Packaging and Contents

The front of the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Extreme box has a matte black finish with red accents in the truest of ROG fashion statements. The product name is in embossed foil to gives it that extra premium look. Across the bottom, some important tidbits are shown, such as the Windows 11 Ready, NVIDIA SLI, WiFi 6E, AURA RGB Sync, and GameFirst logos.

On the back of the box, a few features are highlighted, such as the 2" OLED screen, Thunderbolt 4, and five m.2 sockets in total thanks to the DIMM.2 expansion slot. Below the depiction of the motherboard is a list of motherboard specifications, which is always a welcome addition on such a box.


ASUS starts things off with a multi-layered box containing compartments for all the goodies inside.



Each compartment has something of interest. As expected, the standards are included, with an RGB extension cables, WiFi antenna, SATA cables, and manual. A nice addition is the USB flash drive for driver and software installation.

ASUS has gone the extra mile with a ROG fan controller that doubles as an additional RGB hub with more headers. A Clavis USB ESS 9281 PRO DAC is also included, and it is compatible with mobile phones, PCs, Macs, the PlayStation 4/5, and Nintendo Switch. While I only briefly used the USB DAC, the audio clarity was on par with what I am used to. No information about the officially supported audio modes is listed, but I was able to enable 24-bit 384 kHz in Windows, which is still somewhat uncommon.

The full list of accessories includes:

• 1-to-3 ARGB splitter cable
• 2x 1-to-4 fan splitter cable
• RGB extension cable
• 3x ROG weave SATA 6G cables
• 3-in-1 thermistor cables pack
• ROG fan controller
• Fan EXT PWR cable
• ARGB input cable
• USB input cable
• ROG fan controller 3M mounting tape
• Fan controller manual
• ROG DIMM.2 with heatsink
• M.2 pad for ROG DIMM.2
• 2x M.2 screw package for ROG DIMM.2
• ASUS Wi-Fi moving antennas
• M.2 SSD screw package(s)
• Q-connector
• ROG CLAVIS DAC
• CLAVIS DAC manual
• ROG key chain
• ROG logo plate stickers
• ROG screwdriver
• ROG stickers
• ROG thank you card
• ROG graphics card holder
• USB drive with utilities and drivers
• User manual