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The refreshed boards for AMD's AM5 socket continue to roll out, and the latest of these to land on our test bench is Asus’ ROG Crosshair X870E Dark Hero ($699.99). The updated board offers an improved aesthetic over the previous Crosshair X870E Hero we covered way back in 2024. As its name suggests, the Dark Hero forgoes any silver or chrome accents and paints the entire board black (save for the RGB feature). There are some specification changes to USB connectivity on the rear IO, along with other iterative hardware changes. Still, for all intents and purposes, this board exists for its looks, and of course, native support for the latest processors, like the Ryzen 7 9850X3D . Still, this is a high-end motherboard, both in terms of its specs and appearance.
The X870E Dark Hero is packed with hardware features. You get five M.2 sockets (two PCIe 5.0), fast networking with 10 GbE and 5 GbE ports and Wi-Fi 7, a robust power delivery solution with 24 total phases, five USB Type-C ports on the rear IO (including two USB4/40 Gbps), and a flagship-class audio solution. Asus crams in several soft features too, like its AI (Overclocking, Cooling II, Networking II, Cacheboost, Advisor), EZ PC DIY features, and an updated BIOS skin, molding the Dark Hero into a well-rounded premium mid-range solution.
The board finished our test suite with results ranging from the fastest we’ve seen to barely slower than average. Compared to other AM5 boards, it proved to be a solid performer across a wide range of tests. It was not just competent in gaming, but also good at most productivity tests (as we'll see in detail later on), so there's nothing to worry about in terms of performance. The biggest deciding factor for whether or not this board is for you will likely be the blacked-out appearance and, of course, price. And at just under $700, it could only be considered "cheap" when compared to current RAM prices(which are at least tentatively showing signs of levelling out ), but this board does have all the bells and whistles you’d expect from the platform.
Below, we’ll examine the Dark Hero’s performance and other features to determine whether it deserves a spot on our list of the best motherboards . But before we share test results and discuss details, here are the specifications from Asus’ website:
Specifications of the Crosshair X870E Dark Hero
Swipe to scroll horizontally Socket AM5 (LGA 1718) Chipset X870E Form Factor ATX Voltage Regulator 24 Phase (20x 110A SPS MOSFETs for Vcore) Video Ports (2) USB4 Type-C DisplayPort
(1) HDMI (v2.1) USB Ports (2) USB 4 (40 Gbps) Type-C
(3) USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Type-C (6) USB 3.2 Gen 2 (10 Gbps) Network Jacks (1) 10 GbE
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