Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Glacial Motherboard Review: Carving out a new top-notch flagship for Asus

Firmware

Asus updated the BIOS layout and color for the X870E Glacial, adopting a white-and-grey theme that matches the Icy board. EZ Mode is mostly informative, with system information and temperatures on the left, and quick settings for EZ Flash, Aura RGB, the Driver Hub for easy driver installation, and more in the middle. Fan control and access to the full Q-Fan functionality are below that. The right block displays DRAM and storage status, and Boot Priority is self-explanatory.

Advanced mode still has the headers across the top, but the shortcuts to Q-Fan and AI OC are gone and moved to the quick settings and other locations. The right panel holds system information, including CPU frequency and temperature, in a colorful display. The main body has all the editable functionality.

Overall, I like the aesthetic update for the Glacial. It’s easy to read and, as usual with Asus BIOS, frequently used items are easy to find and not buried too deep in their menus. Anything that’s a pain to access can also be added to your customizable favorites screen.

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Software

Armoury Crate here also follows the ROG-inspired theme. Several applications exist for various functions, ranging from RGB lighting control and audio to system monitoring and overclocking. It's also worth mentioning the included software. When purchasing this Asus motherboard, you get a one-year AIDA64 license - a helpful application for stress and performance testing; Asus’ Driver Hub (get your updated drivers here!); Dolby Atmos (for audio); and a custom version of Hwinfo for real-time monitoring — all are helpful applications. We’ve captured a few screenshots of the applications below.

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Test System / Comparison Products

We’ve updated our test system to Windows 11 (23H2) 64-bit OS with all updates applied as of late September 2024 (this includes the Branch Prediction Optimizations for AMD). Hardware-wise, we’ve updated the RAM kits (matching our Intel test system), cooling, storage, and video card. Unless otherwise noted, we use the latest publicly available non-beta motherboard BIOS. The hardware we used is as follows:

TEST SYSTEM COMPONENTS

• CPU - AMD Ryzen 9 9900X
• Cooling - Arctic Liquid Freezer II 420
• Storage - Crucial 2TB T705 M.2 PCIe 5.0 NVMe SSD
• RAM - Kingston Fury Beast DDR5-6000 CL36 (KF560C36BBEAK2-32)
• RAM - Teamgroup T-Froce Delta DDR5-7200 CL34 (FF3D518G7200HC34ABK)
• RAM - Klevv Cras XR5 RGB DDR5-8000 (KD5AGUA80-80R380S)
• GPU - Asus TUF RTX 4080 16G
• PSU - EVGA Supernova 850W P6
• Windows 11 64-bit (24H2)
• NVIDIA Driver 561.09

Benchmark Settings

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