ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Apex (AMD AM5)

Thermal performance is also very reassuring, with VRM and chipset temperatures staying well within safe ranges even under stress testing. Combined with a robust power design and optimized memory overclocking design, you can confidently push both CPU and memory without concern.

If the halo tier ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Extreme was going to leave your wallet feeling a little too anemic, but you're still in the market for an overclocking-focused Socket AM5 motherboard and have a significant budget, then ASUS does have a slightly less lavish alternative. The ROG Crosshair X870E Apex is the latest incarnation of this thoroughbred overclocking motherboard that stretches back a few generations on Intel platforms, but this is the first time it's ventured into AMD territory. Think of it as a trimmed down ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Extreme with a focus purely on performance, or a slightly less mainstream ASUS ROG Crosshair X870E Hero, with less of an emphasis on being a daily driver. That said, the ROG Crosshair X870E Apex is still a perfectly capable everyday board, but is more than happy to switch to extreme cooling to bring the best out of your CPU and memory, offering all the tools you need to do so.