ASUS ROG Maximus XII Hero Wi-Fi Z490 Motherboard

Final Thoughts & Conclusion

Asus’s ROG Maximus XII Hero, while being the cheapest of this segment, more than earns its stripes as a flagship ROG product. Overclocking is super easy, and the VRM heatsink didn’t get much above room temperature, which is great considering we are testing on an open bench with zero airflow over it. We were easily able to get out particular i9-10900K to 5.3Ghz on all cores which were count get stable on a previous test platform. Honestly, Asus has so many overclock settings exposed in the BIOS, and even in software from within Windows, you’ll easily be able to fine-tune your particular chip quite easily and eke out every last MegaHertz if you are so inclined. If you want to just push a button and get a decent boost, you can do that as well.

From the software side, Asus has everything you could possibly want. Tuning and overclocking tools are top-notch, and network monitoring and control are right behind it. Our only complaint really continues to be Aura RGB control. It works, but it’s options and flexibility are quite a bit behind many other software suites out there. The hardware capabilities are obviously there, the software just needs an overhaul.

From a features standpoint, well, Asus certainly sets the bar high. With many enthusiasts turning to liquid cooling for maximum performance with minimum noise, the Rog Maximus XII Hero has thermal sensor inputs, a flow sensor input, and fan headers galore, a few of them powerful enough to run a pump directly. All of this can be controlled right from your desktop. Lots of M.2 slots, lots of SATA ports, lots of PCIe slots, Lots of USB ports, lots of RGB headers means you have lots of options. It’s up to you to figure out how to use them all.

Great Job ASUS!

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