Performance and Audio quality of new Z270 ROG MOBO's

[Fist3365]

Hello,
I am looking at upgrading my MOBO from my current one which is a low to mid grade Gigabyte Z170 board (Gigabyte Z170 X Gaming 6) to a ROG Hero IX, and would appreciate some feedback.

I am definitely curious on how much of an upgrade it will be. The Asus ROG Hero IX seems real nice and is the one I am looking at. I would hope the ROG board would be a good sound quality upgrade over my current board. My current board has an ALC 1150 audio CODEC or DAC. The rest of my audio components include a nice Audio Quest USB 2.0 Cable to a Schiit Audio WYRD then another Audio Quest USB 2.0 cable to a Schiit Audio Modi 2 Uber DAC. Then I have the Audio out from the Modi 2 Uber that feeds a Little Dot MKII Headphone tube amp. The headphones I listen with are the Hifiman Edition X, Hifiman HE-400i, and Mr. Speakers Mad Dog's. I love the setup and enjoy what it sounds like, but to know the ROG Hero IX would be an audio quality upgrade would be enough reason for me to purchase the board.

Also the other reason for me to upgrade to the ROG Hero IX would be an increase in performace ie, higher OC and possible higher benchmarks with games and synthetic benchmarks.

The new ROG boards look great and I had very good experiences with my previous AMD build that had the Crosshair v Formula Z mobo also. I am not concerned with spending the money for a new board, I would just like to know it would be an upgrade in these areas at least.

Thank you all for your responses.

[FuryA]

hi Fist3365
have You tried installing the other different SSDs for testing including reinstall win10 system
"Intel Rapid Start" drivers for Fast Startup testing does it work?

[Fist3365]

FuryA@ASUS wrote:
hi Fist3365
have You tried installing the other different SSDs for testing including reinstall win10 system
"Intel Rapid Start" drivers for Fast Startup testing does it work?

Not sure what you meant by your post, but I am just looking for input about the audio and performance of the ROG Hero IX compared to what I have already.

[AkaNe0]

Fist3365 wrote:
Hello,
I am looking at upgrading my MOBO from my current one which is a low to mid grade Gigabyte Z170 board (Gigabyte Z170 X Gaming 6) to a ROG Hero IX, and would appreciate some feedback.

I am definitely curious on how much of an upgrade it will be. The Asus ROG Hero IX seems real nice and is the one I am looking at. I would hope the ROG board would be a good sound quality upgrade over my current board. My current board has an ALC 1150 audio CODEC or DAC. The rest of my audio components include a nice Audio Quest USB 2.0 Cable to a Schiit Audio WYRD then another Audio Quest USB 2.0 cable to a Schiit Audio Modi 2 Uber DAC. Then I have the Audio out from the Modi 2 Uber that feeds a Little Dot MKII Headphone tube amp. The headphones I listen with are the Hifiman Edition X, Hifiman HE-400i, and Mr. Speakers Mad Dog's. I love the setup and enjoy what it sounds like, but to know the ROG Hero IX would be an audio quality upgrade would be enough reason for me to purchase the board.

Also the other reason for me to upgrade to the ROG Hero IX would be an increase in performace ie, higher OC and possible higher benchmarks with games and synthetic benchmarks.

The new ROG boards look great and I had very good experiences with my previous AMD build that had the Crosshair v Formula Z mobo also. I am not concerned with spending the money for a new board, I would just like to know it would be an upgrade in these areas at least.

Thank you all for your responses.

Hi Fist3365,

With the launch of Kabylake it's the right time to upgrade your board. On the Audio side, the Maximus IX Hero has the following:

• SupremeFX S1220 CODEC
  
• ‧ES9023P High Definition DAC
  
• ‧Impedance sense for front and rear
  
• ‧120dB SNR stereo playback output
  
• ‧113dB SNR recording input
  
• Sonic Studio III & Sonic Radar II
  

So compare to the Standard ALC1220 and the ALC 1150 that you have on your actual motherboard you will have a better dynamic range. From our tests, we have 113db against 108db (ALC1220). Plus we provide Sonic Studio III software for a better control of your devices with profiles.

If you want to know more about the Maximus IX Hero, you can visit the product page: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-MAXIMUS-IX-HERO/

[Fist3365]

AkaNe@Asus wrote:
Hi Fist3365,

With the launch of Kabylake it's the right time to upgrade your board. On the Audio side, the Maximus IX Hero has the following:

• SupremeFX S1220 CODEC
  
• ‧ES9023P High Definition DAC
  
• ‧Impedance sense for front and rear
  
• ‧120dB SNR stereo playback output
  
• ‧113dB SNR recording input
  
• Sonic Studio III & Sonic Radar II
  

So compare to the Standard ALC1220 and the ALC 1150 that you have on your actual motherboard you will have a better dynamic range. From our tests, we have 113db against 108db (ALC1220). Plus we provide Sonic Studio III software for a better control of your devices with profiles.

If you want to know more about the Maximus IX Hero, you can visit the product page: https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/ROG-MAXIMUS-IX-HERO/

Thanks AkaNE....I have been doing some more research and now I am gonna have to buy new RAM for the MOBO. My current RAM is not on the QVL for either of the three ROG IX boards.

[AkaNe0]

Fist3365 wrote:
Thanks AkaNE....I have been doing some more research and now I am gonna have to buy new RAM for the MOBO. My current RAM is not on the QVL for either of the three ROG IX boards.

Could you confirm the Memory kit you have?

Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 32gb (4x8) 3000Mhz
CMK32GX4M4B3000C15

[Fist3365]

AkaNe@Asus wrote:
Could you confirm the Memory kit you have?

Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 32gb (4x8) 3000Mhz
CMK32GX4M4B3000C15

AkaNe,
That is the correct memory kit that I have.

[AkaNe0]

Fist3365 wrote:
AkaNe,
That is the correct memory kit that I have.

A new list of memory QVL has been updated and now you model appear in the compatible list - so no need to upgrade your memory kit.

You can access the updated list from January 13th here or check the latest on from the memory/device support on support website.

[Fist3365]

AkaNe@Asus wrote:
A new list of memory QVL has been updated and now you model appear in the compatible list - so no need to upgrade your memory kit.

You can access the updated list from January 13th here or check the latest on from the memory/device support on support website.

AkaNe, that kit on the updated QVL is the 2x16gb kit and I have the 4x8 kit.

[AkaNe0]

Fist3365 wrote:
AkaNe, that kit on the updated QVL is the 2x16gb kit and I have the 4x8 kit.

For the following models, I confirm that Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 32gb (4x8) 3000Mhz CMK32GX4M4B3000C15 ver4.24 and 5.29 are compatible.

They will be added to the QVL list shortly.