Custom PC - UK (2020-08)

ASUS MAXIMUS XII

HEROWIFI /£430 inc VAT

SUPPLIER overclockers.co.uk

SPEC

ChipsetIntelZ490

CPUsocketIntelLGA1200

Memorysupport4 slots:max128GB

DDR4(upto4800MHz)

ExpansionslotsThree16x

PCI-E3,three1xPCI-E 3

Sound8-channelRealtekALC1220

Networking1 x Intel2.5GigabitLAN,

Marvel5 GigabitLAN,802.11axWi-Fi

OverclockingBaseclock98-538MHz,

CPUmultiplier8-120x;maxvoltages:

CPU2.155V,RAM2.4V

Ports6 x SATA6Gbps3 x M.2PCI-E3, 4

x USB 3.1 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.1 Type-C, 4 x

USB 3, 2 x USB 2, 3 x surround audio out

Dimensions (mm) 305 x 244

VERDICT

Amonstermotherboard,butwe’dsavethe

cashandoptforsimilar,cheaperofferings.

HERO

• 
  

  Bristlingwithfeatures

  
  


• 
  

  ExcellentVRMcooling

  
  


• 
  

  Thermalprobe-based
  fancontrol

  
  

VILLAIN

• ExposedVRMfan


• Overclockinga hassle
  withcurrentEFIs


• Expensive

PERFORMANCE

31 / 35

FEATURES

34 / 35

VALUE

21 / 30

OVERALLSCORE

86 %

W

ith its price topping £400, the
Maximus XII Hero is the most
expensive Hero-branded ROG
board we’ve tested. In terms of your wallet’s
fear level, it sits significantly higher than MSI
and Gigabyte’s pricier options this month. It’s
an impressive beast of a motherboard,
though, with a trio of huge heatsinks all linked
by a massive heatpipe.
There’s additional cooling here in the form
of a bundled VRM fan as well, which can
be mounted next to the memory modules
and controlled in the EFI or Asus’ AI Suite
software. In use, the peak VRM temperature
fell from 54°C to 48°C with the fan at 50 per
cent speed, where it was inaudible above the
noise of our test system.
There are three PCI-E 3 M.2 ports, and
Asus is making no marketing statements
regarding PCI-E 4 support, other than

claiming many Z490bo

are engineered withit in

mind. All three portsare

covered with heatsinks,

and 49°C was the peak

load temperature ofour

Samsung 960 Evo SSD,

which was nearly 10°Cc

than without the heatsin

However, accessingthe

upper ports is fiddly,req

the removal of a largep

shroud, which meansyo

also have to removeyou

graphics card.

You get the full complementof

overclocking and testing tools, including

power, reset and clear-CMOS buttons, plus

an LED POST code display. There’s also a

thermal probe header, so you can control

fans using an additional input, such as a

coolant probe, but a standard air probe is

included too. Unlike the MSI MEG Z490 Ace,

you get a display output on the rear panel to

help troubleshoot graphics cards, plus you

get nine Type-A USB ports, seven of which

are USB 3 or faster. It’s the only board to offer

a 5 Gigabit port as well, plus you get 802.11ax

Wi-Fi on the ‘WiFi’ branded model we tested.

Asus also includes an option during POST

to hit F3 and remove certain power limits,

allowing the Core i9-10900K to hit its 5.3GHz

boost more often. We enabled this feature,

but left all other settings in the EFI alone

except for applying the usual XMP profile.

This saw a decent result in the Cinebench

single-threaded score of 539, and some

excellent results in our image editing, multi-

tasking and system scores too.

Overclockingwasratherfiddly,though,as

withCPU-Zshowinga bigdropinvoltage

under load. We had to set a vcore of 1.45V

to hit the usual 1.3V and get a stable 5.1GHz

overclock, with loadline calibration not able

to deal with the issue on its own.

However, the overclocked power draw

was only 20W or so higher than the

competition and it managed a massive

68,247 points in the image editing test,

coming top in RealBench overall, albeit

with a mediocre result in Far Cry New Dawn.

Conclusion

The Asus Maximus XII Hero (WiFi) is a

supremely high-end motherboard, and it’s

worth the extra money if you’re genuinely

going to use the extra features. However, both

MSI and Gigabyte’s most expensive offerings

this month offer far better value, and less

hassle when it comes to overclocking too.

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with the cheaper ROG Strix Z490-E Gaming,