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The ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Dark Hero motherboard needs to be considered in the right context. It is a flagship Socket AM5 product from a leading brand, arriving at a time when building a PC yourself is increasingly shifting from a mainstream activity toward a premium hobby. If you have any doubts about that, just take a look at current RAM and SSD prices.
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ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Dark Hero Video review
Positioning and Price
The Dark Hero belongs to the tier of hardware where it is entirely reasonable to expect the maximum that the consumer market has to offer, without crossing into the realm of enterprise and industrial platforms. That territory is already occupied by ecosystems such as AMD EPYC and Intel Xeon, with dual-socket motherboards and considerably less emphasis on aesthetics. Still, a flagship is a flagship.
The price is in line with that positioning: the ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Dark Hero costs roughly $700–800. It would be tempting to say that this is the price of a good mid-range prebuilt PC, but in the current market, quality prebuilts can cost even more.
Package Contents and Signature Innovations
There is little point in listing the number of standard SATA cables included with a motherboard at this level. Instead, it is worth focusing on features that are typically found only on components more expensive than some complete PCs:
- Thermal spacers for M.2: dedicated spacer blocks designed to improve contact between storage drives and the substantial heatsinks.
- Tool-free quick-release mechanisms: the heatsinks and storage drives can be secured without using a screwdriver.
- Active RAM cooling: an included fan module that mounts to the motherboard’s upper mounting points and provides direct airflow over the memory modules.
The Dark Hero’s design is restrained and premium. The only illuminated area is located on the VRM heatsink. It is neither a conventional RGB strip nor a full-fledged display, but ASUS’s proprietary animated LED matrix, Polymo Lighting, which can be extensively customized through Armoury Crate.
The heatsinks and VRM assembly are substantial, with more than enough capacity for extreme overclocking of 16-core processors. The board makes this intent clear with two full CPU power connectors (8+8-pin) and an LN2 mode switch for liquid-nitrogen overclocking, located in the upper-right corner.
Ergonomics and Tool-Free Design
The high price is reflected not only in the board’s ability to deliver hundreds of amps to the PC’s silicon heart, but also in its focus on convenience. The rear I/O shield is pre-installed and integrated into the motherboard assembly. Along the top edge of the board are physical Power and FlexKey buttons, along with a digital Q-Code POST display.
Next to the LN2 switch, there is an additional LED activity indicator for the storage drive – a relatively rare and interesting touch. The rear I/O panel features the familiar Clear CMOS button for resetting the BIOS and a BIOS Flashback button, which allows the firmware to be updated without a CPU installed.
The Dark Hero features an updated tool-free M.2 SSD mounting system using Q-Latch and Q-Release. In total, the motherboard offers five M.2 slots: two connected directly to the CPU and three routed through the X870E chipset, along with four SATA 3 ports.
However, the PCIe lane allocation is fairly complex. There are two full-speed PCIe 5.0 x4 M.2 slots: one supports 2242–2280 form factors, while the other additionally supports the longer 22110 drives. The CPU-connected PCIe slots are two full-length PCIe 5.0 x16 slots with bifurcation support (x8/x8). These slots share lanes with the USB4 controller. Using the second M.2 slot or additional expansion cards reduces available lane bandwidth and lowers USB4 performance, to approximately 20 Gbps.
Networking, USB, and Peripherals
The total number of USB ports is impressive – there are 23 in all. The rear I/O panel provides 11 ports:
- 2 × USB4 (Type-C)
- 9 × USB Type-A (10 Gbps)
Internal Headers (12 ports):
- 1 × USB Type-C (20 Gbps)
- 1 × USB Type-C (20 Gbps) with Quick Charge / Power Delivery support up to 60 W
- 2 × USB 3.2 Gen 1 headers (up to 4 × 5 Gbps ports with bifurcation)
- 3 × USB 2.0 headers (up to 6 ports with bifurcation)
For video output, the rear I/O panel offers only HDMI. Personally, I would have preferred to see DisplayPort as well, as it is available on the B650E-E Gaming WiFi. The panel also includes S/PDIF, 3.5 mm audio jacks, and two network controllers: 10Gb Ethernet and 5Gb Ethernet.
Wireless connectivity is handled by a MediaTek MT7927 adapter with support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. One interesting detail is that one of the chipset-connected M.2 slots uses the relatively uncommon 2230 form factor (PCIe 4.0 x2). It is intended not only for Wi-Fi modules but also for compatible compact SSDs. The officially supported maximum memory speed is up to 9600 MT/s, with support for AMD EXPO profiles and ASUS’s proprietary AEMP (ASUS Extended Memory Profile) technology.
Testing and Thermal Performance
The motherboard was tested as part of a “Full ASUS” test system, paired with an ASUS ROG RTX 5080 Astral graphics card and a 360 mm liquid-cooling system. The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D reached peak power consumption of around 130 W. Under these conditions, the VRM temperature, according to the board’s internal sensors, remained below 65°C at the hotspot, even on an open test bench with an ambient temperature of 27°C. That leaves a huge amount of thermal headroom for more power-hungry processors.
The heatsink on the top PCIe 5.0 M.2 slot is impressively large and substantial, allowing it to effectively cool even the hottest modern SSDs without requiring an additional active cooler.
Conclusion
As you might expect, this is a flagship in every sense of the word. Not merely because of its refined design or formidable VRM power delivery, but because of the combination of technologies, thoughtful engineering details, and ergonomic features designed to make life easier for the user.
Yes, the PCIe lane allocation requires a careful look at the manual, and the lack of DisplayPort may disappoint owners of certain monitors. Nevertheless, for a truly uncompromising, no-compromise “unicorn” PC build, the ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Dark Hero comes highly recommended without hesitation.
Where to buy Asus ROG CROSSHAIR X870E DARK HERO
