Is this peak AM5? ASUS unveils its ROG Crosshair X870E Glacial
ASUS’ ROG Crosshair X870E Glacial is their new “King of the Hill” for AM5
ASUS has taken AMD’s AM5 socket to the next level at CES 2026. The ROG Crosshair Glacial is a new flagship motherboard that promises specifications unmatched by anything else ASUS has ever offered on an AMD platform. It even surpasses the ROG Crosshair X870E Extreme. Yes, it’s more Extreme than the Extreme.
(OC3D’s ASUS ROG CES 2026 Booth Tour)
This isn’t just a white motherboard
The ROG Crosshair X870E Glacial isn’t just a “white version” of an existing ASUS design. It’s next level. This motherboard has dual 10G ethernet ports. It has a beefed-up 24(110A)+2(110A)+2 power stages. It has ASUS’ NitroPath memory tech. Additionally, it also has an “optimised PCIe lane layout” that lets users enjoy the full bandwidth of this board’s top PCIe 5.0 x16 slot and two PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs simultaneously. The motherboard also features a 5-inch LCD screen on top of its I/O shroud, just like the Crosshair X870E Extreme.
Like many of ASUS’ newest AM5 motherboards, the Glacial features a 64MB BIOS ROM. With this comes a more advanced UEFI, support for the latest AM5 CPUs, and WIFI drivers on-ROM. This makes Windows 11 installs much faster.
Next-gen AIO cooler support with AIO Q-connector
If you look closely at the ROG Crosshair X870E Glacial, you will see a series of golden dots beside the motherboard’s AM5 CPU socket. Those are ASUS’ AIO Q-connector, and it eliminates the need for wires hanging off your system’s AIO liquid cooling solution.
Currently, this connector is only supported by ASUS’ new ROG Strix LC IV CPU cooler lineup. This connector is also available on ASUS’ new ROG Crosshair X870E Glacial, ROG Crosshair X870E Dark Hero, ROG Strix X870E-E Gaming WiFi 7 Neo, and ROG Strix X870E-A Gaming WiFi7 Neo. Note that this connector is optional, and ASUS’ new motherboards do support standard CPU liquid cooling solutions. That said, this is a neat option for those who want a “hidden cable”/”cable free” PC.
One of the add-ons for the Crosshair X870E Glacial is an optional cooling fan for your DDR5 memory. Users with high-end memory setups may want to add additional cooling, and ASUS has provided an attractive add-on that achieves this goal.
With the ROG Glacial also comes a DIMM.2 slot that supports two PCIe 4.0 SSDs and a Hyper M.2 add-on card that can support two PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSDs.
Sadly, ASUS has not unveiled the pricing of its new ROG Glacial motherboard. That said, given its specifications, this is likely to be ASUS’ most expensive AM5 motherboard to date. Its specifications exceed those of the ROG Crosshair X870E Extreme, which is a £1,000 motherboard.
You can join the discussion on the ROG Crosshair X870E Glacial on the OC3D Forums.
