ASUS ROG CROSSHAIR VIII HERO Testing On Ubuntu 18.04 Linux

[starshipeleven]

Yep. I guess the VIII Hero doesn't fall into that category since I think its 2.5 Gbps Realtek NIC is only supported in kernel 5.3 (I think).

That's not what I meant. It's supported or will be shortly.

The issue is with hardware that has flaky drivers or no driver at all because none is developing or maintaining it, or has only binary drivers that may or may not be updated again for the next Linux kernel.

Also, the ACPI table issues thing is no joke, sure it is less of an issue for a desktop board where you have a large heatsink and fan but it's still bad and can cause instability in otherwise normal and good hardware.

https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=198715

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=116159

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=190258

And also can cause issues on Windows too, but that's more rare as they do usually test the boards with Windows at least https://support.serato.com/hc/en-us/...ndows-machines

[josh_walrath]

There are various levels of "working with Linux".

"linux-focused" boards should be the ones that don't ship crappy or broken ACPI and all secondary hardware (sound chips, ethernet, wifi/bluetooth) is supported, so Linux can use them properly.

Yep. I guess the VIII Hero doesn't fall into that category since I think its 2.5 Gbps Realtek NIC is only supported in kernel 5.3 (I think). That said, I chose it specifically over a Gigabyte board in the same class because it also has a second, fallback NIC, a 1 Gbps Intel, which I figured would work with Linux smoothly. Gigabyte just had the single Realtek or Killer. I'm new at the art of picking Linux-conscious hardware, but that rightly gave me bad vibes.

[starshipeleven]

I thought that any board that works with Linux is a "Linux-focused" board. :P

There are various levels of "working with Linux".

"linux-focused" boards should be the ones that don't ship crappy or broken ACPI and all secondary hardware (sound chips, ethernet, wifi/bluetooth) is supported, so Linux can use them properly.

[DanL]

Any chance of an actual (Linux-focused) X570 mainboard review? Not benchmarks (as long as something isn't broken, they all should be in the same ballpark), not features (see manufacturer's website), but general usability. Things like: Is the fan control (including chipset fan) provided by the UEFI first class? Does hardware monitoring work? What do the IOMMU groups look like?

Yeah, I keep asking for this on mobo reviews. Benchmarks don't make much sense since he doesn't do a lot of mobo reviews for comparison. I guess Michael just loves his PTS...

[Dedobot]

My anecdata: my P6X58D premium's lasted for 10 years, and somehow the CMOS battery isn't dead. It's also on that Linux support list: https://dlcdnimgs.asus.com/websites/...inux170105.pdf

Did you say your warranty is 15 years?! I expect anything to break after, like, 8.
.....d. :P

No of course , I will be very happy with 15yrs of warranty
15 yrs of purchasing and using only Asus boards in same environment w/o issues. May be 1 or two fried mbs from roughly 50 pieces - different generations.
Then in a time frame of 6 months - 5 duds . All of the old p5b , p8z68 ... are functional at 100 percents , they will outlive me I thing . Unfortunately can say the same about x79/x99 line..

[josh_walrath]

I'm not bashing the brand, but over complicated motherboards and lack of clean of features models . Supermicro gave me exactly what I want .
Asus is still my n1 desktop mb choice but for our small cgi/post facility I will stuck to boards unloaded from necessary functionality-after the fiasco of 3 dead x99 and one x79 [delixe/sabertooth]
Died in the year of the warranty's expiration , one took i75930k with it . Thats after 15yrs depending only on Asus mbs and graphics .
With SM I'm fine and the BMC option is neat - I'm not trading it for all of bluetooths, wireless nics, OC geeks and hundreds of usbs at this world . Cheers !

My anecdata: my P6X58D premium's lasted for 10 years, and somehow the CMOS battery isn't dead. It's also on that Linux support list: https://dlcdnimgs.asus.com/websites/...inux170105.pdf

Did you say your warranty is 15 years?! I expect anything to break after, like, 8.

Any chance of an actual (Linux-focussed) X570 mainboard review? Not benchmarks (as long as something isn't broken, they all should be in the same ballpark), not features (see manufacturer's website), but general usability. Things like: Is the fan control (including chipset fan) provided by the UEFI first class? Does hardware monitoring work? What do the IOMMU groups look like?

I thought that any board that works with Linux is a "Linux-focused" board. :P

[agurenko]

So, does wifi and bluetooth works out of the box here? No mentioning which modules are used on asus web-site. I'm looking at this exact board for my Ryzen 3xxx build later this year.

[Brisse]

I would like to get temp reads without the motherboard fan and just a heat sink. Debauer says he can't figure out why there is a cooling solution in the first place.

It's 8 watts at idle and 14w max under load. That's a night light. Although he didn't test it with 3 x pcie 4 ssd's in a raid config. Just a standard setup.

It's hard to hit 90-100c with 8w on a massive die of that size. Not sure what the fans are really there for.

It's all fine and dandy when Der8auer mit acht can play around in his room temperature lab on an open bench, but the manufacturers have to validate the parts for continuous use at elevated ambient temperatures, probably something like 40-50°C, all while making sure signal integrity and performance is within specifications.

[Brisse]

The same path that PCIe 4 was rumoured to take on earlier series AM4 boards, which lack active chipset cooling. Or has taken on such boards, according to some sources, although others claim that AMD has flipped from allowing to blocking the feature.

It's not rumours, it's fact, but you seem to not know the whole picture. Some of the PCIe-lanes are managed directly by the CPU (or SoC if you will) while the chipset is there to extend the amount of lanes and provide connectivity for more devices. This is true for both previous and current generations of Ryzen. So what Asus did was to give the user a switch in BIOS to enable PCIe gen 4 on older boards when paired with a new CPU, but it's important to note that 1. it's only the lanes connected directly to the CPU, not those connected through the chipset, and that 2. the boards have not been validated for PCIe gen 4 and are likely going to be unstable. AMD didn't want board partners to experiment with a feature like this and will apparently block them from doing so in future AGESA-releases.

What X570 provides is PCIe gen 4 across the board, not just the lanes connected directly to the CPU, but also those extra lanes connected to the chipset. It is also validated by the manufacturer and therefore guaranteed to be stable.

[Teggs]

Talos II mainboard has no PCIe controllers in the chipset, it all comes from the CPU(s) so it's all cooled by the main CPU cooler.

The same path that PCIe 4 was rumoured to take on earlier series AM4 boards, which lack active chipset cooling. Or has taken on such boards, according to some sources, although others claim that AMD has flipped from allowing to blocking the feature.