Asus Maximus XII Hero (Wi-Fi) Z490 Motherboard (Gen. 10, LGA1200)

aka Comet Lake-S (not Ice Lake)
aka 14nm +++ (not 10nm)
PCI-e 3.0 (not 4.0)

Features

• Z490 Intel Chipset
• 10th Gen. 14nm +++ support up to 10 cores
• LGA1200 (back compatibility with LGA115x mounts)
• PCI-e 3.0 (up to 40 lanes)
• 8 layer PCB
• Dual LAN - Intel GLAN and Marvell 5GLAN
• Intel WiFi 6 AX201
• Supports up to 3 way AMD CrossFireX or 2 way Nvidia SLI
• Supports up to  4 DIMMs, 128GB, DDR4-2133 to 4700+ (oc)
• HDMI 1.4b, up to 4096 x 2160 @ 60 Hz
• SupremeFX audio S1220
• Massive heatsinks with connecting heatpipe
• 8 x PWM/DC headers
• 3 x M.2 slots and 6 x SATA 6Gb/s ports
• Up to total of 17 x USB ports 
• Asus Aura RGB

etc...


And here is an earlier leaked Asus slide which is mostly spot on and still seems to be useful for a quick glance at the features.

Unboxing

Bundled Accessories

• Cables - 1 x Addressable RGB extension cable 1 x RGB extension cable 4 x SATA 6Gb/s cables
• Additional Cooling Kit - 1 x ROG assistant fan (40mm)* 1 x Fan bracket
• Miscellaneous - 2 x M.2 Rubber Package 2 x M.2 SSD screw package 1 x ROG key chain 1 x ROG logo plate sticker 1 x ROG stickers 1 x thank you card 1 x ASUS 2x2 dual band Wi-Fi moving antennas
• Installation Media - 1 x Support DVD
• Documentation - 1 x User manual

* Quality Sunon Maglev fan model MF40101V2-1Q030-S99, no less!

Motherboard

Overall, a very eye pleasing yet solidly functional design with its onboard buttons for hands on builders.

Gone are all traces of the reds of yesteryear, it's all dark black stealth now. RGB fans, note the existence of ROG LED lights in the Southbridge and back shroud.
 
The CPU socket, sitting like a boss, surrounded by the massive open finned heatpipe heatsinks. Following photos show the full SMD caps in the socket, both front and back. PCI-e slot arrangement is nicely spaced out for most common uses too.

Back of the motherboard shows all heatsinks nicely anchored down with proper screws.

No worry about insufficient CPU juice as evidenced by the 8+4 12V power plugs.

Flexkey
Aptly named interesting feature

A flat lying USB 3.1 header is very welcome for cable management. Plus plenty of storage options onboard.

The location of the CMOS battery is one of the better recent designs around, conveniently out of the way of any thicc GPU.

UEFI BIOS Screenies

Simply glance through this as my usual spiel about the industry leading Asus UEFI features which I happen to love especially with the track changes feature... think you have heard it more than enough times by now. So here are just a handful of sample UEFI screenies. lol



OG Factory BIOS 0222

Test BIOS 0503

Wah, BIOS update insta-downgraded the Kabuto3 cooler ratings... not that it actually means anything to anyone except to the OCD otakus.

Intel Core i5-10600KF (ES)

Came simply in bubble wrap without any bundled cooler. This is the lower priced KF version which lacks an iGPU. 

Intel has now rehashed the same cores socket size so many times that they have to drop the PCB notches way below the etched markings on the IHS, we simply can't have users mistakenly dropping this chip into the innumerable LGA115x permutations. :)

Intel Core i7-10700K (ES)

Recommended Cooling

And as for the actual cooler recommended, this is what Intel's very own tech guru had earlier said.


Aaron Mcgavock is from Intel’s Client Performance/Enthusiast Strategic Marketing department.

And note that this 130W PCG2015D cooler is just about stock operation so will overclocks be... ?

Test Setup

Asus ROG Maximus XII Hero (Wi-Fi) Mainboard

Intel i7-10700K (ES, non-retail) - with iGPU, a good sample of clearly better bin than the i5

Intel i5-10600KF (ES, non-retail) - lower end sample lacking iGPU, tiny wisp of time spent with this one (pity!)

2 x 8GB Crucial Ballistix DDR4-3200 kit@XMP
Micron MX300 SSD
Corsair RM1000 PSU
Scythe Kabuto3 stock (air cooled in SG, yes!)
Windows 10 build 1909 Q+D install with latest updates
Open air test rig with i5-10600KF (late April) and i7-10700K (mid-May 2020), SG ~26-30C

The HD630 iGPU was used with the i7-10700K and it surprisingly supported the full 2560 x 1440 WQHD resolution via HDMI.

Latest generation of processors from both camps seem to be pushed and retailed at near max clocks so overclocking them isn't quite like what it used to be. Still, a little more performance can be squeezed out for the patient tweaker at 5GHz all cores loaded for the i7-10700K.

Note also the near inmutable t-loan test time constraint of a couple of days with each ES sample, oh well. lol

hwinfo64 Summary

BENCHIES

CPU-Z

"Please, Sir, I Want Some More" - just a little more performance for both single and multi-core scores.

7-Zip Bench

Realbench 2.56

Note - no overall score cos OpenCL run for the HD630 iGPU was  not carried out.

Geekbench 5

Bonus of a comparison vs i5-10600KF ES (stock clocks) earlier loaner

HyperPi 32M

still my go to quick and dirty RAM stability test, amongst others

AIDA64 Benches

Cinebench R15

Cinebench R20

This bench is probably the most punishing of this whole lot with the highest load temps achieved (no throttling noted). Given more time to explore the rich Asus options, this bench is also great for showing the possibilities achievable with some trial and error testing effort with the various UEFI options (more later).

BIOS Options to explore

These were my thoughts while tinkering with the earlier i5-10600KF sample which is decidedly a poorer bin sample needing more effort but unfortunately simply lacking the time to do so. AVX/AVX2 usage generates lots of heat so meddle around with the -offset to your satisfaction if you utilize lots of such features.

AVX Offset -2

5GHz/4.8GHz scores dropped slightly vs 5/5 but load temps has significantly also come down too, acceptable outcome?

Best Case Scenario SVID

Dramatic improvement with just a single BIOS option change. The resultant load Vcore and max load temps both dropped significantly. Opens up the possibility of overclocking on air now. strongly advise the F9/F10 crowd to at least explore and test out this one single option for a greener and more lasting PC.

Core Ratio AI

Another of the dramatic single UEFI options which is essentially no brainer overclocking by the motherboard AI. Of course, it is good to check that the option still runs a stable system. Multicore runs the i5-10600KF mostly at 4.8GHz@1.22V with momentary spikes to 5GHz@1.45V. Ungreen option though with such diminishing returns.

UEFI Where?

Pictorial guide for Asus UEFI noobs in case someone wants it.

Speedtest

on a wired 1Gbps connection

Spectre and Meltdown?

Another Intel's Achilles heel these past few years.

Looks like apps like these needs to be updated for newer hardware fixed CPUs in 2020. The latest GRC InSpectre version is from 2019 while AShampoo is from 2018, both are likely outdated so be forewarned about the results.

PCI-e 3.0 or 4.0?

Other unusual reporting include PCI-e 4.0 reported by both current hwinfo64 and older GPU-Z versions as seen below. The latest GPU-Z correctly reports 3.0 so you do need updated software for proper readings.

Favoured Cores

Probably easiest to show via CPU-Z as shown below in RED for cores #2 and 3.

S3 Sleep Resume

Rarely test for this feature nowadays with boot SSDs in widespread usage but S3 works great here.

 

Initial Impressions

Solid motherboard - trouble-free, easy setup with fast startup, single POST boot times and stable responsive day to day running.

Quite enjoyed the little allocated time spent tinkering with the test setup. The system felt very smooth just as any modern well equipped PC should. Installation was simply straightforward with far fewer issues about missing boost clocks, alternative power schemes, problematic driver/BIOS updates and other AGESA what nots. Intel has just been doing minor incremental tweaks since 2014 (14nm+++) so there is no drama and of course, it is all stable (and staid).

The max CPU load temps in Cinebench R20 seem a little high on air but fortunately, no thermal throttling was observed. One just wonders how the 10 core i9 would perform on air locally... Good thing that the Asus motherboard kept cool and stable, with its more than adequate cooling and power onboard. Its hwinfo64 sensor readings remain comfortably low under load.

From the looks of this testing, running this 8 core i7-10700K ES sample at 5GHz all core loaded on budget air cooling is actually great. All voltages used and load temps observed seem low and safe enough for long term usage. NB: the Scythe Kabuto3 was bought a while ago via Amazon SG for less than SGD60, iirc.

The Asus Maximus XII Hero motherboard performed admirably throughout as it is clearly designed and built for the higher end processors so kindly get moar coars models if you can find them at reasonable prices.

The new Intel RRP for the 10th Gen processors means it is much more attractive for newcomer Intel buyers vs the previous 9th Gen eg. i7-10700K USD374 vs i9-9900K USD488. Despite the status demotion in nomenclature from a i9 to a i7, these processors are virtually identical in form and function to most end users. Guess that is as far as one gets from Intel with $100+ price cuts without admitting any defeat this round.

Intel ARK i7-10700K

Intel ARK i9-9900K

And congrats Asus, you have done your usual finely polished job in pushing out this solid motherboard but as usual, your efforts are again held back by Intel's badly ageing processor series across every level vs AMD competition. Simply still stuck at 14nm +++ till who knows when.


Eventually for die hard Intel fans and money no problem gamers, mostly. Till Zen 3 strikes back...