ASUS introduces Crosshair VIII Dark Hero with passively cooled X570 chipset

ASUS has announced its Crosshair VIII Dark Hero motherboard. That motherboard has, among other things, a passively cooled X570 chipset. The company also comes with a Strix B550-XE motherboard, which has a slightly different look than its predecessor.

The Crosshair VIII Dark Hero shows great similarities with its predecessor, the regular Crosshair VIII Hero, although the new variant does receive some upgrades. For example, the X570 chipset on the Dark Hero is passively cooled. Typically, the X570 chipset on motherboards is cooled by a small fan. Furthermore, the motherboard uses a vrm design with 14 + 2 phases. 90A DrMOS stages are used for this. The current Crosshair VIII Hero uses 60A stages.

The appearance of the Crosshair VIII Dark Hero has also changed slightly from the regular Crosshair VIII Hero. The latter had some silver accents, but the Dark Hero is almost completely black. Furthermore, the motherboard gets Wi-Fi 6 support, just like the Crosshair VIII Hero Wi-Fi.

The Crosshair VIII Dark Hero (left) opposite the Crosshair VIII Hero. Images via ASUS

The manufacturer also comes with a ROG Strix B550-XE motherboard. That motherboard is broadly the same as its predecessor, the Strix B550-E. However, the appearance has been slightly adjusted. For example, the shroud above the i / o has changed. The cooling blocks for the VRMs have also become slightly larger.

ASUS announces on Reddit that the Crosshair VIII Dark Hero will have a suggested retail price of $ 400 in the US. Converted and including VAT, this amounts to approximately 409 euros. The current Crosshair VIII Hero Wi-Fi is in the Pricewatch for € 405.05. No suggested retail price has yet been announced for the ROG Strix B550-XE. The current B550-E costs € 219. Both motherboards are shipped from the factory with a bios version that is compatible with the upcoming Ryzen 5000 CPUs.

The new ROG Strix B550-XE (left) and current Strix B550-E. Images via ASUS