The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero: With or Without Wi-Fi 6, Both With 2.5G LAN
by Gavin Bonshor on May 28, 2019 4:00 PM EST
With the introduction of the new X570 chipset designed for use with the AMD Ryzen 3000 series, ASUS has lifted the lid on its launch day range. The ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero Wi-Fi and non-Wi-Fi model both include the Realtek RTL8125AG 2.5 GbE networking chip, with an Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 802.11ax adapter being the only difference between the two models.
Both the ROG Crosshair VIII Hero Wi-Fi and ROG Crosshair VIII Hero are both targeted at gamers with a strong balance between enthusiast, and gaming features. First of all, both models are identical with the exception of the Intel AX200 Wi-Fi 6 wireless adapter. The design follows the traditional ROG style with a similar ROG armor covering that the Crosshair VIII Formula does, but not as extensive. The chipset heatsink includes a fan to keep the X570 chipset running cool, and also includes plenty of customizable RGB with the Hero logo, and ROG logo.
Similar to the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Formula, the Crosshair VI Hero features dual PCIe 4.0 M.2 and also has seven USB 3.1 G2 Type-A, as well as a single USB 3.1 G2 Type-C port on the rear panel. A single front panel USB 3.1 G2 port is also available for users to expand upon, with two USB 2.0 ports providing an additional four ports, and two USB 3.1 G1 Type-A headers for a total of four ports.
The newest inclusion for ASUS is the use of the Realtek RTL8125AG Dragon 2.5 GbE gaming LAN. Onboard audio is taken care of by a Realtek SupremeFX S1220 HD audio codec and as a result, adds five 3.5 mm audio jacks, and a single S/PDIF optical output on the rear panel. On both models is three full-length PCIe 4.0 slots with x16, x8/x8, and x8/x8/x4; this allows for both two-way NVIDIA SLI and AMD Crossfire multi-graphics card setups to be used. A single PCIe 4.0 x1 slot is present and storage capabilities are provided by two PCIe 4.0 M.2, and eight SATA ports.
At present, there is no information on the pricing or availability of the ASUS ROG Crosshair VIII Hero Wi-Fi and non-Wi-Fi model. It is expected that most X570 models from ASUS will be available prior to the launch of AMD's Ryzen 3000 processors on 7/7.
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22 Comments
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Skeptical123 - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
I'm sure some motherboard maker will make a board with a passively cooled north bridge. Keep in mind the new X570 chips use 11-15 watts, a 15 watt heatsink is not small. You could always diy a passive cooling solution using some thermal epoxy and a chunk of metal but I assume that will void the warranty...Alexvrb - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
They're 11 watts on the X570 boards, and that's when they're being taxed. Rumor has it TR will get a fully enabled version, presumably with more lanes in and out, that runs at 15W. 11 watts isn't hard to cool, but the easiest way to do it without creating clearance issues is a slim HS and tiny slow-moving fan. With that being said, if a board vendor wants to offer a passively cooled model it is possible but would be costly and the board layout would have to take this into account from the start.Alternatively, wait for a less power hungry chipset - B550 might cut out NVMe RAID, which would drop peak power further.
kobblestown - Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - link
The north bridge is in the CPU package and with Zen2 it's actually a separate chip on it - the I/O die.I guess the problem with passive cooling is that the chipset gets in the way of the PCIe cards and cannot be substantial enough. I wonder if someone would make a heat pipe chipset cooler that takes the radiator outside of the board.
FreckledTrout - Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - link
I had one of these like a decade ago :)https://www.quietpc.com/tr-hr-05-sli
Destoya - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
Why do you think that the chipset fans will ever be spinning when they're not being punished by PCIe 4.0 loads? I'd wager that these fans will be idle 99% of the time. It's not the 90's anymore where fan speed curves and silent modes don't exist.Irata - Wednesday, May 29, 2019 - link
+1haukionkannel - Thursday, May 30, 2019 - link
Aorus xtreme is passive! Only cost 599$ according the prerelease information. Also msi has water cooled passive motherboard abou 1000$. So there Are some options without whining active cooler!SpartanJet - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
At this point I'd rather skip PCIe 4.0 and have passive cooling rather than those horrible chipset fans of the 1990's.JoeyJoJo123 - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
Cool beans. Buy an X470 board instead if you don't care about PCI-e 4.0, it'll still work with Ryzen 3000 for the most part. I'll be relishing in the 5000MB/s transfer speeds on upcoming PCI-e 4.0 m.2 drives.imaheadcase - Tuesday, May 28, 2019 - link
I wouldn't upgrade just for that, you won't exactly be noticing any difference if you just game/video edit/etc. lol