ASUS Introduces ROG Crosshair X870E Hero BTF Motherboard

ASUS has unveiled the ROG Crosshair X870E Hero BTF motherboard, a Socket AM5 variant of the original ROG Crosshair X870E Hero. This new motherboard is part of ASUS's AMD X870-series chipset lineup, which was launched alongside the Ryzen 9000 series processors. The standout feature of this motherboard is ASUS's BTF standard of backside connectivity, where all onboard headers, ports, and connectors are positioned on the reverse side of the PCB to minimize visible cable clutter.

One of the key highlights of the ROG Crosshair X870E Hero BTF is its BTF power delivery for graphics cards. The board features a 600 W-capable 12V-2x6 power input on the reverse side, specifically designed for compatible ASUS TUF Gaming, ROG Strix, and ROG Astral series BTF graphics cards.

In terms of layout and features, the ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Hero BTF closely resembles the original board. It includes a powerful CPU VRM, a PCI-Express 5.0 x16 slot, up to five M.2 NVMe slots, two wired Ethernet interfaces (2.5 GbE and 5 GbE), and Wi-Fi 7 + Bluetooth 5.4 support powered by a premium MediaTek MT7927 (320 MHz) WLAN controller.

For USB connectivity, the motherboard offers two 40 Gbps USB4 ports, eight 10 Gbps USB 3.2 ports (6x type-A and 2x type-C), two 20 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 2x2 ports (type-C header), and two additional 5 Gbps USB 3.2 Gen 1 headers. The onboard audio solution combines a Realtek ALC4082 CODEC with ESS ES9219 quad DAC and Savitech AMPs.

While ASUS has not disclosed the pricing for the ROG Crosshair X870E Hero BTF, it is expected to be priced slightly higher (around 5-10%) than the regular ROG Crosshair X870E Hero.