ASUS ROG Maximus IX Hero Z270 LGA1151 DDR4 DP HDMI M.2 USB 3.1 ATX Motherboard

Pros: -no Windows 10 issues -very useful utilities available for enthusiasts -replete BIOS options for fans, OC, XMP, etc. -USB boot, BIOS Flashback with built in recovery, and USB 3.0 everywhere -RGB sync with peripherals

Cons: -was expecting more internal fan headers -pricey; sometimes you get what you pay for?

Overall Review: -hopefully this Z270 chipset works better with the 7700k than the flashed bios for the Z170 -do not install 3rd party RGB programs until you have first tinkered with Asus Aura first; doing so will cause both programs to crash indefinitely

Pros: Future proof. -Supports the latest Intel CPU. -A lot of back I/O USB port. -Solid construction. -RGB lighting on board and Support for RGB strips. -M.2 ready -Intel Optane ready The UEFI utitlity is great.

Cons: Only one USB 2.0 header can be a problem if your CPU watercooler requires USB to control fan speeds

Overall Review: GET AN ASUS VIDEO CARD WITH AURA!

Pros: 1. Asus ROG boards are made with quality parts. 2. There are lots of fan headers and the QFan Control allows precise speed adjustments within the BIOS. 3. The Maximus IX Hero comes with an attractive, comprehensive and easily navigable BIOS. 4. This board comes with a 2 digit diagnostic LED that displays the system status. 5. While there are a motherboards with more features this one was still packed with a very respectable feature set was more than adequate for my needs. 6. This board has buttons for Clear CMOS and USB Bios Flashback on the rear panel. 7. The on-board audio sounds great. 8 . After installation the board worked on the first start.

Cons: 1. There is no wi-fi or bluetooth. 2 The Maximus IX Hero board comes with only 6 internal SATA 6GB/s connectors. This is no big deal as I can work around this shortcoming with a PCI-e add-on card.

Overall Review: This is the third computer I've built and it was pretty much trouble free. The first build was with a Gigabyte board and the last two were with Asus. When I was shopping for a board I found in the Asus Maximus IX Hero motherboard just about every feature I wanted, and at $208 I thought the board was reasonably priced. It would have been nice to have wi-fi and bluetooth to grow into, but it wasn't imperative I have them at this time. Anyone who has built a computer knows how nice it is to have it work on first start up, and this Asus motherboard did its part in making that happen. That gets a big thumbs up. My system: Lian Li full tower case, 8 Noctua case, and CPU fans, Noctua NH-U12S CPU cooler, Asus Maximus IX Hero motherboard, Intel Core i7-7700K Kaby Lake 4.2 GHz CPU, 16 GB (2x 8 GB) Corsair Vengence LPG DDR4 3000 SDRAM, EVGA 850 watt PSU, EVGA Geforce GTX 780 video card, LG CD/DVD burner, 3 Samsung 250GB SSDs(1Evo and 2 Pro), 500 GB Western Digital Caviar Black HD, 1TB Seagate HD, and 2 Linux operating systems: PCLinuxOS KDE and MX-16.1 (no Microsoft Windows)

Pros: I use this as a workstation for work, and for light gaming. It has a TPM header which I need for work. I bought the TPM on a well-known auction site and plugged it in. The board is rock solid. I also like the DisplayPort output for the on-chip video.

Cons: The previous board I had, the Maximus VII Hero, had 8 SATA ports. I have 8 SATA drives so I needed to get a SATA PCIe card to get all 8 wired up. Also the pinout on the TPM header changed, so I had to buy a new TPM.

Pros: Looks good, Runs reliably, Good Expandability

Cons: Lack of USB 2.0 headers. Reliability came Only after an update to the BIOS

Overall Review: Overall a Good MOBO after updating the bios to the newest version. But I Was having issues with aura and frequent, random resets. I Found that the Bios that came installed was 2 versions behind. I Updated the bios and now It runs Flawlessly with Improved Boot times, Reduced issues with the aura software and No Random Crashes

Pros: Install was a breeze, I like that the USB 3 front panel is located in the bottom, people with Thermaltake Core P5 would know why! The RGB is a nice touch, vibrant colors, it doesn’t get hot after long sessions of gaming, the Q connector is much better than the Gigabyte’s.

Cons: I had the Aorus Gaming K7 prior to this board, while it was nice looking with that light bar by the ram it gave me so much headache when it comes to overclocking and booting, so many times I turn the PC on but it goes to bios asking for a reset for no reason, I got to 4.7 stable with the Aorus, I thought my CPU was limited to that at first but when I switched to the Hero I got to 5 GHz stable and my memory finally functions at the speed I paid for, 3000Mhz.

Overall Review: Since I got this board 2 months ago I have yet to experience any bluscreen or random errors or boot to bios, every single time I turn on the PC it worked %100. The Audio quality is very nice but I got to give it to the Aorus for the better quality. That is the only thing I missed from the Aorus, especially if you hook up your headphones to the front panel. I always had Asus for both AMD and Intel, and every time I switch I regret it and come back to Asus, forgive me Asus for betraying you sometimes, but I’m back and I pledge allegiance to you forever!

Pros: lots of room to connect anything you'd possibly want to connect to it, great setup guide and the BIOS is beautiful and intuitive making fine tuning your components a breeze, comes with SLI bridge included

Cons: none

Overall Review: highly recommended, will always stay with the Maximus line moving forward in future builds

Pros: I'm barely on my second day with this but so far it has been nothing but good. Installation was a breeze, bios updating/navigation is smooth. Just simple all around and does it's job. Never ran into a problem while setting up, actually the only thing that gave me a problem was my new Corsair case, but that was a fan issue. I don't care for RGB lighting, this whole RGB thing has gotten out of hand...but the RGB on the Maximus IX Hero...well...it's pretty cool. I dig it 10/10. and it has 2 RGB headers for any of you wanting to put some more fancy lights in your rig. and another 10/10 for debug LED. I take one thing back, I did run into an issue but it wasn't a big deal. When I turned it on I got an error code and the handy owners manual told me something was up by saying there was no ram installed but there was. An easy reseat fixed everything and was ready to go. Also plenty of USB ports, like PLENTY. I'm only using half!

Cons: -Stickers for days -Coaster -more stickers

Overall Review: This mobo is really good but for sure you can find something cheaper that'll offer you what you're looking for and may offer some more. Even some of the cheaper boards out there have more fancy lights on em. I went with this board because of the features, this is where the extra money you're paying goes to. Sure I may not use everything this board has to offer but I have learned that options are always good. Trust me, having to say "man I should have gone with that instead" later sucks. Even if I don't use everything at least I have options.