The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII HERO (WiFi) has an attractive, subtle, and complex design. The integrated rear I/O shield is an excellent touch, adding a little bit of luxury that lends itself perfectly to the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII HERO (WiFi) refined gamer aesthetic. Rather than a single grand feature that makes the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII HERO (WiFi) stand out, it is the relentless attention to detail in every element that comes together and creates something that is more than the sum of its parts. A cliche, I know, but ASUS is a top brand for a reason.

The VRM is built for the extreme, and is ready for anything AMD wants to throw at it. ASUS has ditched doublers under the assertion that a blind-parallel VRM design significantly improves transient response times as it does not have to divide the PWM signal from the controller in half for each phase. The real-world results in my testing show generally equivalent performance. There is so much more that goes into VRM design that it is very hard to compare two different implementations. This is, at the very least a cost saving for ASUS as high-quality doublers are not cheap components. A maximum theoretical Vcore output of 820 A along with a full loadout of extreme overclocking aids make the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII HERO (WiFi) a great candidate for exotic cooling and competitive overclocking.

As for performance, memory stability was pretty good, but not quite top tier. I have seen higher clocks out of this memory kit on other boards. However, ASUS gets a lot of points for the safeguards and aids they have put in place, which make the overclocking process simpler and less stressful. CPU overclocking went well, but failed to match the best overclock I have seen on this Ryzen 5 3600X, falling 25 MHz short of 4.5 GHz all-core at 1.45 V, which is practically within margin of error. ASUS has plenty of tweaking built into these boards to keep even the most avid enthusiasts occupied with one of the most comprehensive BIOSes in the industry. As for thermals: in my testing, no amount of abuse could bring the Vcore VRM anywhere near its thermal limits even with no airflow.

The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII HERO (WiFi) isn't perfect. ASUS still has a lot of software bloat built into their utilities, and I would have liked to see a third M.2 slot at this price point. While ASUS has added the option to keep the chipset fan off at idle, the relatively small heatsink used means the fan kicks on more than on some other solutions, though the chipset fan is quiet and unobtrusive. The RGB LED implementation is excellent overall, but lacks the brightness that would truly make it head-turning. As it is, it is still top tier, especially for those looking for a more subtle look.

The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII HERO (WiFi) is a great-looking board with lots of extra features that make using it day to day a better and less frustrating experience. I would love to see a refresh with brighter RGB LEDs, but considering that is my only major gripe with the board, it is hard not to recommend. The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII HERO (WiFi) should be at the top of the list for competitive overclockers.