ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Hero Review

Introduction

When we first had the Z790 Maximus Hero arrive in the office we wondered if the reason ASUS had decided against giving it a number was because it was surely the Maximus XIII, and we know how supersticious some people are. As it turns out the Maximus Z690 didn’t have a number either, so perhaps we’ve seen the last of the ever increasing model numbers.

However, what the latest in the Intel range of motherboards from ASUS does have going for it is that it is the Hero. Originally ASUS largely gave us the Formula for people with money but not loads, and the Extreme for those who demand everything a motherboard could possibly be. Recently they added the Hero which fit just beneath the Formula – or F as they’re determined to call it – in the price range and this absolutely flew off the shelves. All of the benefits and kudos from having an ASUS Republic Of Gamers product in your system, but nothing like the expense usually involved with such a venture.

As the 13th Generation of Intel processors is nearly upon us, naturally Intel have launched a new chipset to go with them, the Z790. However, the LGA1700 socket that we saw in their 12th Generation launch is still present, so the Z790 supports both the current – at time of writing – Intel CPUs, and also the ones that will very soon be making their way to market like a little piggy. Let’s take a quick tour of the board.

Technical Specifications

The specifications for the Maximus Z790 Hero largely follow the ones of the Z690, just with support for even faster DDR5, the aforementioned Intel 13th Generation CPUs, and Thunderbolt 4.

Pricing

At launch, ASUS’s ROG Maximus Z790 Hero DDR5 motherboard is available for around £669.99 at various UK components retailers.