If you happen to’ll forgive my flip of phrase, the Hero is the hero of Asus’ Republic of Avid gamers motherboard vary. It is the ‘entry stage’ board, typically the one that draws essentially the most person consideration, and more often than not it is the primary one to be launched. It joins the highest of the road Excessive and the overclocking targeted Apex.
The Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Hero (opens in new tab) appears to be like rather a lot like its Z690 predecessor and shares an identical characteristic set. That is not a lot of a shock on condition that Z790 does not differ all that a lot from Z690, although Z790 does carry a rise within the variety of PCIe 4.0 lanes and a 2nd gen optimized electrical design for serving to with issues like sooner reminiscence help. For instance, the Z690 Hero lists help for DDR5-6400+, whereas the Z790 Hero helps DDR5-7800+.
Together with sooner reminiscence and out of the field thirteenth Gen CPU help, the Maximus Z790 Hero options excellent connectivity help, a top quality VRM, and the most effective of Asus’ {hardware} and firmware engineering experience.
At $629 / £649 / AU$1,199, it feels odd referring to the Z790 Hero because the entry stage Maximus board. Whether or not it is electrical complexity, engineering challenges, part prices or profiteering someplace alongside the retail chain, it is simply the way in which it’s. You do not get high-end motherboards from any producer for reasonable anymore.
Let’s have a look at if the Hero has what it takes to win the hearts, minds and {dollars} of the individuals.
Z790 Hero specs
Socket: Intel LGA1700
CPU compatibility: Intel twelfth & thirteenth Gen desktop processors
Type issue: ATX
Reminiscence help: DDR5-7800+ (OC), As much as 128GB
Storage: 5x M.2, 6x SATA
USB: As much as 2x Thunderbolt 4 ports, 1x USB 3.2 Gen2x2, 6x USB 3.2 Gen 2, 8x USB 3.1 Gen 1, 4x USB 2.0
Show: 2x DP 1.4 through Thunderbolt 4, 1x HDMI 2.1
Networking: Intel 2.5G LAN, Wi-Fi 6E
Audio: Realtek ALC4082
Worth: $629 (opens in new tab) / £649 (opens in new tab) / AU$1,199
The Maximus Z790 Hero encompasses a good quantity of mirror like end, no less than when you pull all the protecting plastic off. There is a handsome RGB part atop the rear I/O part. It’s extremely tastefully accomplished. We have hit peak RGB and the times of retina burning disco mild exhibits are hopefully now behind us. You do get three ARGB headers and one non-addressable RGB header, nevertheless, must you need it.
The board has 8x 4-pin fan/pump headers, a USB 3.2 Gen2x2 header (with as much as 60w charging help) and headers for a further 4 3.2 Gen 1 ports and 4 2.0 ports. There are onboard energy/reset buttons too.
Together with six SATA ports, the Z790 Hero options 5 M.2 slots, with simply three on the board itself. The format of the on-board slots is great. I’ve by no means favored M.2 slots situated beneath the first PCIe slot the place they take up warmth coming from a graphics card. The Hero will get it proper. Properly accomplished Asus.
The additional two M.2 slots come courtesy of a top quality PCIe add in card, full with its personal strong and heavy heatsink. One slot helps PCIe 5.0, whereas the opposite helps as much as PCIe 4.0.
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The VRM heatsinks are giant, with lots of floor space. Do word that whereas they conform to Intel’s ‘stay-out’ socket space, they encroach sufficient to doubtlessly intrude with giant coolers. In my case, the tubing of my AIO cooler. The one approach I may set up it was to have the tubing on the reminiscence slot aspect. If you happen to do have a big cooler, for instance one with protruding heatpipes, it is undoubtedly price doing a little bit of analysis to make sure it can match.
Talking of coolers, the Z790 Hero once more options holes for mounting legacy LGA1200/LGA115x coolers.
Across the again now we have prime notch connectivity choices. The inclusion of twin Thunderbolt 4 Sort-C ports is an efficient worth add, and so they alone account for a number of the value of the board. Add to that six USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports and 4 Gen 1 ports and also you’ll be set for a couple of years to come back.
The TB4 ports can carry a DP 1.4 sign, which provides you the choice of triple show help when added to the only HDMI 2.1 port.
Asus features a excessive class audio resolution together with an ALC4082 audio and ESS Quad DAC. Wi-Fi 6E is anticipated and a couple of.5G Intel LAN is the baseline. The omission of 5G or 10G LAN is disappointing at this value, however I will allow you to be the choose of whether or not that is vital to you or not. With the arrival of sooner Wi-Fi 6 and 6E, is LAN as vital because it as soon as was? For a NAS person, actually, however there are lots of players that do not use ethernet anymore.
System Efficiency
Gaming Efficiency
Benchmarking boards is not so simple as it as soon as was. Motherboard makers are likely to play it quick and free with energy limits. Manually setting baseline parameters means excessive all core turbo ranges are eliminated, although after all, you are free to allow them in case your cooling permits it.
In system benchmarks, the Z790 Hero carried out properly, sitting on the prime of the rankings, or near it. It is no slouch in gaming both, standing up properly towards the opposite examined boards.
As is usually the case although, the variations are fairly small and sometimes inside a margin of error, which is an efficient indicator of a mature underlying platform. That is accurately given the thirteenth Gen structure and BIOS microcode aren’t actually completely different from twelfth Gen Alder Lake and Z690.
Check rig
CPU: Intel Core i9 13900K
Graphics: Zotac GeForce RTX 3080 Ti AMP Holo
RAM: 2x 16GB G.Talent Trident Z5 DDR5-6000 C36
Storage: 2TB Seagate FireCuda 530
Cooling: Cooler Grasp PL360 Flux 360mm AIO
PSU: Corsair AX1000
In the case of overclocking, your CPU will usually be cooling restricted earlier than the motherboard is confused. Even a top quality 360mm AIO nears its restrict with a Core i9 13900K (opens in new tab) at inventory! As for reminiscence overclocking, that separates an excellent board with an excellent BIOS from a poor one.
I’ve a pleasant shiny set of G.Talent Trident Z5 DDR5-7200 (keep tuned for a evaluate). It is not a given that each board can run at that pace reliably. The Hero actually can, although in my case it required a excessive stage of IMC voltage to do it. I feel with a greater CPU the Hero will be capable to do extra, and in reality its rated for DDR5-7800+. It is the most effective four-slot DDR5 board I’ve examined up to now.
ROG boards at all times include excessive expectations, and so they very not often disappoint. If you happen to love ROG—and there are hundreds of thousands of you on the market—you will be proper at dwelling with the Asus Maximus Z790 Hero. Be happy to reliably overclock your Okay-series CPU with DDR5 7000+ reminiscence. Chuck in a quick graphics card and future PCIe 5.0 SSD and also you’ll be rocking a rig that may see you thru 2024 and past.
It is the most effective four-slot DDR5 board I’ve examined up to now.
It is a genuinely excessive finish providing that does not lose all that a lot in comparison with the hyper-expensive top-end boards. Worth sensible, in comparison with the likes of the Maximus Excessive or MSI Godlike, the Z790 Hero is a relative discount! However in the actual world, because the entry stage Maximus, it is an costly proposition. You could properly discover that Asus’ Strix or TUF boards supply what you want at a extra engaging value level.
Aside from the omission of sooner LAN, I can not complain in regards to the characteristic set. There isn’t any doubt that ahead wanting options, corresponding to Thunderbolt 4 and the add-in card with PCIe 5.0, add value and complexity, but it surely’s nonetheless a $600+ motherboard. Constructing a high-end system with an RTX 4080 (opens in new tab) or RX 7900 (opens in new tab) GPU could be very costly as we shut in on 2023. Inflation sucks.
However ROG merchandise are at all times premium tier, and there is an appropriate value related to that. If Asus retains churning out well-designed boards with dependable BIOS, help for quick reminiscence, and forward-looking characteristic units, there will probably be patrons for them. And you will not have any regret.
