Asus announced a slew of PC gaming-oriented products at Computex on Tuesday (Taiwan time). The new additions to the company’s Republic of Gamers (ROG) lineup include two desktop PCs, a laptop, three motherboards, a video card, and a new display. The early info we received is a little thin, but here’s what we know.
The ROG G20 Gaming Desktop is a small-form-factor PC with an intriguing case design. Asus claims that a hidden airflow tunnel and an external power supply will render the system nearly silent, even when outfitted with an Intel Core i7 CPU and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 discrete graphics processor. A customizable lighting system will deliver up to 8 million color combinations in three zones in and around the chassis. Depending on configuration, Asus says the system will sell for between $800 and $1700 when it ships in North America in the third quarter.
The console-sized ROG GR8 Gaming Desktop will ship with Windows 8.1, but Asus says it will also be compatible with Valve’s SteamOS and Steam Controller. A company press release indicates Asus also plans to “launch a Steam specific model once Valve is ready.” The ROG GR8 will be available with Intel Core i7 processors and Nvidia GeForce GTX 750Ti. The box will have a side panel that allows for quick updates to its memory and storage, but it sounds as though the rest of it will be sealed.
The Republic of Gamers GR8 will ship with Windows 8.1, but Asus says it’ll make for a great Steam Machine when Valve’s OS and controller are finally ready.
The ROG GR8 will support the Miracast standard, so that it can stream video to a properly equipped HDTV. The rig will also have hardwired video connections via DisplayPort and HDMI, and it will have four USB 3.0 ports, plus two USB 2.0 ports. In addition to gigabit ethernet, the ROG GR8 will support 802.11ac Wi-Fi. Asus said the system will be available in North America in the third quarter, but the company did not provide pricing.
Asus also announced a new 15.6-inch gaming notebook with a 4K display (that’s 3840×2160 pixels). The company claims this laptop is the first in the world to deliver 100 percent of the NTSC gamut (the sRGB standard covers about 72 percent of the NTSC gamut). The ROG GX500 will be based on “the latest Intel Core i7 processor,” according to Asus, along with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M graphics processor. Here again, Asus has revealed only that the laptop will be available in North America sometime in the third quarter and hasn’t provided any guidance on pricing.
A gaming laptop with a 4K display? That—and 100 percent of the NTSC gamut—is what Asus is promising with its new ROG GX500.
If you’ve been waiting for a monitor that supports Nvidia’s G-Sync technology, it looks as though Asus is finally getting ready to ship its ROG Swift PG278Q display. First shown at CES 2014, the PG278Q features a small circuit board that synchronizes the monitor’s refresh rate to the video card’s rendering output, eliminating visual artifacts such as tearing and stuttering. The 27-inch panel boasts a native resolution of 2560×1440 pixels and refresh rates of 60-, 120-, or 144Hz. It must be paired with an Nvidia video card to utilize G-Sync. At CES, Asus said the PG278Q would sell for $799, but the company didn’t provide updated pricing or availability in its Computex press materials.
Moving to component news, Asus announced a new limited-edition water-cooled video card, featuring two of AMD’s Radeon Hawaii XT-class graphics processors linked to 8GB of GDDR5 memory. Dubbed the ROG Ares III, Asus says it will produce just 500 of these cards, and each will be individually numbered.
The ROG Ares III features two of AMD’s best GPUs, 8GB of GDDR5 memory, and a custom liquid-cooling system.
The company also announced a new AMD-oriented motherboard. The ROG Crossblade Ranger includes many of the features found on Asus’s top Intel motherboards—including its SupremeFX 2014 audio technology and GameFirst III network-optimization software—but this board is compatible with AMD CPUs that fit in FM2+ sockets.
Finally, Asus unveiled two new motherboards featuring Intel’s Z97 chipset. The ROG Maximus VII Formula is an ATX motherboard, while the ROG Maximus VII Impact board is based on the smaller mini-ITX standard. Both models will come with 802.11ac Wi-Fi/Bluetooth 4.0 modules.