ASUS Maximus Z690 Hero review - Product Showcase

Product Showcase 

Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210, which provides up to 2.4 Gbps wireless connectivity and access to the 5 and 6GHz frequency band; Intel I225-V, provides 2.5 Gbps Ethernet. So all you bases are covered. 

The Aura ecosystem is always evolving to provide users with more possibilities for customizing their builds with color. It now includes products from several categories as well as third-party hardware.

In order to accommodate the ever-expanding hardware lineup, the latest Aura software version allows for the direct entering of RGB codes, allowing you to dial in color and tone with greater precision than previously possible.

Using Fan Xpert software or the UEFI, the Maximus Z690 Hero provides control over your cooling system through eight PWM/DC connectors, each of which includes a detecting circuit that automatically picks the appropriate voltage regulation mode. In a solution known as ASUS Hydranode, three of the chassis fan headers are equipped with an additional circuit that allows them to independently manage a total of three daisy-chained fans that are connected to them.

It is the 7.1-channel SupremeFX ALC4082 serves as the foundation of this generation. It has 113dB SNR line-in and 120dB SNR line-out, allowing users to stream and record with the least amount of noise. The codec also includes a headphone amplifier with a maximum output voltage of 2.1Vrms, a driving capability of up to 600 Ohms, audio resolutions of up to 32-bit/384kHz, and the capacity to detect the impedance of the headphones that are connected. The SABRE 9018Q2C is responsible for driving the Hero's front panel output, which takes advantage of the ESS Hyperstream DAC architecture to produce pinpoint placement and authoritative dynamics.

The I/O consists of the following connections: a CMOS button, a BIOS button with which you can also update without a CPU, 1x HDMI, seven USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports, two Thunderbolt 4 USB Type -C ports, a 2.5G  Ethernet port, an Intel I225-V 2.5Gbps Ethernet port, two SMA connectors for the included antenna, an optical audio input, and five audio jacks.

With 20 phases, the VRM is able to spread out power demands in order to give each stage more time to dissipate heat into the aluminum sinks above. And those heatsinks have a lot of surface area to spread into: the heatsinks themselves are quadruple-finned with strategic incisions and they’re fused into a single block that extends all the way to the I/O backplate. The power stages positioned at the north-side of the socket connect to the main unit through an L-shaped heat pipe, but to ensure they have immediate cooling, the heatsink array has been reinforced by a tri-fin extension next to the CPU power ports.