When shopping around for an AM5 motherboard, you have the choice of 600 or 800 series chipsets. Although a few years old, the X670E chipset is still a solid choice for AM5 processors. Today, we'll be looking at the premium motherboard Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero. This is billed as the ideal foundation for gaming PCs though you may want to steer clear unless planning some serious overclocking profiles. It's overkill for most applications and budget-friendly motherboards offer much of the same functionality. If you have the available funds to cover the cost, you won't be disappointed.

About this review: Asus provided XDA with a sample for this review. The company had no input into its contents before publication.

Price, specs, and availability

Costing $699 at launch, the Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero can be found for less than $600, but that price is still expensive for an AM5 motherboard. This full-size ATX motherboard has the AMD X670E chipset, which was the flagship chipset for the Ryzen 7000 launch. To provide an idea as to the performance of this motherboard, Asus loaded an 18+2 phase power delivery system for handling even the most power-hungry Ryzen processors. Four DIMM slots support up to DDR5-8000 and two PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots ensure you'll have access to rapid storage for the OS and all your games.

Connectivity is solid with plenty of internal headers for cooling and I/O. The rear panel is fully kitted too with USB-C and USB-A ports galore. A slight disappointment is the 2.5Gb LAN port. While this is considerably faster than most home LANs, it would be good to see 10Gb at this price point. The rest of the feature set is top-notch.

What I like

The Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero is one powerful AMD platform. Two 8-pin EPS power connectors are present up top, though only one is required. Three high-speed PCI slots are joined by up to five M.2 slots when using the optional expansion card (two of which are PCIe 5.0). Six SATA III ports are at hand for slower drives and USB headers ensure you have ample bandwidth for most PC cases. The AM5 socket supports Ryzen 7000, 8000, and 9000 CPUs from AMD and four DIMM slots can handle up to DDR5-8000. A debug LED is present, which is useful when attempting to push your components harder than configured at the factory.

Immediately noticeable is the size of the VRM heatsink. There's also passive cooling on all M.2 slots, including that aforementioned expansion card. You won't have any trouble running enthusiast-grade hardware on this platform. While the M.2 heatsinks are secured to the motherboard with screws, Asus did provide a quick release for the GPU, allowing you to conveniently remove your graphics card without having to fiddle with the sometimes obstructed PCI slot latch. A total of eight cooling headers are available for chassis fans, CPU coolers, pumps, and more. Asus even provides additional headers for open-loop liquid cooling solutions.

The rear of the motherboard has an array of ports, including eight USB-A. Though I recommend wired connections for more stable networking, this board does have Wi-Fi 6E support and Bluetooth 5.3. Not too much RGB lighting is present on the PCB though there are enough RGB headers for connecting other components and synchronizing everything together through Asus software.

Testing this motherboard with an AMD Ryzen 9 9900X and 32GB of DDR5-7200 RAM, I achieved similar results to other top-tier motherboards with EXPO enabled. Temperatures were well within optimal ranges, including the VRMs thanks to the beefy heatsink. The Asus BIOS is easy to follow and makes it easy to enable overclocking on any Ryzen CPU, so long as you have adequate cooling. System stability and precise settings will vary, depending on hardware configuration. Power draw is also in line with other AM5 motherboards of its class.

What I don't like

Complaining about the omission of 10Gb LAN seems a slight stretch when most homes have 1Gb networks, but it's worth noting how much of a downgrade this is compared to other flagship motherboards. The X670E chipset is range-topping and enthusiast-grade, but you'll be limited to just 2.5Gb. This is ample for moving big data across the LAN, but it would have been good to see 5Gb at the very least on this platform. That brings me to the price. $600 for a motherboard is a considerable sum of money and a price tag I wouldn't recommend to most PC owners. More affordable X600 or X800 chipset motherboards would be a better buy.

Should you buy the Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero?

You should buy the Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero if:

• You want one of the best platforms for overclocking and power usage.
• You have the available funds to cover this super-high asking price.

You shouldn't buy the Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero if:

• You want the best value for your money with other 600 or 800-series motherboards.
• You don't plan on overclocking anything on your PC.

So, do I recommend you purchase the Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero? Only if you can find it at a discounted price. It's a solid motherboard but a little on the expensive side, especially with a few minor omissions such as 10Gb networking. Performance is rock-solid for Ryzen 7000 and 9000 series processors and you can push even the 9950X harder through manual overclocks. The design is more tame than previous generation motherboards, which can be positive or drawback depending on personal preferences. Regardless of which camp you're in, this is one good-looking motherboard.

The five M.2 slots are a nice touch with two PCIE 5.0, though one requires the included PCI expansion card. The issue with this motherboard arises when considering the price. Spending $600 on a motherboard is overkill for most PC builds. You don't require the Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero for gaming or creative work. Unless you're a power user, wish to carry out some serious overclocking, or simply want to have some highlight features, this board starts to make more sense. But then we can add in some competitor motherboards using the same chipset and the Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero doesn't hold up too well.

I like the board, but I struggle to recommend it, even if it's available at a slightly lower price thanks to newer 800 series motherboards.