IMO, the Hero is a very good board but ridiculously overpriced. I'll add $15 for the sound subsystem but w/o that it's a $150 board as do any comparably priced side by side feature comparison on newegg and it comes up short
On the other hand, I consider the Formula a bargain at $90 over the Hero..... for what it offers:
Blackwing Chokes
mPCIE connect which provides WiFi and BT w/o using a PCI slot
Headphone amp
10 SATA (all SATA III / 6 Gbps)
8 USB 3 / 8 USB 2
DDR3-3000 mem support
Sonic Radar
RAM disk
Steel backplate to support heavy GFX and CPU coolers
Two CPU fan headers
Japanese 10K black solid CAPs
8 + 4 pin CPU power
Extra Power connector for PCIE slots
Superb audio subsystem
Unique BIOS features w/ change log
Vortez writes:
Priced at £247 the Maximus VI Formula is a step-up in price from the commonly selected mid-high end Z87 motherboards but is also a step-up in performance and feature-set. The added cost is justified due to the sheer features and quality at the consumer’s disposal.
They also noted that they hit the standard 4.6 OC at much lower voltages than typical.... this is no doubt due to the the quality components in the power control circuitry, It doesn't need as high a voltage cause its able to maintain a more stable voltage ....w/ no "dips", ya don't need the extra voltage cushion.
So, is it worth it ? That's a question only you can answer.... the more features you use, the more it will be worth it.....if the features sit there unused, then no.
It's too bad ya didn't have something like the CM Eisberg 240 L CPU cooler. Its a helluva lot quieter than the 100i but with the 240L ya can "open the loop" and add the MoBo cooling as they have done here
http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?33364-Maximus-VI-Formula-Show-Casemod-MbK
The benchmarks show it beating the hero but it does lose a few including 1 or 2 to the GD-65