ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero Motherboard Review

Few motherboards have impressed me with their vast feature set and look as the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero. For years now, the ASUS ROG line has been one of the best and most well-featured enthusiast gaming boards you can buy. The newly released ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero motherboard definitely fits that description. As the flagship model in ASUS’ Maximus line of enthusiast-grade boards, the Z790 Dark Hero is packed with premium features and cutting-edge connectivity aimed squarely at power users, overclockers, and high-end gamers.

I’ve built my fair share of rigs over the years using ASUS’ ROG branded boards, so I came into this review with high expectations. Thankfully, the Z790 Dark Hero motherboard does not let me down and delivers on just about every front. From its beefy power design to advanced cooling solutions, customizable RGB lighting, and future-proofed connectivity, this board checks all the right boxes.

The ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero Motherboard is one of the slickest boards I have used in 2023, featuring solid, well-constructed heatsinks that are ready to keep your M.2 drives cool even under load. The four unreinforced DRAM slots will ensure you have a solid connection for up to DDR5-8000 memory modules. ASUS has not forgotten the VRM heatsink to ensure the board can take the strain of a performance system without any struggle.

“Perhaps the most striking feature of the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero Motherboard is the Polymo Lighting region that works to cover a heatsink for VRM thermal transfer.”

Gunmetal grey heatsinks and chromed-out accents around the PCIe and RAM slots offset the primarily black PCB. The right side edge houses an OLED display capable of showing POST codes, graphics info, or custom text and images.

Perhaps the most striking feature of the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero Motherboard is the Polymo Lighting region that works to cover a heatsink for VRM thermal transfer. This region lights up in many different ways to give your PC a vibrant, colourful look that can be customized via ASUS Armoury Crate. Is it a gimmick? Yes, but it looks fantastic when on and adds a level of flare that few motherboards bring to the table.

Using ASUS’ intuitive Armoury Crate software, users can customize these lights to display solid colours, breathing effects, rainbow waves, and even music visualizers that react to audio playback. The lights really pop against the Dark Hero’s dark colour scheme. With support for syncing effects with other ASUS Aura Sync compatible components, you can tie together the aesthetics of your entire build, and things look truly remarkable when it is all up and running.

Looking at the IO on the board, the Z790 Dark Hero delivers speedy wired and wireless connectivity. The rear I/O serves up plenty of USB goodness, including six USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports (one Type-C), four USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports, and dual Thunderbolt 4 Type-C ports. Wireless duties are handled by an integrated Wi-Fi 6E module supporting the latest 6GHz band for lag-free networking. And on the wired side, you get a speedy 2.5Gbps LAN port driven by an Intel i225-V controller.

For future-proofing, ASUS has outfitted the Dark Hero with four PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots, meaning you are ready for all the latest super-fast next-gen SSDs when they arrive. And with four PCIe 5.0 lanes being fed from the CPU, graphics cards will also see a nice bandwidth boost down the road. Honestly, I can’t think of much ASUS could have added to the board to make it more robust than the average person would actually need.

The Z790 Dark Hero features a robust 20+1 teamed power stage design, with each stage rated to handle a whopping 105 amps. This allows the VRM to reliably deliver over 1,000 watts to even the most power-hungry CPUs. And to keep all that power delivery cool under pressure, ASUS has equipped the Dark Hero with a stacked fin heatsink array, dual 8-pin EPS power connectors, and an active fan.

During my testing, these components worked impressively well even when overclocking a 14900K chip, pushing it to the limits I felt comfortable doing without major changes to the fan curves and cooling. Voltages remained stable, thermals were under control, and I experienced none of the Vdroop issues sometimes seen on less capable boards. ASUS is clearly not messing around with the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero Motherboard’s power design. The ability to push a system with ease is great, especially for enthusiast builders looking to get the most out of their system.

“ASUS is clearly not messing around with the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero Motherboard’s power design.”

Beyond the VRM area, ASUS has gone the extra mile to ensure cool running temps across the entire Z790 Dark Hero board. This starts with the large chipset heatsink, which combines airflow channels and a heatpipe to keep the Z790 chipset running briskly. Further aiding overall airflow are the board’s six total fan headers, all of which can be customized via the AI Suite software to ramp speeds up or down based on system temperatures.

As mentioned above, the two included M.2 slots also get the cooling treatment via dedicated heatsinks, which use thermal pads to make contact with installed SSDs. And for anyone planning to populate multiple M.2 drives, the Dark Hero has you covered with a total of five M.2 slots, three of which support blisteringly quick PCIe Gen 5.0 speeds. Although, with many PCIe Gen 5.0 SSDs having their own cooling, and many that will have to forgo the onboard heatsinks to take advantage of these new drives, this could be overkill, but time will tell.

As I mentioned above since this is an enthusiast motherboard, the Z790 Dark Hero has some overclocker-friendly features to help push performance to the limit. Diving into the UEFI BIOS, you’re greeted by ASUS’ familiar Easy Mode and Advanced Mode screens. For newcomers, the easy mode’s quick-access options make it easy to enable XMP profiles or enable multi-core enhancement to squeeze extra MHz out of your CPU. More advanced tweaking, such as adjusting voltages, memory subtimings, and per-core overclocking ratios, is available in the Advanced section.

For monitoring vital signs and benchmarking, ASUS bundles the Dark Hero with its AI Suite software. You can monitor component temperatures, frequencies, fan speeds and voltages in real-time or run the built-in stability testers to check the health of your overclocked setup. It’s a great companion utility for power users. Even with how easy ASUS makes it, I still advise caution before jumping into overclocking. While it’s easier than it’s been in the past, it can be risky, especially if you don’t have proper cooling, a PSU that can take it or just don’t know what you’re doing. If you are interested, read up on it first, just to be sure.

After putting the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero Motherboard through its paces, I’m thoroughly impressed. ASUS has taken an already excellent enthusiast-class motherboard in the form of the Z790 Hero and upgraded it to the new Dark Hero model. But that brings us to the big downside of this fantastic board: the price. With an MSRP of around $700 USD, the Z790 Dark Hero commands a premium. While it is a fantastic offering, it is one that feels more made for enthusiasts than the average PC builder.

The ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero Motherboard delivers exceptional quality and capabilities worthy of its premium price and enthusiast branding. For PC builders looking for top-of-the-line performance, advanced cooling, fast connectivity and customizable style, the Z790 Dark Hero checks all the right boxes. ASUS has gone above and beyond to create its new flagship motherboard for enthusiasts, and few can compete with what the ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero brings to the table. With capabilities this impressive, Dark Hero feels like an apt moniker indeed.

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