CPU Cooler Fit and Included Accessories
CPU Cooler Fit
To test the amount of space surrounding the CPU socket, we mounted the Noctua NH-D15 cooler to the CPU socket. This behemoth CPU air cooler sports a dual fan construction and two huge vertical cooling towers.
When oriented in its default configuration with air blown towards the rear panel of the case, the Noctua cooler fits into the CPU socket area of the Crosshair VI Hero without issues. Further, the spacing between the CPU socket area and the primary PCIe x16 slot are sufficient to seat a video card with the cooler mounted.
The Noctua hold down mechanism is large enough to qualify the socket space for use with the majority of mount methods included with a CPU cooler. The Noctua mount fits well to the CPU socket with no tight areas or contact points evident between it and the on board capacitors, chokes, or VRM heat sinks.
Included Accessories
The Crosshair VI Hero motherboard comes with all the necessary components to get the board up and running, as well as some nice to haves that ASUS includes with their ROG boards.
The manual included with the Crosshair VI Hero is as full features as we've come to expect from ASUS, written in a clear and detailed language. Also included is a driver DVD with all necessary hardware drivers and Window's utilities, an ROG case badge, ROG case labels, and an ROG-labeled drink coaster. The case labels can be used to label SATA cables, hard drives and SSDs.
The board's rear panel shield is an aluminum plate with a black plastic overlay. The port identifying text and icons are printed in white text on its surface. The contrast in color between the text / icons and plate background make for easy reading under most lighting conditions.
ASUS bundled in four black and white 6Gb/s rated SATA cables for use with the integrated port. The cables have integrated port locks and a mix of straight and 90 degree connectors.
For multi-GPU use, ASUS included a two-way NVIDIA HB Bridge adapter. made to fit between cards in the primary and secondary PCIe x16 slots.
For use with the on-board front panel header, ASUS included one of their Q-Connector header plugs. You simply plug the front panel case leads into the Q-Connector, then plug the Q-Connector into the appropriate board header. It makes the installation of the front panel plugs much easier.
For use with an external RBG LED strip, ASUS included an extension cable that plugs into the board's RBG LED header for powering and syncing the external strip with the board's illumination settings.
For mounting 3D-printed accessories to the board's surface, ASUS included a mounting kit with uprights that screw into the provided integrated board mounts and screws that screw into the uprights.
The CMOS battery should have
The CMOS battery should have a motorized, pop-up holder with RGB lighting. 5/10.
Are CMOS batteries 10 cents a
Are CMOS batteries 10 cents a volt yet?
Ryan’s waiting from them to
Ryan's waiting from them to drop to 10volts / cent lol….
bottom of page 2:
“Simply
bottom of page 2:
“Simply plug in a USB drive containing the proper BIOS file in the root of the drive into the lower USB 3.0 port (blue colored) located beneath the PS/2 port and power on the system.”
you have a PS/2 port ? and is it not the lower black USB port that is used for BIOS flashing ? (when comparing to my board)
Oversight on my part, thanks
Oversight on my part, thanks for pointing that out. Its been fixed to reflect the proper port position and type..
Seems fishy to see a review
Seems fishy to see a review of this board that actually doesn’t mention any of the major issues people are complaining about. The Cold Boot issue, CPU, AIO, and motherboard fan headers shutting off completely for no reason until the system overheats, no AGESA update since 1.0.0.6, inconsistent BIOS updates, and basically the board has been abandoned by Asus support on their own official forum! Don’t buy this POS! How much was PCPer paid for their fictional favorable review?
Thanks for your input.
Thanks for your input. Didn't see any of those issues in testing. It was a bit difficult to get dialed in, but no more than any new platform or first experience with a new platform…
Thank you for the review. I
Thank you for the review. I was the one who asked Ryan if you could do AMD motherboard reviews on Mailbag #2. Glad to see the first one done.
I would love to see the review of Crosshair VI Extreme but since that’s essentially a beefed up version of Hero it would problably not be very intresting. Maybe one of the better B350 boards or one of the other top X370 boards then. Keep up the good work.
2017 ? Huh, I’m just passing by. It’s now 2025 and I’m still using this motherboard. I upgraded CPU 4 times, and never had any problems with this motherboard. Ryzen 1600 > 2600X > 3600 > 5800X. First ryzens had problems, they had been reaching only very low frequencies, ryzen 1600 sucked quite alot in OC, 2600X was bad as well on this motherboard, in its time. ryzen 5 3600 was massive jump. And now 5800X was yet another massive leap in power, going from 6 to 8/16 cores. Frequency is reaching 4,85Ghz on all cores during gaming, even when 4,7Ghz is default boost frequency. Using watercooing on CPU + having Bios settings set to [cpu loadline 4/5, T-Probe is a go for Ryzens] and it’s working like a charm ! Just upgraded RAM to 3600Mhz 4x16GB modules (Tridenz), mind it’s AMD system. Did i mention it’s running 3600Mhz on RAM ? Just awesome job done – AMD chipset X370. After 8 years, still working. I’m a happy man.