Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero review: A premium motherboard at a premium price

If you're looking for an LGA 1700 motherboard, your options range from the ultra-pricey to the more affordable. While affordable options typically get the job done, they won't offer additional features by way of PCIe 5.0 lanes, extra I/O ports, or even DDR5 in a lot of cases. If you want to go all out on your motherboard, there are a few options to choose from, and one of them is the Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero. It's an expensive motherboard, but one of the best motherboards, and has literally everything you could want.

About this review: The Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero was sent to us by Asus for the purposes of this review. The company had no input into its contents.

Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero: Price and availability

The Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero is available for $700 from Amazon and can be purchased from many retailers globally.

Design and features

Asus ROG brand is, by design, very ... gamery. There's a lot of RGB, lights, and polished aesthetics that help this motherboard shine when compared to others on the market. It has a metal heatsink for the main PCIe 5.0 M.2 SSD and space for four more PCIe 4.0 M.2 SSDs.

The Z790 Dark Hero is essentially a refresh of the regular Hero from Asus, and it focuses on a number of key improvements. First is the inclusion of Wi-Fi 7 support, which Intel's 14th Gen incorporates, and the inclusion of a new antenna with the motherboard for connecting to Wi-Fi networks. This antenna can just be plugged in and out of the motherboard without needing to be screwed in, unlike other motherboard antennae.

Overclocking is taken into account in the design.

This motherboard's VRM has 20+1+2 power stages, which should be plenty to run even the Intel Core i9-14900K at full pelt, especially thanks to the motherboard's contingencies when it comes to heat. Like other Asus motherboards, overclocking is taken into account in the design and it's expected that board owners will be making use of those.

When it comes to ports, the Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero comes with a crazy number of ports. It has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, five 10Gbps USB-A ports, one 10Gbps USB-C port, and four 5Gbps USB-A ports. A front USB-C port as well supports up to 60W of power with USB Power Delivery or Quick Charge 4+. Other ports include an HDMI port, Ethernet port, Wi-Fi 7 antenna connectors, and multiple audio jacks. There's also a clear CMOS button too.

On the motherboard itself, there's an array of fan headers, RGB headers, and everything else that you could ever need. There's a Q-Code display that shows error codes if there's a problem, and once booted into Windows, it displays the current package temperature by default. You can change this behavior in the BIOS.

Moving to the bottom half of the motherboard, there are four PCIe 4.0 M2 slots below the heatsink on the bottom right, underneath the ROG logo. There are two full-length x16 PCIe 5.0 slots and a smaller 4x PCIe 4.0 slot. Finally, there are four SATA ports too.

The motherboard has one particular stand-out feature that makes it a little bit cooler than the rest, and it's the inclusion of the (fingerprint magnetic) Polymo Lighting region. It serves to cover up a heatsink for VRM thermal transfer, but it can also be modified with Asus' Armory Crate.

BIOS

The BIOS on the Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero is comprehensive and easy to use, and if you've ever used an Asus BIOS, then you'll almost certainly be at least somewhat familiar with it. You have all of the main options including Asus Multicore Enhancement, which will be enabled by default, and you can tweak all of the settings in here with ease, too.

It's a very mature BIOS that gives Asus an edge over competitors.

Overall, it's a very mature BIOS that gives Asus an edge over competitors, as the company has experience in making motherboards aimed at enthusiasts for a long time now. If you're an overclocker who wants to get knee-deep into the weeds of it, then the BIOS on this particular motherboard will allow you to do that. In the box of this motherboard you even get a DDR5 fan mount for overclocking your RAM and keeping it cool if you need it.

Should you buy the Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero?

You should buy the ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero if:

• You want one of the best motherboards money can buy
• You need a lot of I/O ports
• You want control over your overclock

You shouldn't buy the Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero if:

• You're on a budget
• You don't plan on overclocking

This is a particularly fantastic motherboard for just about anything, and you can't go wrong with it if you do get it. It's costly though, and if you're on a budget or don't plan overclocking, then you absolutely shouldn't get this motherboard. It's fantastic, but you won't need it, and this is a premium pick for people who are happy to pay that premium price.

This is a particularly fantastic motherboard for just about anything.

On top of that, the Asus ROG Maximus Z790 Dark Hero is a phenomenal motherboard that, sadly, uses the LGA 1700 socket. While that's not an issue in and of itself, it's very likely the end of the road for that socket with the release of Intel's 14th Gen CPUs.