Board Layout

The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero features a matte black PCB with a subtle pattern of printed lines. The heatsinks for the VRM, chipset, and M.2 drives are a deep black with a granular finish. Notably absent from last year's design is a chipset cooling fan; instead, the chipset is cooled by a large aluminium heatsink.


The CPU socket is open enough to accommodate most coolers, and the VRM heatsink looks quite capable.


There are only two M.2 slots on the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero. The first sits just under the CPU socket, while the second is between the second and third PCIe 4.0 x16 slots. Both have heatsinks for improved thermal performance.


The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero offers three PCI Express 4.0 x16 slots, the first two of which are encased in metal reinforcement, as well as one PCI Express 4.0 x1 slot. The board has a total of eight SATA 6 Gb/s ports, and all are angled 90 degrees from the board.


The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero has a great rear I/O offering that includes substantial USB options, as well as an optical S/PDIF out port. The full list consists of:

• Clear CMOS button
• BIOS flashback button
• 2x WiFi antenna connectors
• 4x USB 3.1 Gen1 Type-A ports
• 7x USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-A ports
• USB 3.1 Gen2 Type-C port
• 2x RJ-45 LAN port
• Optical SPDIF out port
• 5x 3.5 mm audio jacks

Networking on the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Dark Hero is handled by an Intel I211AT and a Realtek RTL8125 for the 2.5 Gb/s LAN, with an Intel 802.11 AX controller for wireless connectivity.