The Intel Z590 Motherboard Overview: 50+ Motherboards Detailed
by Gavin Bonshor on January 19, 2021 10:15 AM ESTASUS ROG Maximus XIII Hero
Another model from ASUS's ROG Maximus line-up is the highly favorable Hero. The ROG Maximus XIII Hero offers Wi-Fi 6E, with dual 2.5 GbE and four PCIe M.2 slots. It uses a slightly different aesthetic compared with the previous Z490 Hero, with RGB LED lighting built into the rear panel cover and chipset heatsink. Still, ASUS's illustration leaves the question open whether or not the power delivery heatsink has them integrated too, which seems unlikely. The new Hero uses an ATX PCB, with a 14+2 power delivery with 90 A teamed power stages. Powering the CPU is a pair of 12 V ATX CPU power inputs.
The ASUS ROG Maximus XIII Hero includes a nice black and dark gray contrasting design, with three full-length PCIe slots. The top two operate at PCIe 4.0 x16 and x8/x8, while the bottom full-length slot is locked to PCIe 3.0 x4, and there is also one PCIe 3.0 x1 slot. The Hero includes six SATA ports with support for RAID 0, 1, 5, and 10 arrays, with four PCIe M.2 slots. Two of the M.2 slots operate at PCIe 4.0 x4, while the other two can support PCIe 3.0 x4 and SATA drives. In the top right-hand corner are four memory slots with support for up DDR4-5333, with a combined capacity of 128 GB. In the top right-hand corner of the board is a two-digit LED debugger, with a power on and rest switch pairing just below it.
On the rear panel is two Thunderbolt 4 Type-C, with six USB 3.2 G2 Type-A and two USB 2.0 ports. ASUS includes two RJ45 ports powered by two Intel I225-V 2.5 GbE controllers, with an Intel AX210 Wi-Fi 6E CNVi, which also includes support for BT 5.2 devices. For users planning to use Intel's integrated graphics, ASUS includes one HDMI video output. Regarding audio, ASUS is using a SupremeFX ALC404082 HD audio codec, with an ESS Sabre9018Q2C DAC. Finishing off the rear panel is a clear CMOS button and a BIOS Flashback button with a highlighted USB 2.0 port, which users can use to flash the board's firmware.
Typically bridging the gap between the ROG Maximus Extreme and Formula models to the Strix series, ASUS has set a price of $500. While this does seem on the high side of Z590 pricing, which we already know, ASUS does include a stacked rear panel including dual Thunderbolt 4 Type-C, dual 2.5 GbE, Wi-Fi 6E, as well as six USB 3.2 G2 Type-A.
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rahvin - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
You do know all the telemetry and spyware in windows was backported to Windows 7 a long time ago right?If you don't want the windows telemetry you're only choice is to no use windows. Either accept it and use Win10 or Skip it and use Linux like any sensible person. In fact I'd argue Linux runs the old games better than windows does.
Sticking with an EOL windows 7 doesn't protect you from the telemetry and it only makes you vulnerable to the EOL product security.
bigvlada - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
I have been using W10 Privacy for a few years. It can disable telemetry and uninstall almost all non core components of Windows 10 like weather, store, xbox or edge. Install classic start menu and you'll have most of the windows 7 feel, without tiles.Silver5urfer - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
There are so many tools that can slipstream latest updates and you can do it with tools or packs that have no telemtry too, like simplix and you can avoid any sort of telemetry crap. I have been using Win7SP1 only on a machine since a long time why didn't I get bit by ransomware by that.Nope Linux doesn't run games that well, Proton is good but it cannot run everything and there are so many mods that are not possible for Linux, tell me does GTA 4 run on Linux with Script hook ? Or GTA V ?
Win7 can get fully security updates from Extended support from MS and they can be installed without any Telemetry it makes the OS far more stable than a Win10 which is a constant bugged trash.
Beaver M. - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
Not nearly close to all.Thats why Windows 10 was pushed that hard, even was (still is in some cases) free. Because they wanted more data from you than they were able to get with the other OSs.
In any case, you can block that telemetry and other spying very well with external tools or guides.
You can pretty much block all MS and affiliated servers from ever contacting Windows.
DanNeely - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
Expect the number of SATA ports to keep going down, they compete with USB3 and PCIe lanes for chipset capacity and as flash becomes ever more affordable the number of people needing them is going down. I suspect larger numbers will linger for longer on the more budget friendly chipset boards more commonly used for DIY NASes; but suspect within a few years if you want a 8/6 (and maybe even 4) DIY nas you'll need to install a SATA card to connect the drives.lmcd - Tuesday, January 19, 2021 - link
You're worried about performance but need to enable Aero on Windows 10? Yikes. And you're complaining about improved out-of-the-box security? Windows Defender is a good thing. I'm glad that Windows has an out-of-the-box AV, it's much needed. The release cycle can be deferred easily, just stick to the Fall updates. Don't be a baby. Don't remove things protecting you from the pointy end of your tinfoil hat like Defender either.AMD never enabled Ryzen on Windows 7 and there have always been problems. The biggest red flag is that Ryzen SMT requires a new Windows scheduler that was incompatible with backporting to Windows 7. So you're asking for an entire kernel overhaul for an OS over a decade old that released back when the top-of-the-line was a Bloomfield quad core and AMD hadn't even started its Bulldozer debacle!
If you want a lightweight OS, you should try DOS. I heard there's no spyware in that at all. Also if you want proof that Ryzen 3000 doesn't actually work with Windows 7, there's a specific crash in Paint.NET that only happens on Ryzen on Windows 7. And there's no solution. The code causing the crash is a simple thread allocation that works on every combination of Windows 7 and supported hardware, as well as Windows 10 and its supported hardware.
So honestly, shut up. Use old hardware with your old OS, or use new hardware with a new OS.
Spunjji - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
Savage, 100% accurate though.Silver5urfer - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
Z490 Z390 Z270 all were not supported on Win7 as per Intel and MS. But they all run Win7 with all latest updates too (Yeah Win7 has security updates that you can install selectively and avoid telemetry). And X470 supports Win7 as well, needs modding but they all support Win7. X570 can run Win7 too.DX12 games run on Win7, COD games, CB2077 are DX12 only yet they run & Nvidia RTX3000 series has Win7 driver support so your 2008 and 12 years old OS is running latest HW how about that reality check ?. And SMT Is not there in Win7 for Ryzen ? If you do not know about things properly you should never comment, esp that information about Defender. Did I even ask man about your opinion on this ? It's useless software that blocks all the files and a big processor cycle hog on the background. If I want an AV I would get Malware Bytes and run it for free. Or ESET. Defender is very bad Software for the same reason it is having so many tutorials on the Internet for blocking it.
Here's X570 with SMT on Win7 for your disinformation.
watch?v=A6_MdxMUpRE (use YT domain, AT has spam checker for links probably so it got removed)
Everything is not a tinfoil hat that you do not understand. Why should I defer all the updates ? You say like you block all updates and update at the end of the year, it's not like that at all. Win10 20H2 is super unstable POS OS. Yet you are naive of that information. Esp Patch Tuesdays at Woody have so much of info on how unstable this is.
Just shut up and do not spread disinformation if you have anything to say that helps with achieving Win7 on the Z590 share it else keep it shut. Oh and also do you realize it's from 2015 when Threshold 1 was released and full of bugs and it took more than 3 years to beat Win7 desktop marketshare, basically until 2018 Win10 was under Win7 netmarketshare at less than 42% of world wide desktop os share. These are called facts. Not unsubstantiated stupid posts.
WaltC - Wednesday, January 20, 2021 - link
I run nothing but advance beta versions of Win10 not released publicly--speaking of stability, can't recall the last time the system crashed it was so long ago. Anyone who cannot get Win10 running stable simply doesn't know what he's doing, imo, as it requires very little effort to do so, if any. I have no irrational paranoia about being "spied on", either....;) People who think other people want to see their pizza, grocery, and other eCommerce orders are nuts, imo. It's amusing how people think to guard their systems as if they held more gold than Fort Knox, when the reality is nobody is interested in what's in their systems--it's totally boring.Oxford Guy - Thursday, January 21, 2021 - link
MS has put all the resources that would go into things like good UI into making sure the stability is there so the spyware won't be interrupted.: )