ASUS ROG Crosshair VII HERO (Wifi) review - Introduction

ROG Crosshair VII HERO (Wi-fi) motherboard
ASUS in da X470 house for Ryzen 2000/Zen+.

In this article, we take the all new top of the line Ryzen motherboard from ASUS for a test-spin as they've released their ROG Crosshair VII HERO (Wifi), which we just have to review. Alongside the release of Ryzen 5 2600X and Ryzen 7 2700X processors, AMD prepped the X470 chipset, that offers a more fine-tuned experience for your Ryzen processor. The new Hero, however, is taking things to an entirely new level. This motherboard might be the perfect match for your Ryzen series 5 or 7 processor. The X470 motherboard is residing in the high-end Ryzen motherboard spectrum. A breathtaking motherboard with extra overclock features, DDR4 A-XMP functions, and not one but two M.2. slots, both with a massive heatsink. Well, that and the looks to kill for, of course.

Yeah, Zen+ is here, aka Ryzen 2000 or 12nm optimized Ryzen processors, the 'refresh' SKUs so to say. The new 12nm Zen+ processors will work fine with your X370 chipset based motherboard and vice versa, however, AMD launched the X470 chipset alongside these new Zen+ processors. The new chipset offers small improvements in combo with the new 12nm products. For example, to better facilitate XFR2 options. It has been a year already ever since AMD launched the first generation Ryzen processors. It had a bit of a rocky launch with the inter-core latency discussion a 1080p gaming performance as well as memory support. But the tide definitely turned for AMD as more and more people are considering to purchase an AMD processor-based PC, for their next purchase. The memory compatibility issues are mostly all gone, of course, we'll look at game performance in this article as well. But yes, things are looking good. The new 12nm processor generation can be clocked a notch higher. The upper range frequencies at 4.2~4.3 now are feasible, that also means that on the lower end of the spectrum, AMD is now capable to increase base-clock performance ion the more high-end parts. All these little tweaks bring the benefit of an overall faster processor series. Add to that improved memory latency and improved XFR2 ranges and you'll notice that the new ZEN+ generation now has become a really viable and more competitive product. So the ones that have not made a move towards AMD Ryzen just yet, now potentially could or will. 

So if you go with a proper processor, you'll like want a proper motherboard as well eh? X470 will give a home to the new Zen+ procs, with socket AM4 and will provide faster DDR4 memory support (as well as all other modern usual suspects like USB 3.1 gen 2, SATA Express, as well as NVMe protocol based M.2 support and surely PCI-Express Gen 3.0). Today's tested motherboard, the ASUS Crosshair VII Hero Wifi, is based on the X470 chipset and thus its feature set. This board includes support for M.2-NVMe SSDs, USB 3.1 as well as ESS Sabre DAC and amplifier. The Crosshair supports two-way SLI and CrossFireX configs split between its main PCI Express x16 slots. The PCIe slots have reinforcements to withstand the weight of high-end cards. The audio features a Realtek 1220 codec that improves input quality for streamers with an industry-leading 113-dB SNR for the line-in paired with an ESS ES9023P HD Sabre DAC. ASUS has fitted with AC WIFI and an Intel ethernet jack. The motherboard is a very feature rich product that will look terrific in any DIY PC build. The dark styled PCB comes with shielding and very subtle light accents. Features wise you may expect triple x16 PCI-Express slots (16x/8x/4x), an 8-channel audio solution, the usual quality components and USB 3.1. Audio is based on Realtek 1220 but was enhanced with a software suite. The board supports two-way SLI and CrossFireX configs split between its main PCI Express x16 slots. The PCIe and DDR4 slots have been reinforced to withstand the weight of high-end cards. Combine this motherboard with the Ryzen 2000 series six or eight-core processors and you'll be pleasantly surprised as to what it offers. Let’s start up the review, shall we?