ASUS ROG Crosshair VII HERO (Wifi) review
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Fox2232
M.2_2 on PCIe 3.0 x4 at cost of 2nd PCIe GPU. For many, good idea. For CF/SLI users, not so much.
Hilbert Hagedoorn
Administrator
Very true, realistically though, how many users out there still use SLI/CFX?
And then add to that, how many users will actually install two NVME M2 storage units? For 99.9% this simply is not an issue.
Fox2232
I meant it more as a choice. Someone who can afford 2x GPU is quite likely to be able to afford 2x M2 drive.
If I did not dislike ASUS's BIOSes, and it was cheaper (and without that horrid bundled CM AIO LC), I would take that board.
Intel has that Optane thingy, AMD brought to table custom alternative. We can just pick any SSD any HDD and combine it. IIRC size limit for SSD is ~500GB. That makes that 2nd slot attractive for virtual hybrid drive. (Not sure if it works in case 2nd M.2 is not on X470 chipset.)
So, for me (as single GPU user) and most of other users, this is likely good trade-off. Yet still remains to be investigated feature wise.
I do wonder if other MBs have similar setup. Getting connection schematics is not as common as I would like it to be.
Edit: To explain it more clearly:
- use of M2_2 on main PCIe 3.0 x4 connection eats up bandwidth from single GPU user to point where GPU has 3.0 x8 connection available. (no big deal)
- in case M2_2 is used with 2 GPUs, 1st has PCIe 3.0 x8, 2nd has PCIe 3.0 x4
Hilbert Hagedoorn
Administrator
Which is why I request them these days, and ASUS delivered.
In short, there is no other viable solution at hand, other than to link a second M2 SSD through the chipset, here it would get limited towards PCIe Gen 2.0 lanes where you get half gen3 performance, ergo this is why the motherboard manufacturers all prefer an x4 Gen 3 path directly to the processor.
But again this only applies to people using SLI in combo with a second M2 NVME SSD.
I have not noticed a forced bundle with LCS though, where is that?
Fox2232
All x470 MBs from ASUS comes like this on all Czech shops:
https://www.czc.cz/asus-rog-crosshair-vii-hero-amd-x470/234272/produkt
Bundled with: Coolermaster MasterLiquid ML240L RGB
That's very good for lower end and cheaper boards, but pairing it with high end is such a waste.
Hilbert Hagedoorn
Administrator
There really should be a law against that, crazy.
lord_zed
Poor Overclocking options Review... You ahve not used Asus exclusive performance enhancer that boosts 1 core to over 4.4 ghz !!!
Hilbert Hagedoorn
Administrator
There is no such option in the BIOS neither can Ryzen be configured with per core tweaks in the BIOS, but considering the 2700X will reach 4.35 on a single thread all by itself with XFR2, I fail to see the benefit of the extra one core 50 MHz as well.
grimmute
Looks like a decent mobo, but I'll still wait to see what else we will have.
AlmondMan
Any news on when the B450 will come out?
OddGentleman
2700x same clocks as 8600k yet again for gamers 8600k delivers about 10FPS more. At the same price.
Fox2232
Can't say where you got that number from, but in games on 1080p and higher those mentioned CPUs deliver almost same frame rate. (mostly within 2%)
What you stated could have been somewhat be said about 4C/4T CPUs too. Till that statement became "WTF". Now you can only guess if next one to kick bucket for high fps gaming is 4C/8T or 6C/6T.
Anyway, 8600(k) total performance is around 40% lower than that of 2700X. Or if you want 2700X is around 66,7% stronger than 8600(k).
So, you can guess where value and longevity is.
Arbie
Exactly. In fact I wonder why people would even overclock Ryzen if (as with the first gen) it means turning off the sophisticated XFR / boost functions. AMD put a lot of work into those features, which give you CPU horsepower when you need it and nice cool operation otherwise. Having all cores at top speed all the time is so 2008. If you aren't running benchmarks or some other completely demanding task where watts don't matter, worrying about OC on Ryzen seems wrongheaded.
I'd encourage Hilbert to discuss or at least mention the negatives.
Arbie
So buy Intel and get that 95 FPS instead of 85 - in some game you won't play for more than an hour anyway. And give up all the multithread value. Of course then you're voting for stagnation in the CPU market, so 5 years from now the chips available to you will be much worse than if AMD was still in the fight. But you saw FRAPS ramp up there... what a thrill.
Jagman
Really there are more gains to be had by overclocking and tweaking RAM timings as far as Ryzen goes.
chispy
Awesome review as Hilbert. Thank you for a great article , good read !
waltc3
Good review, as usual...the pricing on some of these x470 boards has me scratching my head...As you mention, the x370 chipset is very, very close and ~$100 less than these prices...! Hmmmm....
Hilbert Hagedoorn
Administrator
You can spot X470 motherboards for 150 bucks, just not these flagship model motherboards. Once I find some time, I'll look deeper into the performance effects in between X370 and X470.
However, even now the CH6 and CH7, for example, both cost roughly the same.
Aura89
Someone that can afford all that likely has a threadripper CPU and doesn't need to worry about that issue.
^ Guess this guy likes to play at 720p. Ultra gamer here guys!
waltc3
Yep, you're right...I spoke too soon, I think. The MSI board you reviewed is the top of the line offering from MSI, apparently, which I didn't realize. I was of the opinion that they'd probably keep the same branding names for the x470 motherboards--so at first it appeared that they were charging a big premium for the x470 mboards that were middle-to-high end in the x370 series. Thanks for setting me straight on that--glad to hear it...;)
