Testing Configuration and Benchmarks Used
To verify that the motherboard works as advertised, the board was run through our standard benchmark suite. In most cases, the results are presented for the motherboard under review as well as a different similar-class motherboards for performance comparison purposes. The benchmark tests used should give you a good understanding of the board’s capabilities for both office and gaming use so that you, the reader, can make a more informed purchasing decision.
| Test System Setup | |
| Motherboards | AMD X370-based systems ASUS Crosshair VI Hero GIGABYTE AX370-Gaming 5 Intel Z270-based systems ASUS Prime Z270-A Intel X299-based systems GIGABYTE X299 AORUS Gaming 3 |
| CPU | AMD X370-based system AMD Ryzen 7 1700X (3.4GHz CPU, 34 x 100MHz FSB) Intel Z270-based system Intel Core i7-7700K (4.2GHz CPU and Ring Bus, 42 x 100MHz Base Clock) Intel X299-based systems Intel Core i7-7900X (3.3GHz CPU and Ring Bus, 33 x 100MHz Base Clock) |
| Memory | AMD X370-based system Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 modules (2400MHz, 16-18-18-35-1T, 1.225V) Intel Z270-based system Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 modules (2400MHz, 16-18-18-35-1T, 1.225V) Intel X299-based systems Corsair Vengeance LPX 32GB (4 x 8GB) DDR4-2666 modules (2666MHz, 15-17-17-35-1T, 1.225V) |
| Hard Drive | Intel 730 240GB SSD Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB SATA III HD |
| Sound Card | On-board sound |
| Video Card | NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB |
| CPU Cooling | XSPC Raystorm water block Koolance CPU-360i water block Koolance CPU-390 water block |
| Video Drivers | NVIDIA 376.33 |
| Power Supply | Corsair HX750 |
| Operating System | Windows 10 Pro x64 Anniversary Release (build 1607) |
Test Setup Explanation
The 64-bit Windows 10 based test bench used for AMD X370 AM4 board testing includes an AMD Ryzen 7 1700X processor, 16GB of DDR4-2666 memory, an NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB video card, and an Intel 730 240GB SSD drive. For Intel Z270 LGA1151 board testing, an Intel Core i7-7700K processor, 16GB of DDR4-2666 memory, an NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB video card, and an Intel 730 240GB SSD drive were used in the test system. For Intel X299 board testing includes an Intel Core i9-7900X processor, 16GB of DDR4-2666 memory, an NVIDIA GTX 780 3GB video card, and an Intel 730 240GB SSD drive. Using the selected components gives us the ability to demonstrate the motherboard's capabilities rather than that of the components themselves.
Benchmark Tests used for evaluation:
- SiSoft Sandra 2017 SP2 (v2017.09.24.41)
- Handbrake video transcoder v1.0.7
- Maxon Cinebench R15
- PCMark 8 v2.7.613
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.