ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero Z370 Motherboard Review

By brian

ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero Overclocking

The ASUS ROG Maximus X Hero motherboard is near the top of the product stack and should prove to be a stable overclocking platform for several years to come. We took our Intel Core i7-8700K up to what we consider safe settings for 24/7 operation, trying to stay below 90c during Prime, Intel XTU, and ASUS ROG RealBench tests. Where did that put us exactly?

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How about 5.0GHz at 1.3 volts? There is certainly more speed left in this specific processor (particularly if we were to “delid” it), and only some processors will be able to reach these speeds, but only you can determine if it is worth the extra heat/noise/wear & tear. For quick benchmark sessions, 5.2GHz should be possible. For day to day system use, most enthusiasts tend to stick to more conservative settings.

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Unfortunately with this being a recently released platform, the usual monitoring tools like HWInfo 64 and HWMonitor are going to need an update to help us sort out which one of these sensors is for VRM temperatures.

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Running through ASUS ROG RealBench at 5GHz 1.30 volts, with just the CPU radiator fan pulling air out of the VRM area, the VRM temperature is absolutely not a concern at 90.5F or 32c.

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Our Firestrike results improved just over 3% from the overclock to 5GHz.

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The Firestrike game tests results are mixed, clearly we are GPU bound at this point. Demonstrating that even with an ultra fast CPU, your GPU is most times going to be the important factor when it comes to gaming.