ASUS Maximus X Hero and ASUS STRIX Z370E LGA 1151 Motherboard Review – ASUS’s $250 and $200 US Offerings

Conclusion

ASUS ROG MAXIMUS X HERO Final Thoughts and Conclusion:

The ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero is a surprising motherboard, excelling the previous ROG Hero design, it offers more for more or less the same price. At $249.99 US, It balances the ROG lineup in the best price and feature segment. It doesn't break your wallet like the high end ROG offerings but doesn't let you miss out the features either that you would expect from a ROG motherboard. Sure, I love the high-end ROG motherboards such as the APEX, Formula and Code but like I said, they come at a price which isn't a worthwhile investment for the masses. The ROG Maximus X Hero on the other hand is a well made and overly tuned option for them.

Still at $250 US, it does compete with a range of other Z370 motherboards and it does a good job. The overclocking on the ROG Maximus X Hero is great as it let me push the Core i7-8700K to 5.1 GHz. Overclocking any further than that led to instant crashes but the performance at 5.1 GHz was surprisingly good due to a more mature BIOS that ASUS is well known for.

In terms of design, the Hero stands out as a Hero in this segment. It has a good quantity of RGB LEDs spread over while the black and grey design is looking as fantastic as ever. The one thing I loved about this motherboard was the pre mounted I/O panel which is a plus one in my book.

Aside from that, there's lots of connectivity options and although it is missing wireless connectivity, the impressive SupremeFX audio system and the expanded storage options make up for the losses which can be covered up by spending $15 US more and getting the Wi-Fi AC option that is available for the same motherboard.

YOU CAN PURCHASE THE ASUS ROG MAXIMUS 10 HERE!

ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-E Gaming Final Thoughts and Conclusion:

The next motherboard, the ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-E Gaming impressed me quite a bit more than the ROG Maximus X Hero. For starters, it was bundled with a huge range of accessories which is a plus. Moving to the design, I found this motherboard to be well build and designed than the Hero which is easy to understand why. It's the top ROG STRIX series motherboard and has a price just slightly above the $200 US segment ($209.99 US).

The motherboard features solid VRM heatsinks but overclocking itself could be a hit or miss with this motherboard as I wasn't able to reach anything above 5.0 GHz with this motherboard. While not being able to go above 5.0 GHz is one thing, it should be noted that I required much less volts to hit 5.0 GHz than the other motherboards which had me surprised. The heatsinks on the other hand did an amazing job keeping this board running under control and stable all the time.

Coming to the design again, the PCH heatsink looks lovely with the brushed aluminum frame and the added M.2 heatsink is an amazing tool. You would want to keep your primary NVMe storage device underneath this heatsink for best stability and performance. The I/O shield with its RGB lights was absolutely stunning as the RGB runs through the clawed out sections of the heatsink. The supremeFX audio is just as great as the Maximus X Hero but here, we get to see an added wireless connectivity option which is something I consider a must have these days. For $209.99 US, the ROG STRIX Z370-E Gaming is definitely a strong product in this price segment as it offers a lot of features in a stunning design.

YOU CAN PURCHASE THE ASUS ROG STRIX Z370-E GAMING HERE!

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