Thursday, August 4th 2022
ASUS Unveils the ROG Crosshair X670E Hero and ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme
During AMD's Meet the Experts event, ASUS revealed more details about its ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme, a board the company revealed during Computex, but didn't show the rear I/O of. However, ASUS also unveiled the ROG Crosshair X670E Hero, a board the company hadn't shown off prior to the AMD event. Both boards will feature a pair of USB4 ports, with both ports supporting DisplayPort Alt Mode. Both boards feature a further two USB-C ports, plus seven plus USB-A ports. The Extreme features 10 Gbps and 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, whereas the Hero gets to make do with 2.5 Gbps Ethernet, although it gains an HDMI output. Both boards have a full set of audio jacks and WiFi 6E support, as well as a rear mounted clear CMOS and BIOS FlashBack button.
Taking a closer look at the Hero board, it has two PCIe x16 PCIe slots, plus a single, open-ended PCIe x1 slot. The board supports four M.2 NVMe slots for SSDs and comes with a PCIe 5.0 card for a fifth drive. It also has what appears to be six SATA ports, a front header for a 20 Gbps USB 3.2 2x2 USB-C port that also supports up to 60 W USB PD and Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+. The Hero board will be kitted out with an 18 phase power design, with the Extreme getting a 22 phase design, both with a 110 Ampere power stage. ASUS has moved its audio solution to the ALC4082 USB based audio codec and at least the Extreme will have an ESS ES9218 audio codec. ASUS is also bringing over the Q-Release solution for graphics cards to these boards, as well as the Q-Latch for M.2 SSDs.
Source:
ASUS
Taking a closer look at the Hero board, it has two PCIe x16 PCIe slots, plus a single, open-ended PCIe x1 slot. The board supports four M.2 NVMe slots for SSDs and comes with a PCIe 5.0 card for a fifth drive. It also has what appears to be six SATA ports, a front header for a 20 Gbps USB 3.2 2x2 USB-C port that also supports up to 60 W USB PD and Qualcomm Quick Charge 4+. The Hero board will be kitted out with an 18 phase power design, with the Extreme getting a 22 phase design, both with a 110 Ampere power stage. ASUS has moved its audio solution to the ALC4082 USB based audio codec and at least the Extreme will have an ESS ES9218 audio codec. ASUS is also bringing over the Q-Release solution for graphics cards to these boards, as well as the Q-Latch for M.2 SSDs.
57 Comments on ASUS Unveils the ROG Crosshair X670E Hero and ROG Crosshair X670E Extreme
CPU: 170W sustained, let's say 300W with an OC.
2x PCIe x16: 150W
4x USB-C: 60W (4x15W)
8x USB-A: 80W
5x m.2: 50W
Fans, RAM, various controllers and other stuff: let's say 50W.
That sums up to 690W without the >75W power of the GPU - but, crucially, assumes every single component and port is loaded to 100% power draw at once. With a very power hungry OC. That never, ever happens in a PC. Ever. And, of course, dual GPU is dead, so that 2x75W for PCIe x16 is completely unrealistic (very few non-GPU AICs draw 75W). Nor will you ever fully load five SSDs at once, or draw full power from every USB port at once. It just isn't happening.
Is total power creeping up from these faster interfaces, and is potential total power creeping up from more power outputs? Sure! Does that matter? Not much. A baseline build will still draw 250-300W under normal loads; an upper midrange build will still draw 400-500W under normal loads (with each of these peaking at 25-50% higher under unrealistic torture loads).
Also, crucially, most boards with more than one EPS connector don't actually need more than one to be connected. A single EPS cable is rated for 336W after all. The extras are for XOC or to look cool. USB hosts generally support 5v3A or 15W. There are exceptions, but they are rare. Also, who on earth charges their phone from a rear USB port? :kookoo: Most fast-charging smartphones also don't support their peak rating with PD, but use some proprietary fast charging and step down significantly when on PD.
This board is pretty insane though. Outside of people using tons of AICs, I can't think of anything it doesn't have in spades. Looking forward to the >$1000 price tag!
There's idiots out there that do, just because.
F£$€ I would again.
In a way they have limited the chaos I could cause with only two pciex5 x16.
Oh good, four USB C
Two 40Gb, then a 10Gb, then a 20Gb?
Oh but on the extreme lets spice that up and go 10-40-40-20
Front panel USB-C port doing 60W of PD/QC, that's great to see. Can actually charge a phone from the PC at last.
Ballpark figures get hard when you're not used to that countries pricing and currencies... american stuff pre-tax for example confuses things
asrock pro rs and msi pro p wifi are all using 8 layers low loss PCB while gigabyte aorus elite is just 6.
also godlike and ace have pcie switches everywhere on PCB, crazy.
(or one version of the board has an extra NVME slot, and that one has the lanes assigned there instead)
x570=16
am4 cpu=20
am5 cpu=24
alderlake cpu=20
z690=28
Amd: 4*pci-ex gen5 lanes from the cpu to the chipset.
The number of lanes the chipset generates is useless.
but am5 b650 chipset cant take gen5x4 but gen4x4 only.
so....
welcome to 2022
I'll be interested in seeing the power management for that PD port though - I guess it must have its own buck/boost converter, running off 12V, to deliver the 5~20V needed for PD support? Unless they're being really shady and only delivering 12V5A through that port, in which case it's far less useful - that won't charge most laptops, or most other power hungry PD devices. (Also, isn't 12V PD deprecated since ... 2.1 or something?)
Also, which VR headsets need 60W of power? That sounds ... unsustainable. Venting 60W of heat off of a device mounted 5cm off your eyeballs isn't going to be comfortable for long. USB-C PD monitors also tend to peak around ~15-25W, and many are happy to run off host port power.
Still, useful? Absolutely.
We are at the era of VR headsets and regular old displays both using USB-C DP inputs, and being powered by the same USB-C.
It needs to exist first, before devices use it more often.
I've gotta use full sized DP and a powered USB 3 cable for my rift S, quest 2 uses compressed data and goes flat as you use it - the next gen could/should use regular old USB4 with 60W of power, higher quality compressed data or pure displayport
USB-C displays can indeed need more than 15W, but are similarly then designed around either a low-power mode with only 15W host power, or external power. Or, as in some cases, just don't work without external power, or have an internal battery that is slowly drained if only receiving 15W host power. (Also, how many people globally use a USB-C-powered portable monitor with their desktops for any significant amount of time?)
Why? Because up until this point, AFAIK not a single mass market host device delivering more than 15W and display+data over the same cable has actually existed.
Could these things be simplified through adoption of 60W PD output from host devices? Sure! But that would kill backwards compatibility, and there's no way laptops can deliver that reliably without absolutely killing battery life (or needing stupidly overpowered AC adapters). AFAICT there's no requirement for USB4 hosts to deliver 60W, meaning that compatibility would be a major minefield if this was necessary. The USB4 spec only refers to the USB-C and USB-PD specs for its power requirements, without specifying further, and USB-C and USB-PD mandate 5V3A output for host devices.
It would have the potential to be useful if this was standardized, but this happening seems highly unlikely, simply due to the amount of USB4 ports present on mobile devices that could never live up to such a power output requirement. Which would, in turn, kill the standard. Of course it's great if client devices start adapting to accept >15W PD input if available, and that might be possible, but it'll only solve the problem you're describing in a very few cases.