt be a "bit" faster though. It did look stunning though.

I was actually installing RAM in it for the current owner last weekend and it still looks modern/tasteful today.

Hope you talk bout HAF X, that thing even presented like a tank in CM's vid: removable top to install any 3x120mm rads, front USB 3.0, front HDD/SSD 5.25/3.5" bays, etc.. - screams "Cold 24/7" or something along those lines. :) Only exception will be HAF Stacker, but, a - couldn't find one in Israel, b - i could only shed fixed amount of cash today.

That kind of board & CPU just scream for chassis like this. :) Cheers.

#48

nemesis.ie

Yep. HAF-X.

I would HIGHLY recommend adding some magnetic dust filters though, otherwise it's a dust magnet.

The current system is in a Xigmatek monster. I will go for a compact system for the Ryzen one I think.

Kind of liking that Air 740 one though.

www.xigmatek.com/product.php?productid=122

#49

YautjaLord

Yeah, looks like the right beast for a cooling job. :) It's just HAF 932 spoiled me so much, anything else that is not pitch black+blood red themed is "eh, ok". lol The only thing in this AM4/X370-based/EKWB cooled/4k gaming & Blender'ing rig that will not be either is tubing, it's transparent. :) Well actually tubing, bay res, pump & waterblock. AM4 Backplate is pitch black+blood red, according to news item here. :)

HAF X's exterior & interior are all pitch black with LED red front 230mm fan - God, it's literally tank of all Full Tower cases i've seen.

P.S. Few cans of compressed air or that compressed air machine do the dust removing job just fine, i don't think the magnetic dust filters is something PC store owners in Israel are aware of. You can bet that's the last thing i was aware of b4 you said it. lol

#50

nemesis.ie

You can order those filters from other countries, they are not too expensive and just need a wipe with a cloth.

Add your own comment

ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Hero Flagship Motherboard Detailed

68 Comments on ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Hero Flagship Motherboard Detailed

Latest GPU Drivers

New Forum Posts

Popular Reviews

Controversial News Posts

ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Hero Flagship Motherboard Detailed

Related News

68 Comments on ASUS ROG Crosshair VI Hero Flagship Motherboard Detailed

Latest GPU Drivers

New Forum Posts

Popular Reviews

Controversial News Posts