ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Hero Unboxing & First Impressions

It’s new CPU launch season, which means new motherboards are also coming to store shelves pretty soon. With AMD’s Ryzen 9000 series launch, the motherboard chipset has been updated to skip the number 7 and straight into the 800 Series.

So, here’s one of the very first X870E motherboards you are seeing here, in the form of ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Hero. Let’s see what kind of improvements we’re looking at, compared to its predecessor.

ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Hero: Unboxing

The unboxing experience is still unmistakably ROG, though the new addition this time around is a quick introduction of all the quick release mechanisms available in this motherboard, as soon as you lift the box open.

Taking off the plastic cover reveals the star of the show, and here you can see a minor change in the design language ASUS has chosen for the new Hero series motherboard. To be clear, you certainly won’t miss out on the angular lines that ROG is famous for; but the VRM, SSD, and chipset heatsinks all now feature a curved bulge on top of it. Here’s how they look up close:

In case you hadn’t noticed by now, the primary SSD heatsink of the Crosshair X870E Hero is now significantly taller and chonkier than before, presumably to accommodate the power-hungry PCIe 5.0 SSDs that can generate significant amounts of heat.

However, most PCIe 5.0 SSDs already have a built-in coolers (some even going as far as using active cooling fans), so you might still end up removing that heatsink in place of whatever your SSD manufacturer provides. That being said, a small number of SSD models do come without heatsink – Corsair MP700 is one of them. In that case, the motherboard’s SSD heatsink can still be used to retain the consistent look.

On that note, the primary SSD slot also gets a big redesign on its installation mechanism, and there are three of them: Q-Latch, Q-Release, and Q-Slide. The new mechanism installs the SSD on the Q-Slide sled, where you secure the SSD by adjusting the sliding lock that adapts to whichever M.2 SSD form factor you use. Then, reinstall the heatsink by pushing down onto the tab. Similarly, all other slots come with a slightly upgraded Q-Latch that also automatically locks the SSD in place as you push it downward.

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ASUS has made changes to the memory slot locks – previous generations has long stuck to the design with a single lock on top side, but in practice that often made RAM installation slightly more difficult than usual (as you’ll have to push harder on the bottom side). Here, the Crosshair X870E Hero returns to the double-sided design, though there is some metal reinforcements as seen in the image above.

Speaking of which, ASUS also opted to reinforce one of the USB 3.0 headers (located at the bottom) with metal shroud, as it is notorious for its tendency to slip away if your cables are bending at a relatively tight angle. The other USB 3.0 header, located at the right edge, is not reinforced.

Here’s an unusual addition – a Slimline SAS (SlimSAS) connector? I had to do a quick research on this one, and it turns out this is a datacenter-optimized connector based on the SAS (Serial Attached SCSI) standard for large storage arrays (think the kind that sits in 1U server racks). Perhaps ASUS wants the top-of-the-line ROG motherboards to dip into small-scale server game, given that AMD recently released the EPYC 4004 series for Socket AM5 platforms.

So what has ASUS improved on the new GPU quick-release mechanism? The old system connects the lock to an arm that extends to some distance away from the GPU so it remains relatively accessible for your fingers; the new design (now called Q-Release Slim) instead just use a spring-loaded PCIe slot lock that releases when you lift the GPU towards it at an angle.

As a ROG motherboard, you also get AI Overclocking, AI Cooling II, AI Networking II (or GameFirst as it used to be called), and if you look at the box image closely from the top of this article, ASUS is keen to tell you that this motherboard is “Advanced AI PC ready.” Bit of a marketing speak, if you ask me – but hey, if you work involves plenty of AI, there you go.

Accessories

Down below where the motherboard is stored in the box reveals a bunch of accessories, and there are some interesting findings here as well. First off, the driver USB no longer gets the special treatment in the box: it’s now placed at the same spot alongside bags of connectors and parts for M.2 slots, within a small box.

Speaking of bags, one of them contains this new adapter that takes the case header into one single unit that plugs directly into the motherboard. No more fiddling with microscopic connectors and hurting your eyes aligning them, and I see that as a big win.

Oh, and for whatever reason you also get this metal bottle opener that serves no purpose as far as the motherboard is concerned. Perhaps after this PC building process ASUS thinks you do deserve a drink, and this may come in handy for the occasion.

So that wraps up for our initial unboxing experience for the ASUS Crosshair X870E Hero motherboard – stay tuned on Pokde.net as we’ll take this motherboard for further analysis, testing, and teardowns. See you there!