With a price of nearly $700, the Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero is considerably more expensive than similar offerings from the competition, and we’ll get straight to the point here – this board won’t run your AMD Ryzen CPU faster than a cheaper option. However, thankfully that extra cost does buy you a sackful of extra features that go some way to justifying the massive price tag.

If you’re after the best gaming motherboard, perhaps for a shiny new Ryzen 7 9800X3D rig, then there are plenty of options out there right now, and you’re not just limited to AMD’s new 800-series chipsets, but older 600-series motherboards too. The argument for the Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Hero, though, is that if you’re planning on keeping your PC for several years, then spending a little more can pay dividends in the long term, especially compared to opting for an old, mid-range B650 board.

There are other reasons to go high-end too, such as getting all the bells and whistles you need to build a gaming PC with high-end specs, and maybe even water-cool your PC or overclock its CPU.

This board also gives you enough M.2 ports to create an impressively huge and fast storage array using the best gaming SSD options, while also offering enough power from your case’s front USB-C port to charge a laptop. It might be overkill for most PC gamers, but if you have serious motherboard needs, and a suitably fat wallet, then it’s well worth a look, plus it’s fun for the rest of us to dream.

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