ASUS Maximus VII Hero LGA 1150 Motherboard Review @ [H]

FrgMstr

FrgMstr

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ASUS Maximus VII Hero LGA 1150 Motherboard Review - The Maximus VII represents ASUS' latest value entry into the Republic of Gamers series of motherboards. There have been many entries into the Maximus ROG series, each of these has been exceptional. The Maximus VII Hero has a lot to live up to, especially at the $215 price point.
 
Thanks, great writeup, really happy to see the [H] perspective on this piece of hardware.

Fantastic motherboard - - I've had mine since December running a 4790K, and it's been a wonderful experience.

(My configuration: https://pchound.com/hghTwP/ or https://pcpartpicker.com/b/wJ2RsY)


At the request of another [H] forum member I recently wrote an overclocking guide specific to the Maximus VII Hero and 4790K. A bit simple and rough, but might be useful for anyone else working with this board right now:

http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1041426743&postcount=9

Constructive criticism on the guide very welcome...
 
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Nice review. I just got my Hero the other day and its definitely the nicest board Ive ever had. Loved my Gene before this one too but the Hero just blows me away with how great it looks and the bios and all of the options. Outstanding board and glad to see it get some [H] love.
 
Love mine! I can't got back from ROG boards now. Im just learning how to overclock with it thanks to HardKard



h25tzj7.jpg


uAzVkpy.jpg
 
This board has my 4690K running smooth at 4.7 with a core voltage of 1.26. Very happy with my purchase.
 
I have an i5-3570k running on a ASRock Extreme6 board with 8 gigs of memory and a recently added GTX 970. I've experienced 0 issues and everything runs smoothly.

That being said... I'm itching to upgrade...

The review of this board makes me want to start here and find a cpu and memory to go with it. Seeing as I don't need to upgrade at the moment is there any new editions of intel chips coming soon that I should wait for or if I want to upgrade is now the time to do it?

I know the paradigm of there is always something coming but I don't mean a year from now. Is anything coming in the next few months? If so I feel I can delay stratching this upgrade itch till then.

Thanks for your thoughts.
 
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Well if the news is to be "believed" at all, Broadwell and Skylake got pushed back to fall of 2015 now, but it changes freaking weekly
 
Thanks for the review. I picked up my Hero about 6 weeks ago and it's been absolutely flawless.
 
Had mine for a few months now and loving it!
Left my old Q6600 for it ;)

Sorry for the terrible cellphone picture quality
IwwzVEDh.jpg
 
I've had mine since october. Besides me getting an absolutely horribly overclocking 4690k(max oc at 1.3 volts is 4.5ghz, and i'm not totally convinced it's completely stable...), this board has been amazing.
 
Had this since it came out, paired with a 4790k..4.8 preset works fine!! Article is correct, this board just works, as advertised. H100 fits easy, plenty of room for bigger air coolers too. A joy of a board- just ignore the 'Gamish' name..
 
How does this board compares to the Asus Z97-Pro Gamer?

I was planning on going for the Hero, but when I saw that the Z97-Pro Gamer had better audio and an additional SATA express port I was surprised to see the Hero didn't include them.

Would there be any significant audio differences between the Hero and z97-Pro Gamer?

What advantages does having an extra SATA express port give you?
 
HardKard said:
Thanks, great writeup, really happy to see the [H] perspective on this piece of hardware.

Fantastic motherboard - - I've had mine since December running a 4790K, and it's been a wonderful experience.

(My configuration: https://pchound.com/hghTwP/ or https://pcpartpicker.com/b/wJ2RsY)


At the request of another [H] forum member I recently wrote an overclocking guide specific to the Maximus VII Hero and 4790K. A bit simple and rough, but might be useful for anyone else working with this board right now:

http://hardforum.com/showpost.php?p=1041426743&postcount=9

Constructive criticism on the guide very welcome...
Click to expand...

Had a quick look through your guide and realy impressed, I have almost the same setup except I have a GeForce gtx 970 and will be running water cooling in the next few days. Good write up from a fellow hero user
 
Using Manual. My system randomly crashes on adaptive but I think that has more to do with my old Corsair HX620 power supply than anything else. On manual I'm rock solid stable and temps top out around 60C playing DA:I with a cheap Cooler Master Hyper 212 Evo.
 
joninator said:
http://imgur.com/XTZaKSc,vzOLkB7,MqwvID6

Look at the 3 pictures. The CPU latch inflicted a couple of dents on my new I7 4790k!!!! Anyone else with this motherboard have had this problem? Have you guys checked?
Click to expand...

mine look like metal rubbings versus actual dents but yea... I have a 2nd VII hero coming friday in place of my one I need to RMA for bad A2/B2 Dim slots.

The dents could be cause by having the cooler to tight but not sure for your case anyways.
 
joninator said:
http://imgur.com/XTZaKSc,vzOLkB7,MqwvID6

Look at the 3 pictures. The CPU latch inflicted a couple of dents on my new I7 4790k!!!! Anyone else with this motherboard have had this problem? Have you guys checked?
Click to expand...

Confirmed. My Asus VII Hero is actually doing the same thing to my CPU. It had an EVGA Superclocked CPU Cooler 1st gen upon it tho it was not tight at all as I only tightened the screws 3 turns so it wouldn't pop off.

11081709_10152752530825849_540815807_n_zpsgjb0atdy.jpg


11086246_10152752526400849_51051371_o_zpsxacc6f8l.jpg
 
I have this board with a 4790K CPU. With a Corsair H55 cooler and a Corsair HX800 power supply, the software setting taking it to 4800 MHz is rock solid. I am impressed!
 
I will have to decide between two Asus MBs: the Maximus VII Hero or the Z97-Pro Wi-Fi ac.

Price difference is just $10 between them, the Pro costing more probably for having USB 3.1.

Which should I go for?

CPU is the next question, between i5 or i7.

I won't be overclocking anything, but I will be editing video with Avid Media Composer. So I'm not sure if the i5 would be fine, or if should pick the i7.

Your opinions would be very welcome.
 
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carlmart said:
I will have to decide between two Asus MBs: the Maximus VII Hero or the Z97-Pro Wi-Fi ac.

Price difference is just $10 between them, the Pro costing more probably for having USB 3.1.

Which should I go for?

CPU is the next question, between i5 or i7.

I won't be overclocking anything, but I will be editing video with Avid Media Composer. So I'm not sure if the i5 would be fine, or if should pick the i7.

Your opinions would be very welcome.
Click to expand...


having actually used both... The i7 has about a 43% increase in Physics Score and a max of 3% over-all besides Physics. Below are my scores in 3DMark FireStrike Ultra.


Improvements in 3D mark were as expected but nothing entirely major with as stated above, Physics score.

Personally go for the i5 4690K if all you do is game. If you want the absolute best the Z97 can give you, go for the i7 4790K. Either wont let you down at all.

http://www.3dmark.com/fs/5183531

^ i5 4690K @ 4.3GHz with 2 970's


http://www.3dmark.com/fs/5237336

^ i7 4790K @ Stock settings with 2 970's.


http://www.3dmark.com/compare/fs/5237336/fs/4977544

^ Comparison of my best scores thus far

Sense you video edit it would be best with the i7, not saying the i5 is underpowered but still. Best done on an i7.
 
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My opinion is - if you need the Wi-Fi, go with the wi-fi board. If you dont really need it, the Hero is, quite simply, the nicest board I've ever owned and I cannot recommend it strongly enough. I'm definitely not alone in this sentiment.

I'd go with the i7 if you can easily afford it because, why the heck not? But that isnt to say that there's anything wrong with the i5. Since you do more than game, and the chance is there for you doing more productivity work, the i7 may serve you well.

Finally, I'd also suggest that whichever CPU you go with, absolutely give overclocking a shot. Even if it's just a mild OC. It's a breeze with this board and its true strong suit.
 
My son needed an upgrade.

I bought this board, the AC:Unity bundle......$20 cheaper and two game coupons.

The set-up was a breeze and the OC for a new 4790K was simply setting 4 parameters in the BIOS.

OC is running at 4.4 GHz, 1.25V, and 58C under AIDA 64 stability testing.

This board is perfectly laid out, no frills and the BIOS is near perfect.

Made the purchase after reading this review.;)
 
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