A motherboard that knows exactly what it is
There are expensive motherboards, and then there is this. Asus has taken its already over-the-top Crosshair line and pushed it into full luxury territory with a board that costs $1,200, or £945 in the UK and AU$1,949 in Australia. Naturally, that means it is entirely unnecessary for most people. Also naturally, that has not stopped Asus from loading it with nearly everything the company could fit on a flagship AM5 platform.
The result is one of the most striking PC components we have seen in years. It is huge, crowded with heatsinks and shrouds, and dominated by a five-inch display that makes most motherboard status screens look like afterthoughts. This is the first time this Glacial model has shown up on an AMD platform, which is a useful reminder that Ryzen is having a very good run on the desktop right now.
Built for enthusiasts who have already accepted the premise
This is not a board for someone building a sensible system on a strict budget. It is for the enthusiast who has already decided that moderation is for other people.
The feature list is, frankly, absurd in the best possible way:
- Socket AM5 support for AMD Ryzen 7000, 8000 and 9000 desktop processors
- DDR5 support up to 256 GB and DDR5-9600 overclocking
- Seven M.2 slots and four SATA ports
- Two USB4 Type-C ports and six USB Type-C ports in total on the rear I/O
- Dual 10 Gbps Ethernet ports
- Wi-Fi 7
- Realtek ALC4082 audio
- 60 W power delivery over the front-panel Type-C header
- An ESS audio DAC
- A pogo pin connector for compatible Asus wireless AIO liquid coolers
Asus also packs in the usual arsenal of enthusiast hardware controls: power and reset buttons, a dual BIOS switch, a 2-pin thermistor header, an LED POST code readout and eight fan headers. Two of those headers can deliver up to 36 W, which is a nice touch if your definition of normal includes a lot of airflow and a small amount of hubris.
Storage and expansion, with the expected catch
The storage layout is clever, but it is also a reminder that nothing this elaborate comes without trade-offs.
Four of the M.2 slots are split between a DIMM.2 module beside the memory slots and a PCIe expansion card. The DIMM.2 module houses two PCIe 4.0 M.2 ports, while the expansion card provides two PCIe 5.0 M.2 slots under a large shared heatsink. The card also gives the board its best SSD cooling, but using it comes with a cost. If you install it, your GPU has to drop to eight PCIe lanes.
One of the PCIe 4.0 slots on the DIMM.2 card is also limited to two lanes, which is not exactly what anyone wants to hear on a motherboard that costs as much as a decent used car. Still, the flexibility is impressive, especially if you are trying to build a storage-heavy workstation or a gaming rig with far too many fast drives.
The five-inch display is not subtle
The board’s five-inch screen is one of the headline features and, for once, it earns the attention. It can be configured in Asus software with preset animated displays, system sensor readouts, or your own custom designs. It can also slide forward to leave room for rear case fans, which is the sort of mechanical flourish that makes the whole product feel like a high-end prototype that escaped into retail.
On the reverse side of the board, a removable fascia hides a magnetic mount for a memory cooling fan. It is cable-free, powered through contact pins, and adjustable in software or the EFI. Again, this is not a board that believes in doing things the ordinary way if a more theatrical option is available.
Cooling and thermals are genuinely excellent
For all the visual excess, the Glacial is not just decorative. Asus has managed to keep temperatures remarkably controlled without leaning on an integrated water block, something previous premium models often used.
On our open-air test bench, VRM temperatures peaked at 56°C, which leaves plenty of headroom even if you are pushing a Ryzen 9 9900X-class chip harder than most people ever will. The dual X870 chipsets were even more impressive, topping out at just 41°C. That is among the best AMD platform thermal results we have seen.
The board also posted strong SSD numbers. The best result came from the PCIe expansion card, where we measured a peak of 61°C. The onboard heatsinks ran 10°C and 16°C hotter than that, so if storage temperatures matter to you, the expansion card is probably worth using. If you are running multiple fast drives, it becomes even easier to justify.
Performance is strong, though the board does not do magic
No motherboard is going to make your PC faster by sheer force of luxury, and this one is no exception. What it does is avoid getting in the way while giving you a lot of room to tune, cool and overclock.
In gaming, it performed near the top of the boards we compared against. In Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p with RT Ultra and DLSS Balanced, it reached 114 average FPS and 82 FPS at the 1% low. That put it ahead of several rivals, though not by enough to trigger any form of victory parade.
Gaming comparison
| Motherboard | Avg FPS | 1% Low FPS |
|---|---|---|
| Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Glacial | 114 | 82 |
| MSI MEG X870E Godlike X | 111 | 72 |
| MSI MEG X870E Ace Max | 113 | 84 |
| ASRock X870 Nova WiFi | 109 | 72 |
| Gigabyte X870E Aorus Pro | 111 | 78 |
| NZXT N9 X870E | 116 | 76 |
Average CPU package power in games landed at 117 W, while heavy processing peaked at 170 W. That is slightly above average, which is not a surprise when a board is carrying this many extra controllers, ports and accessories. The important part is that the thermals stayed well under control.
EFI good, software less tidy
Asus has done a strong job with the EFI. It is approachable enough for newcomers but still deep enough for serious overclockers and hardware tweakers. Fan tuning, voltage adjustments and system monitoring all feel well thought out.
The software side is less graceful. Asus still wants you to install multiple apps if you want easy access to fan control, RGB lighting and the LCD screen. Once installed, those tools do make it simple to manage the board from Windows, but the process is more cluttered than it needs to be. Premium hardware should not require a small software administration project before it becomes comfortable to use.
Verdict
The Asus ROG Crosshair X870E Glacial is probably the most extravagant AMD motherboard ever made, and in this case the extravagance is backed up by substance. It is beautiful, absurdly well equipped, cool under pressure and loaded with thoughtful touches that go far beyond plain spec-sheet theater.
It also costs $1,200, which means it is firmly out of reach for almost everyone. But that is not quite the same as being pointless. If you want the most desirable AMD Ryzen motherboard Asus has ever built, this is it. If you just want a board that supports high-end hardware properly, something much cheaper will do the job without complaint.
Either way, the Glacial is the kind of product that makes the rest of the market look restrained by comparison. Which, admittedly, is not a difficult trick when your motherboard has a five-inch screen, dual 10 Gbps Ethernet and enough storage options to make a drive organizer nervous.
