ASUS ROG X570 Crosshair VIII Hero (Wi-Fi) ATX Motherboard with PCIe 4.0, on-Board WiFi 6 (802.11Ax), 2.5 Gbps LAN, USB 3.2, SATA, M.2, Node and Aura Sync RGB Lighting

Update 04-14-2019: With Bios revision 11xx and 12xx I was able to get the memory to run 100%, multiboot and 48hours runs @ 3400 14-14-14-14-28 timings (slightly relaxed from Ryzen DRAM calculator 1.4.0 3400MT Fast). Considering I have achieved this with 2x16GB dimms I am impressed with the results here and in general. The board has been a dream and my only complaint is the RGB on the chipset is far too dim compared to the IO shield. I was recently ran Cinebench r20 on a manual overclock to 4.25 all core and got a score of 4306... solid results and a great board.BIOS revisions 0702 and 0804 made my system completely unusable with my original ram selection CORSAIR VENGEANCE RGB 32GB (2x16GB) DDR4 3333MHz C16 Desktop Memory - Black despite it running @3466 16-16-16-16-32 timings at 1.38v flawlessly in BIOS revisions 0601 and 0509.Bought some G.SKILL TridentZ RGB Series 32GB (2 x 16GB) 288-Pin DDR4 SDRAM DDR4 3200 (PC4 25600) Desktop Memory Model F4-3200C14D-32GTZR and it runs with the 2700x at the pictured timings error free. Could be AGESA code update, could be Asus but despite the RAM problem and the price this is still a 5 star board. Certainly not necessary but if you want the absolute best... If I were willing to deal with running my Kraken x62 and case fans at full this thing had my particular copy of the 2700x running at 43.5x rock stable all core and a 1.45 vcore. As it turns out, the noise/heat isn't worth it vs leaving it autoclocked and performance level 2 and what that yields. I am convinced its the board's BIOS, build, and design quality that affords my good results. I was initially going to buy a Strix x470-F but it went out of stock on Amazon AND Newegg when it came time to buy.I am very glad it did

I love this motherboard, not only for its aesthetics, but for its ability to keep cool temperatures for hours and hours. I have attached relevant benchmark tests from YouTube Der8auer for reference so you too can compare the VRM, notably one of the most important statistics, of this board with other X570 boards. (With and without Wi-Fi has the same tech, other than Wi-Fi capability) At just about $380, the Crosshair VIII Hero does a fantastic job at keeping low temperatures, while providing an excellent array of features any PC builder would want including future-proof PCI-E 4.0, two NVMe capable M.2 SSD ports, AX Wi-Fi, 8 SATA ports (thats a lot), 2.5Gbps LAN (you wont need 10Gbps unless you're doing enterprise-level work), and much more.Performing pretty darn similar to the best X570 board around, the $650 MSI Godlike, the Crosshair VIII is a clear winner for a majority of consumers, especially when coupled with a 3900X or 3950X with a 1080 TI or 2080 TI GPU! Gamers may be wondering, "But... intel is better for gaming... right?". At 1080p, you will get 10FPS - 15FPS more with an Intel chipset, but the differences are small as you get to 1440p (5 - 10FPS) and 4K (<5FPS) or when you go for 144hz monitors. Faster refresh rates and higher resolutions = less differences in FPS. When you keep in mind just how POWERFUL the Ryzen series is for virtually everything, you'll want to go for X570. Keep in mind you are getting this board to witness the power of Ryzen, and this is especially amazing now that the 3950X Is out, which any review will tell you to start drooling over.This board brings out the best, most juicy, xxx-rated don't-let-your-grandmother-see-this aspects of the super hot (actually, quite low in temperature) Ryzen series.Plopped this bad boi with my 2080 TI, 3950X, 2TB Aurous 5000MB/s M.2 Drive, 2TB Seagate HDD, and Raijintek Water-Cooling system in a Paean case. I will post more pictures of my build later.

UPDATE:There have been some issues with the RAM overclock I believe. The PC shuts down unexpectedly and I believe that RAM might indeed be the case here. I restored the settings to auto in order to check if that was the problem and now the system runs smoothly. Although, I believe that with 1.4v instead of the initial 1.35v that I had, the problem will be fixed. Unfortunately I don't have time to test it now but as soon as I do will update my review again. Also, when I tried to overclock my RAM above its advertised speed the PC wouldn't post and the settings were reverted without any problems.General thoughts:I installed this board today with a Ryzen 7 2700x processor and a 2x8GB Corsair Vengeance RGB 3466MHz kit (CMR16GX4M2C3466C16). My PC booted from the start with no issues whatsoever. First thing I did was update the BIOS to latest firmware using ASUS EZ flash 3 (easy as pie). The process in general went through without any problems. The board looks fantastic and the provided software works like a charm.RAM:After updating the BIOS, I used the DOCP feature to overclock my ram kit to its advertised 3466MHz speed. I have never fiddled with RAM speed before but it was very simple to do so. The BIOS also comes preloaded with memory profiles for Samsung B-Die RAM kits with speeds up to 3600MHz that you can use. The PC posted with no issues and my RAM was running at 3466MHz which provided a very nice boost to benchmarks and framerates.Issues:The only issues I had were regarding third party control software. These were Corsair Link and Speedfan. Corsair Link couldn't let me customize the RAM leds but otherwise it worked as intended. Speedfan couldn't recognize the motherboard PWM ports so I couldn't use it to set fan speeds.Workaround for issues:I believe though that it's not the boards fault. Most probably the software were not update for the X470 platform. Instead, I used the AURA sync software to control all the RGB components of my system. It was pretty easy to figure out and does it's job pretty well. Regarding fan control, the Fan Xpert 4 software from the AI Suite 3 worked wonders. I used it to automatically tune the fans based on their individual RPM. After that there's no need to further adjust the fans but if you want, each PWM fan port provides an RPM chart that can be adjusted from the software. The software also created four profiles for all the fan speeds: Silent, Standard, Turbo, Full Speed. These can be easily cycled through the software.Conclusion:Admittedly, this is just the first day of use of the new system but I felt the need to post this review because this board is in my opinion the top X470 that you can buy right now and with fore coming BIOS update it can only get better (I hope :p ).