Overclocking

We're happy to report that concerns online about Asus' power delivery implementation seem to be largely unfounded, as we hit the same 5GHz all-core overclock using the same 1.26V vcore as we did with the MSI MEG Z390 Ace, at similar temperatures. 

It's clear, though, that the MSI board is more refined, as it drew considerably less power under load at stock and when overclocked, but we had absolutely no issues with the Hero, and we'd happily use it in our own systems.

Performance Analysis

Once again we're not seeing much difference at stock speed or when overclocked between Z390 boards, so a lot of what you'll need to consider to make your choice will come down to features and price. Again, the reason the MSI MEG Z390 Ace topped some of the charts was that it had a small base clock bump at stock speed, but even so, everywhere except power consumption and audio performance saw next to no difference between the three boards we've tested so far.

The Hero has certainly been the most consistent in terms of audio performance, with both other boards offering at least one result that was a bit wide of the mark for the Realtek ALC 1220 codec, but this could just be down to early drivers or software. However, while it achieved excellent 114dBA dynamic range and -115dBA noise levels, this is probably indistinguishable to most ears from the other results, so we shouldn't read too much into it.

Asus' slightly different power delivery arrangement seems to have lead to higher power consumption, especially compared to the MSI MEG Z390 Ace, which had lower power draw in everything but the stock idle test. Again, our stress testing showed no issues with our particular configuration, and the difference between the lowest and highest results was never more than 40W, so when a system is drawing over 300W, that puts it into some perspective; unless you're watching every penny/cent on your electricity bill and have your CPU massively overclocked and at 100 percent load all the time, it's not worth worrying about.

Conclusion

We're pretty impressed with the ROG Maximus XI Hero, in particular, Asus' AI overclocking tool, which is a revolutionary new feature that will definitely appeal to those that are still overclocking novices or maybe haven't even ventured into the world of voltages and multipliers yet. The board is slightly better rounded than the previous two Z390 boards we've seen although both also pip Asus to the post in a couple of areas. The MSI MEG Z390 Ace has excellent power delivery, a better M.2 heatsink, and a couple of extra bells and whistles while the Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Master is better looking and has a more advanced fan control suite. However, we feel the Hero strikes the best balance in terms of features, and it also has an excellent EFI and slightly more polished software along with its AI overclocking tool. It's worth going for the non-Wi-Fi version if you won't be needing it, as you can save around £20. Otherwise, it's a close call, but ultimately it just does enough to grab our top award.