ASUS
CROSSHAIR
VI HERO
RRP: $254.99 | Website: www.asus.com
Test Machine
• AMD Ryzen 1700X ES
• CORSAIR DOMINATOR
PLATINUM SE 3200 C14
• EVGA GTX 980 TI K|NGP|N
Edition (1530/2075)
• CORSAIR Neutron XTi 480GB
• CORSAIR AX1500i
• Windows 10 x64
• (1401)
T
he lead or rather review
board for AMD’s AM4
platform by all accounts
is late. Even though we may
have had this board around
since late March, it is only
now with the latest 1401 BIOS
that one feels it is ready for
something resembling prime
time.
This isn’t anything to do with
ASUS entirely, but rather the
updates which we had all been
waiting for from AMD. Right
now, with all the relevant
updates, the CROSSHAIR
VI Hero is not only a better
board than it was at release,
but finally worth the price.
To repeat again, this isn’t
entirely ASUS related as AMD
had plenty to do with it. The
difficulty is in determining
what is a board and what is
platform issue. Of course, like
26 The OverClocker Issue 41 | 2017
all vendors, officially almost
everything is AMD related, and
from AMD they won’t point at
board vendors but will politely
tell you to check for the latest
firmware update which is
expected, but in a material
sense is saying nothing at all.
That aside, the CROSSHAIR
VI Hero with the 1401 update
(presently not available on the
official page), brings with it
plenty of fixes and by and large
makes the CROSSHAIR VI, the
board it was always meant to
be. I’d wager that it’s the only
extreme overclocking ready
AM4 offering on the market,
especially out the box.
Why this is important
is because, for all the
requirements needed to
make extreme overclocking
worthwhile, the updates and
improvements within such
a situation make sure that
normal users and enthusiasts
have a near perfect platform
to use. At the very least one
that is able to extract the most
from the current batch of
Ryzen processors.
With the CROSSHAIR, you’ll
have to determine for yourself
what it is you’re looking for
with a bit more care. If you’re
out for the best competitive
overclocking board around,
this is the one for you. If you’re
looking for gaming board
exclusively this may still
be the one. I personally lean
towards the K7 also reviewed
in this issue, but that has
everything to do with how fuss
free and simplistic it is when
you just want to get up and
running. For those remotely
interested in performance
tuning, you definitely want the
Crosshair VI Hero. Moreover,
if you have 3600MHz memory
kit or higher, this is probably
one of two that can operate
such frequencies reliably. Do
yourself a favour though and
check the QVL as right now it
only has official support for
speed bins up to 3,200MHz.
I did test frequencies of
3,600MHz and beyond though
and it works just fine. Just be
aware though that at present
memory performance tanks
at 3,600MHz, be it you’re using
a divider or Bclk. So, for now
stick to 3,466MHz until it is
sorted in a future update.
So, what is that makes the
CROSSHAIR VI Hero tick?
Well it has all the bells and
whistles you’ve come to expect
from the ROG line with a few