ASUS X570 Buyer’s Guide
PICKING THE RIGHT X570 MOTHERBOARD FOR YOUR NEXT PC.
The next generation of AMD Ryzen CPUs is here, pairing Zen 2 architecture with PCI Express 4.0 connectivity across multiple models that are based on the ASUS X570 chipset. This is the first desktop chipset to give you PCI Express 4.0 connectivity, granting you greatly expanded throughput – an extraordinary 2GB per lane! These motherboards are designed for the future – you’ll be prepared for any SSDs, graphics cards, and other peripherals you might want to plug into down the track. Here’s our rundown of ASUS’ X570 range.
THE REPUBLIC OF GAMERS CROSSHAIR SERIES
The Crosshair VIII boards are designed for the serious overclocker and the gamer who wants to eek every bit of power from their system. These boards will push your PC to the next level, and future-proof it for years to come.
The Crosshair VIII Formula sports an integrated VRM water-cooling solution with its CrossChill EK III hybrid water channel, as well as active chipset and M.2 aluminium heatsinks to keep it cool as it goes to work. With a huge VRM, 16 PowIRstages and MicroFine Alloy chokes, this is a board designed to push the CPU as hard as it will go, while remaining stable with a constant flow of power. The unit hosts a 1.3 inch OLED display for information on CPU speed, BIOS flashback status, and more, and the integrated Intel Wi-Fi 6 adapter and Aquantia 5G controller allow for superior connections and significant throughput. This is the top of the range board for serious builds, supporting 4x DDR4 memory, as well as two SLI plus three CrossFireX GPUs.
The Crosshair VIII Hero is equally powerful but is designed with air-cooled systems in mind. It’s the same size and has many of the same incredible features, and just as much memory capacity. You can use the Hero without losing any power, so it’s still ideal for overclocking. It features a light-up display for troubleshooting, and features connectors for AIO and custom loop pumps if you want to outfit your own cooling solution. There’s a 2.5G LAN chip in place of the Aquantia if you’re going for a pure ethernet connection.
The Crosshair VIII Impact is a miniDTX two-DIMM board that allows for extreme overclocking in a smaller package. The 1DPC design enables superior DRAM OC headroom alongside the latest OptiMEM III Technology. It has many of the same features of the other Crossfire boards, including PCIe 4.0 lanes, Wi-Fi 6 networking, and Pre-mounted I/O shield. Metal backplate, SODIMM.2 and ESS® SABRE9023P headphone DAC are also in placed to ensure zero compensation on expansion even after going small.
THE ROG STRIX SERIES
The Strix series is designed for complicated, interesting builds, and while it doesn’t push quite as hard as the Crosshair series, it still has many of the same strengths and features. ROG has focused on giving gamers features they’ll use.
The Strix X570-E Gaming and Strix X570-F Gaming are the headliners of this range, and they’re both designed to be stunning to look at, but also extremely powerful and flexible. The E has a slight edge over the F when it comes to overclocking: its Digi+ VRM has 12+4 power stages, while the F has 12+2. Both feature superior copper heatpipes for improved dissipation, as well as OptiMem, a technology that focuses on improved stability and performance when you’re tweaking RAM, a vital tool for tapping into your