At CES, Asus unveiled its premium Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Apex motherboard, engineered for extreme CPU and memory overclocking. Notably, this marks Asus' debut ROG Apex board for AMD Ryzen processors.
Based on a listing at Newegg, the ROG Crosshair X870E Apex is available for pre-order starting at $749 and hits shelves April 4th next month.
This motherboard is designed around AMD's premiere X870E chipset, supporting Ryzen 7000 (Raphael), Ryzen 8000 (Phoenix) and Ryzen 9000 (Granite Ridge) processors. The key distinction between X670E and X870E boards is that the latter must include USB 4.0 ports, two of which are featured on this board.
To maximize the memory overclocking potential, Asus has implemented a one DPC (DIMM Per Channel) layout with this motherboard. It advertises minimum (OC) transfer rates of 8200 MT/s, 9600 MT/s and 8000 MT/s for Ryzen 9000, Ryzen 8000 and Ryzen 7000 series processors.
In terms of storage, there M.2 slots, three of which are PCIe 5.0 and directly linked to the CPU while the remaining two connect via the chipset rated at PCIe 4.0 speeds, alongside four SATA ports.
For expansion, you get two PCIe 5.0 x16 slots which support the Q-Release Slim feature, which has put Asus in hot waters recently due to reports of cosmetic damage to the GPU's PCIe connectors. Nonetheless, following the primary slots, there's another PCIe 4.0 x4 slot and a PCIe 3.0 x1 slot to fulfill your needs.
The rear I/O of the X870E Apex offers a compelling array of choices including two USB 4.0 (Type-C) ports, six USB 10 Gbps (five Type-A and one Type-C) and two USB 5 Gbps (Type-A) ports. This is backed up by the Wi-Fi module, an Ethernet port, one PS/2 connector, two audio jacks, one S/PDIF out port, a BIOS FlashBack button and a button to clear the CMOS battery.
On the front-end, the board features one USB 20 Gbps port (Type-C with 60W PD/QC4+), one USB 20 Gbps connector, support for four USB 5 Gbps in addition to four USB 2.0 ports. Importantly, the front Type-C port supports PPS (Programmable Power Supply) which can be useful for supported devices, such as Samsung Galaxy phones which can leverage battery bypass charging in games.
The motherboard features eighteen 110A, two 110A, and two 80A power stages coupled with MicroFine alloy chokes and high-quality capacitors. It has all the bells and whistles of a premium offering with support for Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4. On the software-end, Asus offers its own suite of overclocking tools such as Dynamic OC Switcher, Core Flex and Asynchronous clock.
The Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Apex follows the more all-rounded Hero offering that launched last year. The primary difference is that Apex-series motherboards are geared towards extreme overclockers and the like. Per the Newegg listing, Asus is set to launch the X870E Apex next month starting at $749, a $50 premium over its Hero sibling.
