X570 Crosshair VIII Dark Hero

ok thank you no sign of that feature diapering? the on that lets you keep single and all core boost.
 
The Microcenter in Cambridge had a few of things in last night to my amazement. I already settled on a B550 mini itx, otherwise I would of snatched one up likely.

12 in stock as of this morning.
 
What CPU Cooler are you guys using?

I have a 5900X currently OC'd to 4.5GHz and I originally went with an Arctic Liquid Freezer 280; however, the pump started humming at a really high pitch and has not stopped for several days now. It doesn't matter if it's at 20% PWM or 100% PWM, it's humming too loudly and I can't bear it. I was going to grab another Liquid Freezer, but I've read that v3 of this AIO will not work with our Motherboard unfortunately, so I don't want to run the risk of getting a v3 from Amazon and having to return it immediately.

So I'm going to test the EK AIO 360 next to see if that pump is any better. If the EK pump is also loud, then I'm likely going to resort to Air Cooling. But I don't want a big air one that will cover my RAM since i intentionall went RGB RAM for the looks.
 
kuwlness said:
What CPU Cooler are you guys using?
I've read that v3 of this AIO will not work with our Motherboard...
Click to expand...
I'm using a Rev 3 of that cooler on this board right now, the normal mounting alignment will work just fine. It's just the optional new offset mounting that won't quite clear the top M.2 cover.
The Rev 3 brackets are drilled for both options already and Arctic says they will send me a revised one for free if I really want to use offset.
Or I could grind a sliver of material off the existing one and it would then fit fine but meh, I don't know if the offset idea is really better or not.
 
jthomas said:
I'm using a Rev 3 of that cooler on this board right now, the normal mounting alignment will work just fine. It's just the optional new offset mounting that won't quite clear the top M.2 cover.
The Rev 3 brackets are drilled for both options already and Arctic says they will send me a revised one for free if I really want to use offset.
Or I could grind a sliver of material off the existing one and it would then fit fine but meh, I don't know if the offset idea is really better or not.
Click to expand...
Oh wow, that's great to know. I thought the new mounting made it impossible on the Dark Hero, but I'm happy to hear I can just use the original mounting components. I may have to take another shot at this AIO then.

OT - Have you had any issues with your pump? Is yours whiney and high pitched?
 
jthomas said:
No issues yet, pump is very quiet, but I've only built this system a week ago.
Click to expand...
Okay. Mine didn't starting whining for ~2 weeks. It's top-mounted, so it's installed in the best possible position. And I'm running the Pump and VRM Fan off one PWM header and the Radiator Fans off of another header. I even unmounted it to try to move any possible air around, but I think it's just a bad pump. Really not sure what set it off, but it's heading back to Amazon as soon as the EK AIO comes in.
 
my dark hero came last night finally... slightly damaged. the top right rgb headers are bent, the power button is bent and the clr cmos button on the rear IO some how popped off..

the clr cmos button was easy enough to pop back on. the power button straightened out fairly easy but i havent tried to fix the rgb headers yet. i dont understand how they managed to damage it like it is. the clr cmos button i can see getting popped loose in shipping, but the power and rgb headers shouldnt have gotten bent. theres no damage to the box, the plastic liner thing doesnt make contact with the board ( had an asrock z390 board get damaged/bent over caps from that protective plastic hard cover being inserted ontop the board with too much force prior to boxing at the factory.)

frusturating, i know i should RMA it out of principle. 400$ for a damaged board (even if its only minor) isnt acceptable. but i dont want to deal with the pain in the ass that is getting a replacement. id bet id get sent a refund instead of a replacement because of the inventory situation.
LAME
 
nealx01 said:
my dark hero came last night finally... slightly damaged. the top right rgb headers are bent, the power button is bent and the clr cmos button on the rear IO some how popped off..

the clr cmos button was easy enough to pop back on. the power button straightened out fairly easy but i havent tried to fix the rgb headers yet. i dont understand how they managed to damage it like it is. the clr cmos button i can see getting popped loose in shipping, but the power and rgb headers shouldnt have gotten bent. theres no damage to the box, the plastic liner thing doesnt make contact with the board ( had an asrock z390 board get damaged/bent over caps from that protective plastic hard cover being inserted ontop the board with too much force prior to boxing at the factory.)

frusturating, i know i should RMA it out of principle. 400$ for a damaged board (even if its only minor) isnt acceptable. but i dont want to deal with the pain in the ass that is getting a replacement. id bet id get sent a refund instead of a replacement because of the inventory situation.
LAME
Click to expand...
Interesting.. this is the dark hero I just received.. tried to rma it with asus and they are calling it shipping damage and told me to send it back to newegg. I told them it was definitely not shipping damage but damage when it was packaged.. they are going to get back to me on what they can do.
The power button is half ripped off the board.

PXL_20210115_210805742.jpgPXL_20210115_210809381.jpgPXL_20210115_211054292.jpg
 
doox00 said:
Interesting.. this is the dark hero I just received.. tried to rma it with asus and they are calling it shipping damage and told me to send it back to newegg. I told them it was definitely not shipping damage but damage when it was packaged.. they are going to get back to me on what they can do.
The power button is half ripped off the board.

View attachment 319528View attachment 319529View attachment 319530
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OH YEA thats exactly what happened to me. yours is somewhat worse though.one of the rgb headers is significantly worse with the white part all the way ripped off.
and nope thats not shipping damage thats because of poor packaging on their end. i see exactly why it happened now. ill get picks up also
 
nealx01 said:
OH YEA thats exactly what happened to me. yours is somewhat worse though.one of the rgb headers is significantly worse with the white part all the way ripped off.
and nope thats not shipping damage thats because of poor packaging on their end. i see exactly why it happened now. ill get picks up also
Click to expand...
You should call asus support and explain what happened.. this may be a somewhat common thing then and they need to be aware of it. I don't want to send it back to newegg because all they will do is refund since they are out of stock.. I told asus this so hoping they will exchange it for a new board since no one can get a replacment easily since they perma oos.
 
Like I said I bent the power button back already. It wasn't as bad as Doox00's. ASUS has a problem with their shipping. Shitty b/c even if i did get a replacement whos to say it won't be messed up also
 

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I know this is a thread specifically for the dark hero but is the regular croaahair viii as goodnas the dark hero? I can't seem to find them anywhere for regular price outside of shippingblt.com which is kinda shady.
 
Cataulin said:
I know this is a thread specifically for the dark hero but is the regular croaahair viii as goodnas the dark hero? I can't seem to find them anywhere for regular price outside of shippingblt.com which is kinda shady.
Click to expand...
The regular hero viii is a great board as well, never had any issues with mine running a 3950x oc'd to 4.3 all core. I am using it now with a 5900x and also working nicely.
 
Cataulin said:
I know this is a thread specifically for the dark hero but is the regular croaahair viii as goodnas the dark hero? I can't seem to find them anywhere for regular price outside of shippingblt.com which is kinda shady.
Click to expand...
shopblt is fine, they just dont have accurate shipping estimate dates. ive been buying from them on and off the last couple years. if its something i just plain cant get elsewere i order from them, and eventually it ships.

all the crosshair viii boards are good. theyre all more than capable of handling the 16c chips and they all have pretty darn good memory support. you shouldnt really feel like your missing out just getting whichever is available first.
 
doox00 said:
The regular hero viii is a great board as well, never had any issues with mine running a 3950x oc'd to 4.3 all core. I am using it now with a 5900x and also working nicely.
Click to expand...
The main difference in the Dark Hero is the improved VRM (16-Phase @ 90 Amps vs the regular Crosshair with 16-phases @ 60 Amps). You also get the passive chipset cooling on the Dark Hero instead of the fan. I believe the Dynamic OC feature is also only found in the Dark Hero.

However, most places I've seen have the Crosshair VIII for only ~$30 less than the Dark Hero. So I would say get the Dark Hero for a small price increase but worthwhile improvements.
 
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ill have to take a closer look at mine the box was mushed in on one side, was too afraid to take off the plastic for fesr I'd find something broken. I'll take better pic in morning after this night shift.
 

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polonyc2 said:
how does the Dark Hero compare to the MSI X570 Tomahawk?
Click to expand...
It certainly is a quality board. The dark hero flat out outclasses the tomahawk in VRM quality. But both handle the 5950x and 3950x totally fine in regular day to day scenarios. So outside of LN2 sessions your not likely ever notice a difference.
The DH will have more watercooling features and such.
Stuff like usb ports and Lan I dont pay attention to. You should be able to compare that easily with a quick Google search.
 
nealx01 said:
It certainly is a quality board. The dark hero flat out outclasses the tomahawk in VRM quality. But both handle the 5950x and 3950x totally fine in regular day to day scenarios. So outside of LN2 sessions your not likely ever notice a difference.
The DH will have more watercooling features and such.
Stuff like usb ports and Lan I dont pay attention to. You should be able to compare that easily with a quick Google search.
Click to expand...

I thought the MSI Tomahawk was best in class in terms of VRM quality?...the Dark Hero is even better?
 
polonyc2 said:
I thought the MSI Tomahawk was best in class in terms of VRM quality?...the Dark Hero is even better?
Click to expand...
It might in its price class but the dark hero is a 400$ board and the tomahawk is a 180-200$ board. I dont recall the tomahawks exact set up, but the DH has 16 90amp powerstages. Which until the new z590 intel boards come along is on par with the best of any VRM on the market. Including HEDT and the ridiculous fancy $600+ fancy mainstream boards (the MSI GODLIKEs and Aorus Extremes of the world)
Best in class doesn't mean best of the entire chipset.
 
nealx01 said:
It might in its price class but the dark hero is a 400$ board and the tomahawk is a 180-200$ board. I dont recall the tomahawks exact set up, but the DH has 16 90amp powerstages. Which until the new z590 intel boards come along is on par with the best of any VRM on the market. Including HEDT and the ridiculous fancy $600+ fancy mainstream boards (the MSI GODLIKEs and Aorus Extremes of the world)
Best in class doesn't mean best of the entire chipset.
Click to expand...

you're right...the MSI Tomahawk has great VRM quality for a mid-range board- right up there with much more expensive ones...but a $500- $700 board will have better VRM overall
 
polonyc2 said:
you're right...the MSI Tomahawk has great VRM quality for a mid-range board- right up there with much more expensive ones...but a $500- $700 board will have better VRM overall
Click to expand...
The tomahawk has a 12+2 60amp VRM btw. Which is still quite good and a very reasonable layout for CPUs that rarely pull more than 300w.
 
Shadowarez said:
Isn't the Hero 18+ phase vrm as well and has the dynamic of switcher feature.
Click to expand...
Its a 7+1
With 2 stages in parallel for each phase.
So 16 total 90amp powerstages.

Asus ROG boards for the most part the last few generations have all used stages in parallel. And despite having *technically* fewer phases they have the more efficient VRMs by using their "in parallel" trick

And with that I have finally achieved my 100posts and can now finally use the marketplace! Yahoo!!
 
nealx01 said:
shopblt is fine, they just dont have accurate shipping estimate dates. ive been buying from them on and off the last couple years. if its something i just plain cant get elsewere i order from them, and eventually it ships.

all the crosshair viii boards are good. theyre all more than capable of handling the 16c chips and they all have pretty darn good memory support. you shouldnt really feel like your missing out just getting whichever is available first.
Click to expand...
i can wait. picked it up for 405 from shopblt. should hopefully show up before end of the month.
 
Sorry bout the flash I don't see any DMG on the board awaiting a cpu tomorrow.to do some testing
20210116_082827.jpg
 
Hello all,

I'm thinking of a build with these three main parts.
CPU: 5900X
RAM: F4-3600C14Q-64GTZR
MB: Dark hero

Is anyone running this combo? Any feedback or thoughts?
My main concern is if I will be able to get the oem specs out of the ram.

Will also be using the EK 360 AIO rgb, O11 XL-W case and the new lian lee SL120 fans if I can get them.
Video card might be the Gigabit 3080 oc vision if I can get it for a reasonable price. Mainly chose it for the aesthetics.
PSU will probably be the EVGA 850 G3.

Also got to say; As a happy x58 user finally making the leap to current hardware (out of necessity) I am totally bummed out by how little is left on the table in terms of overclocks with current hardware. Currently running a xeon 5675 (6core 12 thread) at 4.2ghz without issue on air. This is over 30% gain on a roughly 12 year old board (asus formula III) that has been overclocked its entire life. I have a feeling this new rig will have a much shorter lifespan simply because you can't push them much beyond oem but who knows.
 
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Noxtreme said:
Hello all,

I'm thinking of a build with these three main parts.
CPU: 5900X
RAM: F4-3600C14Q-64GTZR
MB: Dark hero

Is anyone running this combo? Any feedback or thoughts?
My main concern is if I will be able to get the oem specs out of the ram.

Will also be using the EK 360 AIO rgb, O11 XL-W case and the new lian lee SL120 fans if I can get them.
Video card might be the Gigabit 3080 oc vision if I can get it for a reasonable price. Mainly chose it for the aesthetics.
PSU will probably be the EVGA 850 G3.

Also got to say; As a happy x58 user finally making the leap to current hardware (out of necessity) I am totally bummed out by how little is left on the table in terms of overclocks with current hardware. Currently running a xeon 5675 (6core 12 thread) at 4.2ghz without issue on air. This is over 30% gain on a roughly 12 year old board (asus formula III) that has been overclocked its entire life. I have a feeling this new rig will have a much shorter lifespan simply because you can't push them much beyond oem but who knows.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I had an X58 board with a Xeon 5690, and that PERFECT silicon was basically impossible to max out.
My motherboard would quit before that flawless Xeon would.

Still, the sheer, absolute speed of this 5800X in a good motherboard still beats it.
So I'm happy to upgrade.
 
Aegir said:
Yeah, I had an X58 board with a Xeon 5690, and that PERFECT silicon was basically impossible to max out.
My motherboard would quit before that flawless Xeon would.

Still, the sheer, absolute speed of this 5800X in a good motherboard still beats it.
So I'm happy to upgrade.
Click to expand...
No doubt this setup will crush my old one in any task. Just wish it had more potential for longevity. Maybe it does and I just don't see it yet.
In any case, I just want to know if that ram is going to downclock? There is a lot of magicianry going on in this new hardware to basically auto overclock. I don't fully understand it all yet.
Also, pc part picker complains about this ram being 1.45v but I'm thinking this is not really an issue since Dark Hero shouldn't have an issue delivering that? There is probably more to it then this but the ram has this board on the QVL and the CPU has the 32gig neo kit on their QVL which has 1.45v spec as well so... Does that mean it should work but at reduced speed unless I give it the volts it needs?
 
Noxtreme said:
No doubt this setup will crush my old one in any task. Just wish it had more potential for longevity. Maybe it does and I just don't see it yet.
In any case, I just want to know if that ram is going to downclock? There is a lot of magicianry going on in this new hardware to basically auto overclock. I don't fully understand it all yet.
Also, pc part picker complains about this ram being 1.45v but I'm thinking this is not really an issue since Dark Hero shouldn't have an issue delivering that? There is probably more to it then this but the ram has this board on the QVL and the CPU has the 32gig neo kit on their QVL which has 1.45v spec as well so... Does that mean it should work but at reduced speed unless I give it the volts it needs?
Click to expand...
I have a 1.45v 64 gig 3600 c14 kit on my dark hero with no troubles.
 
Not sure if my 360AIO is going bad or what but man when playing PoE it ramps up the AIO like crazy. Can't wait for all my water cooling stuff to get here. With how hot the thing can get now I don't even want to use PBO
 
doox00 said:
Interesting.. this is the dark hero I just received.. tried to rma it with asus and they are calling it shipping damage and told me to send it back to newegg. I told them it was definitely not shipping damage but damage when it was packaged.. they are going to get back to me on what they can do.
The power button is half ripped off the board.

View attachment 319528View attachment 319529View attachment 319530
Click to expand...

Update to this.. I called Asus to RMA and they refused, said warranty does not cover damaged products. They escalated my case twice and was told the exact thing each time.. that their warranty policy does not cover damaged components.. regardless of how the damage happened. They said I could send it in but would be charged a repair fee. Pretty annoying considering how hard it is to get these and this was damaged from packaging at Asus. Guess I have no choice other than return for refund to Newegg.
 
doox00 said:
Update to this.. I called Asus to RMA and they refused, said warranty does not cover damaged products. They escalated my case twice and was told the exact thing each time.. that their warranty policy does not cover damaged components.. regardless of how the damage happened. They said I could send it in but would be charged a repair fee. Pretty annoying considering how hard it is to get these and this was damaged from packaging at Asus. Guess I have no choice other than return for refund to Newegg.
Click to expand...
While that does suck I don't think I can blame ASUS in this case. If someone at the NewEgg warehouse packs and tosses the board carelessly then they (ASUS) should not be footing the bill.

Hope it all goes well with Newegg. It's a lovely board that I think in the current marketplace if you're considering one of the ASUS higher end boards, the DH makes the most sense over the CH8 given the current price difference.
 
what does the max top out at for this gen 5000 cpus, what is the sweet spot for ram speed, i have 2 kits of royal gskill one is 3200 mhz cl 14 16 gb 2x8gb other is 3600 mhz cl 16 4x8gb i want at least 64gb 4x16gb but need to know the frequency i should aim for.
 
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