Published: October 5, 2017 | Source: ASUS | Author: Tom Logan

ASUS Z370 Maximus X Hero Review

Conclusion

Whenever we’re in the early stages of new hardware it is always difficult to get a full read upon the performance capabilities of certain hardware in relation to others, and the latest Intel Z370 chipset is no exception.

Both the Z370-A Prime and Z370 Maximus X Hero overclock like monsters, are extremely easy to use and have very similar levels of performance throughout our testing. Sometimes the benchmark scores would favour one, sometimes the other, but never by such a margin that it became clear that there was something you must buy. That’s very much a positive though.

Allow us to use an analogy. By now we’ve all played games that had items which gave certain benefits. Whether it’s stat boosts or extra skills or whatever, some items are just better than others. We know we’re not alone in playing people who have to wear a certain type of kit that, if aesthetics were the sole defining factor, we wouldn’t actually choose to dress them in. But we’re terminal min-maxers and thus you must endure that giant hat or awful coat. Motherboards, albeit to a lesser degree, can have that same issue. Sometimes a product appears which is so obviously superior to the competition that you’d be mad to buy something else, or if you did because you just adored a certain colour scheme you’d have to live with the knowledge you weren’t getting the biggest bang for your buck. With both the mainly white ASUS Prime and mainly black with RGB Maximus X Hero performing to such a similar level you can buy whichever suits your pocket and aesthetic preferences without the nagging doubt that you’re not making the most of things.

We love the looks of the Hero. ASUS have quickly established a ‘house style’ that ticks all the boxes we have in our wall chart of things a motherboard must do. There are plenty of headers for your AIO and fan, as well as multiple monitoring methods to help you keep an eye on how things are doing. Additionally the placement of the RGB LED Strip headers is perfect and gives you the largest possible amount of freedom to arrange your case lighting in a way that pleases you best.

The carefully placed headers, wide selection of expansion and storage options as well as the extremely easy-to-use BIOS mean that the ASUS Z370 Maximus X Hero is yet another in a long line of successful ASUS product launches and wins our OC3D Performance Award.

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