![]() The CPU area is nice and spacious, despite the fairly bulky VRM heatsinks, which draw heat away from the eight-phase design. Asus also includes its MemOK! button, which is used to cycle through DRAM compatibility settings in the event of an unsupported module being used. There are six 4-pin fan headers in total (two CPU, four chassis), and the on-board power, reset and CMOS clear buttons are likewise very handy inclusions. The third chassis fan connector tucks in beneath the VRM heatsink, making it perfectly for a rear exhaust fan. Practically every header, expansion port and power connector is neatly located in a sensible position around the edge of the board. The layout and overall design are again very similar to the Ranger, and again this is no bad thing. However, £35 is a lot to pay for some LEDs, so hopefully the Hero has more to offer over the Ranger than just this. However, there are also some bright red sections on the PCB, and the chipset heatsink also features red LEDs, which will make it particularly attractive through a case window. It looks almost identical to the Ranger, in fact, with a matt black PCB and red highlights dotted around the heatsinks and expansion slots. However, it's a colour scheme that Asus has always done well with its ROG products, and the Hero is no exception. It was something of a coincidence that every one of the boards in our round-up was red and black, so you may already be tired of it. Whilst we wait for the Z97 editions of the Impact, Formula and Extreme, the Hero is currently the most expensive ROG board available for the new chipset, as the micro-ATX board, the Gene, is available for £158, while the Hero here comes in at £165. Today, we're looking at its bigger brother, the Maximus VII Hero, which will be a more familiar name to Republic of Gamers fans. Click to enlargeIn our initial Z97 motherboard round-up, we saw a new addition to the Asus ROG family, the Ranger, which brought the brand in the motherboard market to a new low price point of £130.
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