ASUS Maximus VIII Hero Alpha ATX Motherboard User Manual

ASUS Maximus VIII Hero Alpha ATX Motherboard

Safety information

Electrical safety

• To prevent electrical shock hazard, disconnect the power cable from the electrical outlet before relocating the system.
• When adding or removing devices to or from the system, ensure that the power cables for the devices are unplugged before the signal cables are connected. If possible, disconnect all power cables from the existing system before you add a device.
• Before connecting or removing signal cables from the motherboard, ensure that all power cables are unplugged.
• Seek professional assistance before using an adapter or extension cord. These devices could interrupt the grounding circuit.
• Ensure that your power supply is set to the correct voltage in your area. If you are not sure about the voltage of the electrical outlet you are using, contact your local power company.
• If the power supply is broken, do not try to fix it by yourself. Contact a qualified service technician or your retailer.

Operation safety

• Before installing the motherboard and adding devices on it, carefully read all the manuals that came with the package.
• Before using the product, ensure all cables are correctly connected and the power cables are not damaged. If you detect any damage, contact your dealer immediately.
• To avoid short circuits, keep paper clips, screws, and staples away from connectors, slots, sockets and circuitry.
• Avoid dust, humidity, and temperature extremes. Do not place the product in any area where it may become wet.
• Place the product on a stable surface.
• If you encounter technical problems with the product, contact a qualified service technician or your retailer.

MAXIMUS VIII HERO specifications summary

Package contents

Check your motherboard package for the following items.

If any of the above items is damaged or missing, contact your retailer.

INSTALLATION TOOLS AND COMPONENTS

Product Introduction

Special features

Product highlights

Republic of Gamers

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LGA1151 socket for New 6th generation Intel Core processors

This motherboard supports the New 6th Gen Intel® Core™ processors on the LGA1151 package, with memory and PCI Express controllers integrated to support dual-channel (4 DIMM) DDR4 memory and 16 PCI Express 3.0/2.0 lanes.

Intel® Z170 Express Chipset

The Intel® Z170 Express Chipset is a single-chipset design that supports socket LGA1151 6th Gen Intel® Core™ processors. It provides improved performance by utilizing serial point-to-point links, allowing increased bandwidth and stability. Additionally, Z170 provides a maximum of 10 USB 3.0 ports, and 6 SATA 6Gbit/s ports for faster data retrieval.

PCIE® 3.0

PCIE® 3.0 (PCle 3.0) is the PCle bus standard that provides twice the performance and speed of PCle 2.0. It provides optimal graphics performance, unprecedented data speed, and seamless transition with its complete backward compatibility to PCle 1.0/2.0 devices.

SLI®/CrossFire™ On-Demand

This motherboard supports multi-GPU SLI®/CrossFireX™ graphics cards for unrivaled gaming performance. With the Intel® Z97 platform to optimize the PCle allocation of multiple GPUs, it supports up to 2-WAY GPU SLI® or CrossFireX™ configuration.

Motherboard overview

Before you proceed

Take note of the following precautions before you install motherboard components or change any motherboard settings.

WARNING:

• Unplug the power cord from the wall socket before touching any component.
• Before handling components, use a grounded wrist strap or touch a safely grounded object or a metal object, such as the power supply case, to avoid damaging them due to static electricity.
• Hold components by the edges to avoid touching the ICs on them.
• Whenever you uninstall any component, place it on a grounded antistatic pad or in the bag that came with the component.
• Before you install or remove any component, ensure that the ATX power supply is switched off or the power cord is detached from the power supply. Failure to do so may cause severe damage to the motherboard, peripherals, or components.

MOTHERBOARD LAYOUT

MAXIMUS VIil HERO Motherboard Qualified Vendors Lists (QVL)

DDR4 3466 MHz capability

DDR4 3400 MHz capability

DDR4 3333 MHz capability

DDR4 3300 MHz capability

DDR4 2800 MHz capability

Basic Installation

Building your PC system

Motherboard installation
The diagrams in this section are for reference only. The motherboard layout may vary with models, but the installation steps are the same for all models.

1. Install the ASUS Q-Shield to the chassis rear I/O panel.
2. Place the motherboard into the chassis, ensuring that its rear I/O ports are aligned to the chassis’ rear I/O panel.
3. Place nine screws into the holes indicated by circles to secure the motherboard to the chassis.

CPU INSTALLATION

WARNING!

• Ensure that the CPU is firmly clicked into place before installing it onto the CPU socket on the motherboard.
• Use the CPU Installation Tool for installing the CPU only. DO NOT damage or bend the CPU Installation Tool.
• Aways firmly hold both sides of the CPU Installation Tool when installing, removing, or picking up the CPU Installation Tool.
• ASUS will not cover damages resulting from incorrect CPU installation/removal, incorrect CPU orientation/placement, or other damages resulting from negligence by the user.

BIOS update utility

USB BIOS Flashback

USB BIOS Flashback allows you to easily update the BIOS without entering the existing BIOS or operating system. Simply insert a USB storage device to the USB port, press the USB BIOS Flashback button for three seconds, and the BIOS is updated automatically.

To use USB BIOS Flashback:

1. Download the latest BIOS file from the ASUS website.
2. Extract and rename the BIOS image file to M8H.CAP.
3. Copy M8H.CAP to the root directory of your USB storage device.
4. Turn off the system and connect the USB storage device to the USB BIOS Flashback port.
5. Press the USB BIOS Flashback button.

Motherboard rear and audio connections

Rear 1/0 connection

** Audio 2.1, 4.1, 5.1 or 7.1-channel configuration

Starting up for the first time

1. After making all the connections, replace the system case cover.
2. Ensure that all switches are off.
3. Connect the power cord to the power connector at the back of the system chassis
4. Connect the power cord to a power outlet that is equipped with a surge protector.
5. Turn on the devices in the following order:
   • Monitor
   • External SCSI devices (starting with the last device on the chain)
   • System power
6. After applying power, the system power LED on the system front panel case lights up. For systems with ATX power supplies, the system LED lights up when you press the ATX power button. If your monitor complies with the “green” standards or if it has a “power standby” feature, the monitor LED may light up or change from orange to green after the system LED turns on. The system then runs the power-on self-tests (POST). While the tests are running, the BIOS beeps (refer to the BIOS beep codes table) or additional messages appear on the screen. If you do not see anything within 30 seconds from the time you turn on the power, the system may have failed a power-on test. Check the jumper settings and connections or call your retailer for assistance.
   

   BIOS Beep	Description
   One short beep	VGA detected Quick boot set to disabled No keyboard detected
   One continuous beep followed by two short beeps then a pause (repeated)	No memory detected
   One continuous beep followed by three short beeps	No VGA detected
   One continuous beep followed by four short beeps	Hardware component failure

7. At power on, hold down the <Delete> key to enter the BIOS Setup. Follow the instructions in Chapter 3.

Turning off the computer

While the system is ON, press the power button for less than four seconds to put the system on sleep mode or soft-off mode, depending on the BIOS setting. Press the power button for more than four seconds to let the system enter the soft-off mode regardless of the BIOS setting.

BIOS Setup

BIOS (Basic Input and Output System) stores system hardware settings such as storage device configuration, overclocking settings, advanced power management, and boot device configuration that are needed for system startup in the motherboard CMOS. In normal circumstances, the default BIOS settings apply to most conditions to ensure optimal performance. DO NOT change the default BIOS settings except in the following circumstances:

• An error message appears on the screen during the system bootup and requests you to run the BIOS Setup.
• You have installed a new system component that requires further BIOS settings or updates.

EZ Mode

The EZ Mode provides you an overview of the basic system information and allows you to select the display language, system performance, mode ,and boot device priority. To access the Advanced Mode, select Advanced Mode or press the <F7> hotkey for the advanced BIOS settings.

Advanced Mode

The Advanced Mode provides advanced options for experienced end-users to configure the BIOS settings. The figure below shows an example of the Advanced Mode. Refer to the following sections for the detailed configurations.

Menu bar

The menu bar on top of the screen has the following main items:

Menu items

The highlighted item on the menu bar displays the specific items for that menu. For example, selecting Main shows the Main menu items. The other items (My Favorites, Extreme Tweaker, Advanced, Monitor, Boot, Tool, and Exit) on the menu bar have their respective menu items.

Submenu items

A greater than sign (>) before each item on any menu screen means that the item has a submenu. To display the submenu, select the item and press <Enter>.

Language

This button above the menu bar contains the languages that you can select for your BIOS. Click this button to select the language that you want to display in your BIOS screen.

MyFavorite(F3)

This button above the menu bar shows all BIOS items in a Tree Map setup. Select frequently- used BIOS settings and saved it to the MyFavorite menu.

Qfan Control(F6)

This button above the menu bar displays the current settings of your fans. Use this button to manually weak the fans to your desired settings.

EZ Tuning Wizard(F11)

This button above the menu bar allows you to view and tweak the overclocking settings of your system. It also allows you to change the motherboard’s SATA mode from AHCI to RAID mode.

Hotkeys

This button above the menu bar contains the navigation keys for the BIOS setup program. Use the navigation keys to select items in the menu and change the settings.

Scroll bar

A scroll bar appears on the right side of a menu screen when there are items that do not fit on the screen. Press the Up/Down arrow keys or <Page Up> / <Page Down> keys to display the other items on the screen.

General help

At the bottom of the menu screen is a brief description of the selected item. Use the <F12> key to capture the BIOS screen and save it to the removable storage device.

Configuration fields

These fields show the values for the menu items. If an item is user-configurable, you can change the value of the field opposite the item. You cannot select an item that is not user-configurable. A configurable field is highlighted when selected. To change the value of a field, select it and press <Enter> to display a list of options.

Last Modified button

This button shows the items that you last modified and saved in BIOS Setup.

RAID Support

RID configurations

The motherboard comes with the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology that supports RAID 0, RAID 1, RAID 10, and RAID 5 configurations.

RAID definitions

RAID 0 (Data striping) optimizes two identical hard disk drives to read and write data in parallel, interleaved stacks. Two hard disks perform the same work as a single drive but at a sustained data transfer rate, double that of a single disk alone, thus improving data access and storage. Use of two new identical hard disk drives is required for this setup.

RAID 1 (Data mirroring) copies and maintains an identical image of data from one drive to a second drive. If one drive fails, the disk array management software directs all applications to the surviving drive as it contains a complete copy of the data in the other drive. This RAID configuration provides data protection and increases fault tolerance to the entire system. Use two new drives or use an existing drive and a new drive for this setup. The new drive must be of the same size or larger than the existing drive.

RAID 5 strips both data and parity information across three or more hard disk drives. Among the advantages of RAID 5 configuration include better HDD performance, fault tolerance, and higher storage capacity. The RAID 5 configuration is best suited for transaction processing, relational database applications, enterprise resource planning, and other business systems. Use a minimum of three identical hard disk drives for this setup.

RAID 10 is data striping and data mirroring combined without parity (redundancy data) having to be calculated and written. With the RAID 10 configuration, you get all the benefits of both RAID 0 and RAID 1 configurations. Use four new hard disk drives or use an existing drive and three new drives for this setup.

Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Option ROM utility

To enter the Intel® Rapid Storage Technology Option ROM utility:

1. Tum on the system.
2. During POST, press <Ctrl> + <I> to display the utility main menu.The navigation keys at the bottom of the screen allow you to move through the menus and select the menu options.

Creating a RAID set

To create a RAID set:

1. From the utility main menu, select 1. Create RAID Volume and press <Enter>. The following screen appears:
2. Enter a name for the RAID set and press <Enter>.
3. When the RAID Level item is selected, press the up/down arrow key to select a RAID level to create, and then press <Enter>
4. When the Disks item is selected, press <Enter> to select the hard disk drives you want to include in the RAID set. The SELECT DISKS screen appears:
5. Use the Up/Down arrow key to select a drive, and then press <Space> to select. A small triangle marks the selected drive. Press <Enter> after completing your selection.
6.  Use the Up/Down arrow key to select the stripe size for the RAID array (for RAID 0, 10 and 5 only),and then press <Enter>. The available stripe size values range from 4KB to 128KB. The following are typical value:
   •  RAID 0: 128KB
   • RAID 10: 64KB
   • RAID 5: 64KB
7. When the Capacity item is selected, enter the RAID volume capacity that you want and press <Enter>. The default value indicates the maximum allowed capacity.
8. When the Create Volume item is selected, press <Enter>. The following warning message appears:
9. Press <Y> to create the RAID volume and return to the main menu, or <N> to go back to the CREATE VOLUME menu.

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ASUS Maximus VIII Hero Alpha ATX Motherboard-FAQs