Question 1

Is this part number 90MB18E0-M0AAY0 one of the "NEW" fixed motherboards, or did I get a bad board?

Accepted Answer

Yes, indeed a late MB batch from 2021 had this Hero board manufactured with a defect. A capacitor was installed backward causing debug error code 53 or resulting in not posting. The issue affected units manufactured in 2021 with the part number 90MB18E0-MVAAY0 and serial numbers starting with MA, MB, or MC. You can identify your part number by referring to the big square numbering label directly on the outside MB box!

Question 2

Are these new motherboards new or refurb?

Accepted Answer

The motherboards are new.

Question 3

It says it has two pcie 5.0 x 16 slots which run at 8x-8x. Is it possible to run them as gen 4 in 16x-16x? or does it even matter? I want to sli 2 gtx 1080's.

Accepted Answer

The motherboard has two PCI Express 5.0 x16 slots, which support x16 or x8/x8 modes. It also has one PCI Express 4.0 x16 slot, which supports x4, x4/x4 modes. The actual support may vary by CPU, but it seems that running them as Gen 4 in 16x-16x is not mentioned as an option.

Question 4

Can I change the LED on this like I could with the Asus Rog Maximus XIII Extreme?

Accepted Answer

Yes, the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Hero features RGB lighting and includes AURA Sync support, allowing you to customize the LED lighting.

Question 5

Can I install two 3090 graphics cards on this?

Accepted Answer

I've seen a setup where there were 2 rtx 3090's on this motherboard, but I can't remember where I saw it.  The person had a Corsair 1200 Watt power supply too!  Also, if you install 2  3090's they won't run at x16, they both run at x8/x8.

Question 6

Does this motherboard support discrete graphics over thunderbolt?

Accepted Answer

The ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 Hero motherboard includes 2 x Thunderbolt 4 USB Type-C ports on the rear panel. However, the provided product information does not specify whether it supports discrete graphics over Thunderbolt.

Question 7

Have these boards been updated?

Accepted Answer

CSR could only say generically, these are "NEW".  Waiting for a response from email escalation, too.

Question 8

Does this motherboard support ddr4 ram?

Accepted Answer

No.  If you want an Asus board that supports DDR4 you need to look at the boards with "D4" in the name.  The TUF board, Z690-A and several of the Prime boards use DDR4.

Question 9

Does this motherboard support ddr4 ram?

Accepted Answer

I've done the research and this motherboard does not support DDR4. There are other motherboards that allow you to use DDR4 with the 12th gen Intel product. ASUS Z690 Hero is not backward compatible.

Questions & Answers