ASUS Maximus XII Hero (WiFi)

Black Haru · Jun 9, 2020

ASUS once again delivers with their Maximus line of high-end motherboards. The Maximus XII Hero (WiFi) has premium looks, premium features, a powerful VRM and broad overclocking support. It terms of connectivity, everything is there, too: WiFi 6, 5 Gb/s LAN, triple M.2 slots.

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AnarchoPrimitiv · Jun 10, 2020

Just an FYI, when you're listing the board specs in the introduction, you list it as only 2x SATAIII 6Gb/s ports while in the board layout section, you specify 6x SATAIII ports.

The Quim Reaper · Jun 10, 2020

Wow!

That's some price inflation for a Hero class board, I got one for my old 4690K build in 2014 and it only cost $165.

Motherboard prices have gone absolutely insane.

Calmmo · Jun 10, 2020

seems since x570 seemed to sell well they collectively figured they could charge an extra 100 "across the board" and get away with it.

Caring1 · Jun 10, 2020

$400 U.S. is about $800 AU.
No idea how that conversion works out, I think retailers and our Government think we have money to burn and they want it all.

Assimilator · Jun 10, 2020

The Quim Reaper said:
Wow!

That's some price inflation for a Hero class board, I got one for my old 4690K build in 2014 and it only cost $165.

Motherboard prices have gone absolutely insane.

5Gb LAN and WiFi 6 aren't free. Nor is the thermal solution required to handle 250W of CPU heat output. And there's a little thing called "coronavirus" that has had a non-negligible impact on the supply chain.

But it hardly helps that enthusiasts demanded ridiculously unnecessarily overbuilt VRMs that have now become standard on almost every motherboard. Those aren't free either.

Tsukiyomi91 · Jun 10, 2020

$400 gets you all the bells & whistles, an overbuilt VRM + cooler combo that can wrestle the i9-10900K without problems & looking cool at the same time. That said, Gigabyte's B550 AORUS Master costs nearly as much as this, so this Z490 chipset this board is using seemed a little better in value than the mid range, overbuilt B550 board.

EarthDog · Jun 10, 2020

Tsukiyomi91 said:
$400 gets you all the bells & whistles, an overbuilt VRM + cooler combo that can wrestle the i9-10900K without problems & looking cool at the same time. That said, Gigabyte's B550 AORUS Master costs nearly as much as this, so this Z490 chipset this board is using seemed a little better in value than the mid range, overbuilt B550 board.

'Nearly as much' is quite a bit more. $280 vs $399.....

You're also comparing an enthusiast chipset to a midrange one where $280 is the most expensive B550 board out there.

stimpy88 · Jun 10, 2020

Asus's support of the AMD 570 version of this board has been absolutely woeful. I have always owned Asus boards going back nearly 15 years, and after this experience, I don't think I will be re-visiting Asus anytime soon.

I expect a premium offering to have support that includes drivers and utilities which are not over six months old, with many not updated since launch, and meant for an earlier version of Windows, and a BIOS which has an old AGESA in it. How long has it been since AMD released the last AGESA, 2 months now, and still no update.

Be warned that if you have any issues with this board, then it may never get fixed, as Asus is on a release-it-and-forget-about-it campaign.

R0H1T · Jun 10, 2020

Caring1 said:
$400 U.S. is about $800 AU.
No idea how that conversion works out, I think retailers and our Government think we have money to burn and they want it all.

Middlemen, arguably the biggest issue!

The Quim Reaper said:
Motherboard prices have gone absolutely insane.

Yup, no going back now :shadedshu:

Black Haru · Jun 10, 2020

AnarchoPrimitiv said:
Just an FYI, when you're listing the board specs in the introduction, you list it as only 2x SATAIII 6Gb/s ports while in the board layout section, you specify 6x SATAIII ports.

Fixed!

John Naylor · Jun 10, 2020

The RoG Tax has gotten insane..... we were strictly an Asus shop up until Z87 / Z97 at which point Asus was not only charging more but their performance dropped substantially below their competitors and their Tech Support / RAM process got farmed out to Pegatron (Parent company of their supossed competitor ASRock). While the brought the performance back up after Z97, there's nothing about Asus anymore that "stands out". No technical reason that I wouldn't buy Asus today, except for the RoG tax. And Asus still has the best BIOS available by a significant margin.

I think Id go with the MSI MPG Z490 Carbon EK X with built in MonoBlock for the same price.

System Name	Lightbringer
Processor	Ryzen 7 2700X
Motherboard	Asus ROG Strix X470-F Gaming
Cooling	Enermax Liqmax Iii 360mm AIO
Memory	G.Skill Trident Z RGB 32GB (8GBx4) 3200Mhz CL 14
Video Card(s)	Sapphire RX 5700XT Nitro+
Storage	Hp EX950 2TB NVMe M.2, HP EX950 1TB NVMe M.2, Samsung 860 EVO 2TB
Display(s)	LG 34BK95U-W 34" 5120 x 2160
Case	Lian Li PC-O11 Dynamic (White)
Power Supply	BeQuiet Straight Power 11 850w Gold Rated PSU
Mouse	Glorious Model O (Matte White)
Keyboard	Royal Kludge RK71
Software	Windows 10

System Name	Apex Raptor: Silverback
Processor	Intel i9 13900KS 6.1GHz/Allcore5.8
Motherboard	z790 Apex
Cooling	LT720 360mm + Phanteks T30
Memory	32GB @8000MT/s CL36
Video Card(s)	RTX 4090
Storage	990 PRO 2TB / Firecuda 530 2TB
Display(s)	Neo G8 / C1 65"
Case	Antec Performance 1
Audio Device(s)	DT 1990 Pro / Motu M2
Power Supply	Prime Ultra Titanium 1000w
Mouse	Scimitar Pro
Keyboard	K95 Platinum

System Name	Lenovo ThinkCentre
Processor	AMD 5650GE
Motherboard	Lenovo
Memory	32 GB DDR4
Display(s)	AOC 24" Freesync 1m.s. 75Hz
Mouse	Lenovo
Keyboard	Lenovo
Software	W11 Pro 64 bit

System Name	Firelance.
Processor	Threadripper 3960X
Motherboard	ROG Strix TRX40-E Gaming
Cooling	IceGem 360 + 6x Arctic Cooling P12
Memory	8x 16GB Patriot Viper DDR4-3200 CL16
Video Card(s)	MSI GeForce RTX 4060 Ti Ventus 2X OC
Storage	2TB WD SN850X (boot), 4TB Crucial P3 (data)
Display(s)	3x AOC Q32E2N (32" 2560x1440 75Hz)
Case	Enthoo Pro II Server Edition (Closed Panel) + 6 fans
Power Supply	Fractal Design Ion+ 2 Platinum 760W
Mouse	Logitech G602
Keyboard	Logitech G613
Software	Windows 10 Professional x64

System Name	Rainbow Puke Machine :D
Processor	Intel Core i5-11400 (MCE enabled, PL removed)
Motherboard	ASUS STRIX B560-G GAMING WIFI mATX
Cooling	Corsair H60i RGB PRO XT AIO + HD120 RGB (x3) + SP120 RGB PRO (x3) + Commander PRO
Memory	Corsair Vengeance RGB RT 2 x 8GB 3200MHz DDR4 C16
Video Card(s)	Zotac RTX2060 Twin Fan 6GB GDDR6 (Stock)
Storage	Corsair MP600 PRO 1TB M.2 PCIe Gen4 x4 SSD
Display(s)	LG 29WK600-W Ultrawide 1080p IPS Monitor (primary display)
Case	Corsair iCUE 220T RGB Airflow (White) w/Lighting Node CORE + Lighting Node PRO RGB LED Strips (x4).
Audio Device(s)	ASUS ROG Supreme FX S1220A w/ Savitech SV3H712 AMP + Sonic Studio 3 suite
Power Supply	Corsair RM750x 80 Plus Gold Fully Modular
Mouse	Corsair M65 RGB FPS Gaming (White)
Keyboard	Corsair K60 PRO RGB Mechanical w/ Cherry VIOLA Switches
Software	Windows 11 Professional x64 (Update 23H2)

Processor	AMD Ryzen 9 5950X
Motherboard	Asus ROG Crosshair VIII Hero WiFi
Cooling	Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420
Memory	32Gb G-Skill Trident Z Neo @3806MHz C14
Video Card(s)	MSI GeForce RTX2070
Storage	Seagate FireCuda 530 1TB
Display(s)	Samsung G9 49" Curved Ultrawide
Case	Cooler Master Cosmos
Audio Device(s)	O2 USB Headphone AMP
Power Supply	Corsair HX850i
Mouse	Logitech G502
Keyboard	Cherry MX
Software	Windows 11