ASUS Intros Maximus VIII Hero Alpha, Featuring Native RGB LED Headers

[btarunr]

ASUS announced the Republic of Gamers (ROG) Maximus VIII Hero Alpha. This socket LGA1151 motherboard, based on Intel Z170 Express chipset, is what the company claims to be the first with native support for multi-color RGB LED headers. The board features an RGB LED controller with a Windows app that lets you set RGB color lighting across two independent 4-pin headers (typically connected to RGB LED strips). The ROG "eye" logo on the PCH heatsink features an RGB LED, too, and the app lets you set even that. ASUS' reference LED strip for this board, named AURA, can be purchased separately.

The rest of the board's feature-set is similar to the original Maximus VIII Hero. You get a powerful 10-phase CPU VRM, four DDR4 DIMM slots, and two PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slots feeding in and out of the CPU socket. The storage connectivity does away with bulky SATA-Express connectors, replacing them with two U.2 16 Gb/s connectors, sitting next to six SATA 6 Gb/s ports. USB 3.1 10 Gb/s ports, including type-C and type-A ports, sitting next to 802.11 ac WLAN, are a highlight in the feature-set. Expect the board to be priced slightly higher than the original Maximus VIII Hero.



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[Assimilator]

No more SATA Express? YES!

 

[Digital Dreams]

More gaudy ricer BS, yay! And with it comes that usual hefty ROG tax as well I'm sure.

 

[Chaitanya]

wasn't this announced weeks back .

 

[micropage7]

personally i prefer if they focus on the simplicity, features and performance not the bling bling

 

[Parn]

The U.2 ports are a welcomed addition. Although there is only one U.2 device the Intel 750 AFAIK, there will be more and possibly replacing SATA in the future.

 

[ssdpro]

ASUS looks to have tossed a gut punch to early adopters of the original M8H here. It smells to me like ASUS was a bit behind in development and hurried out that cut down original Hero. Why would anyone want that clunky old SATA Express connector over the newer simpler and more capable U.2? The original used ASMedia USB 3.1 chip where the Alpha uses an actual Intel controller. ASUS uses a totally new driver set for the Alpha but won't even go back and update the older drivers available for the Hero.

(M8H) --> (M8HAlpha)

ASMedia USB 3.1 --> Intel USB 3.1
SATA Express --> newer U.2 revision
No wifi or BT --> wifi and BT
old driver set --> latest driver set

I am looking to build a Z170 system and am deciding between this one and the Z170-Premium. Z170-Premium still isn't out so this Alpha might be the one.

 

[Fx]

I'm digging the addition of the U.2 connectivity.

 

[idx]

No more SATA Express? YES!

SATA Express is DOA. Thats a fact, I honestly have no idea what they were thinking when they came up with SATA Express.
U.2 is the way to go! Really nice motherboard ASUS ! , I love the layout and the placement of the U.2 connectors.

 

[[502]]

A disco motherboard!

 

[WhoMe]

Seems like this board has been announced so many times, starting from 23 Nov, it must be available RSN. It's really close to what I'm looking for, but one thing I don't like is that if you use both U.2 ports, you lose all 4 Intel SATA 6Gb/s ports. That leaves only 2 ASMedia SATA ports, which are for HD use only (no optical media -- unless they mean no ATAPI, but a SATA optical drive is ok). I also don't trust ASMedia ports as much as Intel's, but maybe that's just me.

 

[Prima.Vera]

SATA express is one of those things that should have never been invented. Useless.

 

[ssdpro]

That leaves only 2 ASMedia SATA ports, which are for HD use only (no optical media -- unless they mean no ATAPI, but a SATA optical drive is ok).

It is a protocol thing. If your optical drive uses ATAPI interface it won't work. If it uses SATA host interface, it will. I have an ASUS board that has the exact same note disclaimer and it works with my 5 year old LG Blu-ray drive just fine on the ASMedia ports. Also those ASMedia ports are not bootable though... if you are trying to boot a DVD or something it won't. IMO pretend this is a one U.2 port board and be happy with the 3000+ MB/s and million IOPS you can get on it.

 

[WhoMe]

It is a protocol thing. Also those ASMedia ports are not bootable though... if you are trying to boot a DVD or something it won't. IMO pretend this is a one U.2 port board and be happy with the 3000+ MB/s and million IOPS you can get on it.

Great info; thank you. My BD-RW drive is SATA, but eventually the not being able to boot from it would've bitten me you know where. I think you're right about considering it as a one U.2 port board (plus an M.2 port). Looks like it'll be a good one, but where is it already?!

 

[mcraygsx]

They should have implemented these features when they originally launched VIII HERO. If I was still VIII Hero + 6700K owner, I would've felt kind of left behind by ASUS. Sold mine not too long ago to get into X99 setup instead.

 

[RejZoR]

I don't see much purpose in this board. U.2 seems just as useless as SATA Express. It's smaller, but I can count devices that use it on a hand of a very clumsy carpenter. Same as SATA Express. That RGB whatever thingie, if you prefer sleeper systems, it's pointless.

Frankly, more M.2 slots instead of U.2 ports would be more useful. Even if you want stupendously fast system, the largest M.2 I could find was 512GB Samsung 950 Pro. So, if you want 1TB of uber fast SSD, you just can't have it. Or if board has 2, you could one day pretty soon create a 2TB raid.

 

[pky]

ASUS: "Here's a mobo with RGB lighting. You can choose whatever color you want, as long as it's red. 'Cuz we put red accents on the mobo."
Genius.

 

[Basard]

ASUS: "Here's a mobo with RGB lighting. You can choose whatever color you want, as long as it's red. 'Cuz we put red accents on the mobo."
Genius.

Yeah, I was kinda thinking the same thing... Why not all black, or maybe chrome? Hell, I'm not gonna buy it, so why do I even care, lol!

 

[nickbaldwin86]

I want this board... has nothing to do with the RGB LED headers either LOL

 

[EarthDog]

More gaudy ricer BS, yay! And with it comes that usual hefty ROG tax as well I'm sure.

Haters going to hate... studies prove: http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_facto...dispositional_attitude_study_confirms_it.html