asus maximus vii hero?

Great motherboard

Yes it does I have that same combo.

For a long time I used Asus Boards almost exclusively in our builds but the last cupla generations have been problematic for me.

1. Have had issues with P68, Z77 and Z87 boards which when they were resolved took up to 3 months to resolve....several still remain open.

2. The Asus Hero boards, like most of the Z87 / Z97 boards are affected by the Asus BIOS Clock Freeze Bug ... mostly affects overclockers who do a some tweaking or use some of the Asus features like saving or loading OC profiles.

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?35490-Sabertooth-Z87-Bios-Clock-Issue&p=404524&viewfull=1#post404524

"I have 3 boards with this issue in my shop and EVERY client system I built has this problem. I have tried EVERY fix in this thread, nothing works for more then a few days. Flashed BIOS, reset to factory, replaced batteries. NOTHING. "

Click to expand...

I have had the same experience ... also 3 boards

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?49989-VII-HERO-Clock-never-changes-hour
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?49904-VII-Hero-Real-Time-Clock-Issues
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?33895-Hero-Time-Clock-Problem
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?46242-Hero-boot-shutdown-time-clock-err

1st post here and newegg reviews shows it affecting Z97 Hero as well
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?36676-Frozen-Time-Clock-in-UEFI-The-Fix/page33

3. I just can't accept the price. Aboive problems aside, the hero is a very good $145 - $175 board. However it is overpriced at $220. The MSI GD65 has the same feature set at the Hero, equal or better components and is available for $170 ... Minus $30 if ya buying with a 4790k on newegg. It simply is not worth $50 more than the MSI and Gigabyte offerings in its price range.

4. I'm not gonna say the the MSI 970 will "work better" with the MSI MoBo, obviously that's not an issue....... but if ya have to call tech support, things do get a helluva lot easier which you'll know if you ever went thru the usual "blame the other guy" routine. MoBo guy blames the GFX card / GFC guy blames the MoBo .... can't do that when both same dude. been in that very spot a half dozen times . Worse was when EVGA blamed everything from RAM to PSU to MoBo (Asus) to PSU (jonnyguru 10.0 rated).... I finally borrowed two Asus cards and set them up in SLI and they took a 28% OC where as the EVGA wouldn't run at advertised speeds.

No BIOS update was needed .

You don't need a CPU installed to update this BIOS.

CPU should be ready to go with the board out of the box.

I love the combo.

I own both HERO boards and have no bugs.

Hero supports it right out of the box.[/quotemsg

cool, that is great I guess these said bugs happened around release, hech idk. but thanks for replying.

Here is a database I have
http://sinhardware.com/images/vrmlist.png

So far I have dealt with it on the Hero (2 outta 2), the Z97-A, Sabertooth and Maximus VI Formula Builds. It's not a "1st stepping, (early boards) thing. Asus **officially** announced two fixes for it..... but now denies the problem exists.

1st fix was a clear BIOS, do this do that, change this update that thing that does still serve to clear the bug.... this thread is still being posted to (last post was February 7th
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?36676-Frozen-Time-Clock-in-UEFI-The-Fix/page36

2nd fix was a "Hey fellas we fixed it" announcement saying that they will have a new BIOS to fix it. The BIOS was posted for 12 boards and them immediately pulled. The announced fix for RoG boards was never released.

http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?35490-Sabertooth-Z87-Bios-Clock-Issue&p=408653&viewfull=1#post408653

Again, the 1st BIOS release was supposed to fix 12 boards

"UEFI builds 2*** released or will be up shortly on the support pages - fix list states RTC stop issue cured:
Model Name BIOS ECN NO.
Z87-A 2005 EN-0204103
Z87-C 2004 EN-0204123
Z87-PRO 2005 EN-0204140
Z87-PLUS 2004 EN-0204149
Z87-EXPERT 2004 EN-0204089
Z87-DELUXE 2004 EN-0204139
Z87-DELUXE-QUAD 2004 EN-0204143
Z87-DELUXE-DUAL 2004 EN-0204141
GRYPHON-Z87 2004 EN-0204171
VANGUARD-B85 2004 EN-0204173

It was also announced that RoG Boards BIOS fix was forthcoming. You can check all the above threads (as well as newegg reviews) to confirm that users are still experiencing the problem with new purchases.

My biggest problem here tho extends from Asus' official stand on the matter:

1st - Our bad .... ""we have a fix for you, here it is. This fix turned out to be temporary.
2md - "Sorry about that chief, we were able to duplicate the bug with returned boards and we have a new BIOS which fixes it". That BIOS is still not available.
3rd - "Who, what, where ? I have no idea what you are talking about ... we have no record of any reported problems of this type".... and Asus forum staff are no longer allowed to discuss it.

Looking at how both have fared from Z87 to Z97, I tracked how many negative reviews (1 and eggs) were posted on both boards and they run about the same.

Z87 Asus Hero - 17%
Z97 Asus Hero - 25% (18% one egg)

Z87 GD-65 - 17%
Z97 GD-65 - 24% (12% 1 egg)

Looking at overall quality from Z87 to Z97 this has been somewhat of a trend:

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/edit/14961221

Again, I used Asus boards almost exclusively for 10 years ..... one can argue just how valuable newegg reviews are but whatever weight you put to them should give some consistency year to year..... the above link was put together using boards I have actually built with and ... something has changed.

The GD65 is not exactly a shining star here with 24% 1 or 2 egg reviews .... the 1% lead of the GD65 is statistcally insignificant..... tho the 18% versus 12% 1 eggs less so. Aside from the Clock Bug, I'd put the two boards about equal. The only thing that really makes them unequal, again aside from the clock thing, is the $50 price premium you pay for the Asus logo..

I don't know any other way to answer you other than to say, I stopped using the Hero and switched to the GD65 for the latter half of Z87 and now with Z97. I had 4 reasons:

1. I have yet to see one reason to pay $50 more more for the Hero than the GD65
2. The Clock Freeze bug has bitten me 3 times
3. I have been getting more and more disappointed with Asus RMA and Tech Support experiences and wanted to diversify my direct experiences.
4. RMA rates and user user review ratings are comparable.

As for the GD65 ...
-The reviews are glowing
-My experiences have been trouble free
-Perhaps when I have a problem, I will also be disappointed with MSI's TS but none so far.

The thing with "brand loyalty" is peeps have an initial good experience or bad experience with a product and many become "stuck on" or "stuck against" a brand for life. Sports fans either root for the home team or they root for the team who "deserves to win". The team that deserves to win won't necessarily be the same team tear in and year out. Things change. The New York Giants won the Superbowl in 2012, besting the New England Patriots. On that day, on that field, the Giants were the better team. This year, the Patriots played the better game.

Same thing..... back in the P68 era, I wouldn't recommend a MSI MoBo..... The reviews as well as my own limited experiences just didn't measure up to Asus ..... Now things have changed. Asus seems to be resting on its laurels to my eyes and letting things slip. Maybe they just got a little complacent; maybe they just had a bad run of luck. The growth in negative users reviews just from Z87 to Z97 is worrisome.

Next generation I will be looking to Asus to rebound and will enthusiastically support and purchase their products if they can compete on a quality, performance and price basis. To my eyes, the slipped a bit with Z87 and a bit more with Z97, while MSI has improved their game. Perhaps MSI is cutting profit margins to gain market share and next generation they will seek to cash in on their improved reputation and their prices will be more like Asus. We'll just have to wait in see.

At the same price, other than the BIOS clock thing, the decision would be a tossup. The info is out there, you can read the reviews, look at the return rates, read the user reviews. look at the components and performance and compared to the Hero, the GD65 leaves nothing on the table. So if ya saving $50, the question to ask is what will I miss other than the Asus logo ? If you don't have a *quantifiable* answer, then you have your answer.

The other question ya got to ask ya self is ... if the two boards have an identical feature list and the MSI has equal or better componentry, will your build benefit from spending an extra $50 elsewhere ? Perhaps an upgrade from a 1 TB HD to a 2 TB SSD .... or a budget case to a really good one.... or a average PSU that supports 1 GFX card to an excellent one for two cards in SLI so you're ready for an future upgrade..... from a budget CPU cooler to a really good one ?