The Board - Layout

As with the Z97 DELUXE, the MAXIMUS VII HERO features a new, more sophisticated esthetic theme that carries itself through the entire series. The board's matte black surface makes itself apparent in a big way once you turn the board around.


The socket area is pretty clean, and the large angular coolers are reminiscent of a certain Italian automobile. The rear of the socket, flanked by backplates for the board's MOSFETs, is almost as clean as the front of the socket, although the robust power delivery design has some bits which protrude off the board's surface. However, most common aftermarket CPU backplates should not cause any problems.


The slot arrangement is pretty standard for a Intel mainstream desktop board. A trio of PCIe x16 and a trio of PCIe x1 allow you to add devices to the ASUS MAXIMUS VII HERO. The DIMM slots can carry up to 32 GBs of memory, all the way up to record-shattering speeds that will leave your wallet ablaze.


The board's bottom edge comes with the usual stuff to plug things into, and some buttons. The ASUS MAXIMUS VII HERO only comes with 4-pin fan headers ASUS equipped with pretty amazing configuration options through both the BIOS and software.


With USB 2.0 and USB 3.0, a single LAN, audio, and what are now legacy video outputs, DVI and D-Sub, the rear I/O section comes equipped with the usual stuff. There are also a USB BIOS flashback button, not to be confused with a CMOS clear button, and HDMI. Two added via an external controller, I was also surprised to find eight SATA ports in total on the ASUS MAXIMUS VII HERO.


Speaking of CMOS, the board's BIOS is socketed, which makes it easily replaceable if need be, although it does feature some robust restoration capabilities that should make doing so unnecessary. A main feature of the Intel Z97 platform are the new high-speed drive interfaces, M.2 and SATA Express. Much to my dismay, ASUS equipped the MAXIMUS VII HERO with an M.2 port to support high-speed drives, relegating SATA Express support to other ROG products. I really want to play with my ASUS Hyper Express drive on an ROG board, let me tell you.