I have been waiting for a deal on the Hero Alpha version of the Asus motherboard for a while now and Futu on Ebay have finally listed it during the last day of the Ebay 20% tech sale.
This is the cheapest price I have seen it for either from Staticice, Ebay, B&H Photo, NewEgg etc @ $399.20 inc. postage. Run don't walk if you are after this from FUTU on Ebay as I am assuming stock will be limited.
Hope this helps someone.
That's a lot to asked for a motherboard.
In terms of a top spec $2,000 PC is it really that expensive? If you want top class parts in your top class pc…
I bought my MB for about $255 for the Asus Maxiumus 8 Ranger, and i still think that was way overkill and expensive…. even with the 20% of, let alone $400
http://m.ebay.com.au/itm/Asus-ROG-Maximus-VIII-Ranger-Intel-…
So many models and hard to choose which one based on their features:
Pro Gaming $223.20
ROG Maximus VIII Ranger $255.20
ROG Maximus VIII Hero $319.20
(after 20% discount)
I have a PRO GAMING
Would say I am a little underwhelmed.
The bloatware software it comes with constantly crashes the PC (even when updated to all latest versions).
USB 3.1 is nice, but given the time again I'd buy a cheaper mobo and a USB 3.1 PCI Express addon card.
You just saved me $220. It gets some great ratings but as Im not going to be overclocking seems a tad expensive.
GWH:
Have you tried uninstalling some of those bloatware?
Still using my p9x79 deluxe from 2011… Has it been that long!???
I would pay the premium if it can last this long and you don't plan on upgrading every 1-2 year…
Get a quality motherboard/pc and get it over and done with, pc upgrade nowadays have so very little value for ridiculous prices and if anything goes wrong, I'd rather it not be my motherboard that gets fried and replace the usual $100 power supply that gets busted every few years.
I agree Zeral; I too forked out the $$$ for a good board years ago: ROG GENE iv and it's been brilliant and still rocking my i7 3770.
Sometimes a good board and a good PSU = long term operation.
If your psu is getting busted every few years. You're doing it wrong
I can't remember the last time I had a PSU go pop. Decent ones aren't that expensive anymore either.
Think they were cooler masters, thermal take and corsair.
Am using an xfx at the moment and the power supplies generally bust during the hot season along with the gfx cards every now and then.
Nothing i can do to cool them down cause the entire room house is boiling :(
How's Asus with long term bios and driver updates for these ROG models these days? Was pretty annoyed after buying the Maximus V Extreme, how soon product updates were dropped, considering how much I paid for a premium model.
I'm still getting support for my 3 year old model.
The usb drivers like the Asmedia or XHCI are still in beta so you might have some usb power management issues. I had problems where the computer would hang during restart and shutdown I found out it was the AI Suite and uninstalled it and everything worked fine. Asus support is disappointing instead of going through steps they just give me a cookie cutter solution or RMA, in the end I just worked things out by myself.
Why does this store only allow you to buy one item every 10 days? That's freaking insane
could someone explain what you get from this motherboard for the extra $300 compared to the base version?
Nothing much, U.2 ports and RGB headers as far as I can tell
Its not an Extra $300 Dollars…
Any reason why you want this Hero Alpha instead of the cheaper Hero?