ASUS at Computex 2016: The 10 Years of the Republic Of Gamers (ROG) Booth Tour
by Ian Cutress on June 22, 2016 8:00 AM ESTDesktops: ROG G31
Moving from something completely custom in the Avalon to something we’ve seen before, but upgraded. The new G31 Edition 10 is an upgraded version of the G20, a gaming desktop PC that ASUS announced last year under their Mayan-style design strategy that also included the small book-sized GR8 desktop. The G20 aimed at the crowd that wanted a different style of desktop/gaming machine, with a different look but everything pretty much integrated in a design that aimed to adjust the airflow for such a large amount of power. The G31 by comparison doubles up the number of GPUs and equips the system with the latest processors and memory.
The Edition 10 version of the G31, designed for the ROG 10-Year, will be the fully upgraded model with a 10-Year sticker on the side. This edition will house a full Core i7 (most likely the i7-6700/K), two full GTX 1080s in SLI, the Z170 chipset, support for four DDR4 memory modules and 64 GB (it’s not mentioned if they are SO-DIMM or regular), and at least two M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4 slots capable of RAID-0. To top it off, the optical disk drive at the front is also a Blu-Ray writer/DVD writer as well.
For the Edition 10, all the LEDs are RGB and additional LEDs are placed down the side stripe as well.
Being under the red lights on the show made it a bit difficult to see the LEDs, but the full chassis comes in at a 20L volume. If we compare that to the recent review of the NZKT Manta mini-ITX case from Tracy which comes in at 47L, we can see the benefits of going custom in something like this – the full motherboard and GPUs are custom for the design and are arranged to use the cooling system as efficient as possible.
Typically a PC chassis has the power supply bundled inside, however to fit this shape and design ASUS are going with an external power supply. We weren’t given an exact rating, but if we give a generous budget of 100W for the CPU, 200W each for the GPUs, 100W for everything else and then an extra 20%, then it’s probably around 720W.
No words as to pricing or release dates as of yet, but the high end ROG G20 with an i7-4790, 16GB of DRAM, a single GTX 745 and a 1TB SSD is currently retailing on Amazon for $1360. I would expect the high edition ROG G31, with dual GTX 1080 GPUs and 64GB of memory, to be nearer $4000. Of course, something like the MSI Vortex (which uses mobile GPU variants of GTX 960/970) is the competition here, and the high end version of that is $4000 as well.
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alphasquadron - Wednesday, June 22, 2016 - link
I used to think that too. I would think that the market for young kids who can afford such huge expensive machines would be quite small as it would it would compose of rich people and not middle class which is much larger market. But as companies make more crazy led shiny cases and even have ram modules that have lights and crap on them, I want to say that either they are just dumb and don't know how to sell stuff or that they have much more real live market data then I do and that these things actually are a good thing to make. I could never see it but maybe these things do provide a good revenue source for the company.Gastec - Wednesday, August 31, 2016 - link
I'm not sure that's the fact in North America. Not since the 15-30 years of age group queued for miles and waited for days to buy $500-600 iPhones.hechacker1 - Wednesday, June 22, 2016 - link
I went with another ATX case because I wanted a silent build, which includes AIO radiators for when you are actually using a Broadwell-E at 100%, along with powerful GPU. They can dump out a lot of heat.Right now my 6800k is using 45w at idle with a 4.3GHz overclock. That's according to the motherboard sensor on the Strix x99 Gaming that was mentioned in this article.
So while 45w isn't that much and can easily be handled by a HSF, at full tilt it's rated for 140w TDP (probably less because the 6800k is cut down).
Anyways, that's to say since I do VR with it, SLI really isn't a factor today and I use a single GPU. What ATX does allow is future further expansion via add in cards, and great and silent cooling. My whole rig has fans that are less than <1000 rpm at all times, and so it's almost always silent.
Bragabondio - Wednesday, June 22, 2016 - link
Nice rig heckhacker! Nowadays the components are getting more power efficient so I am planning on downgrading from 650W power supply to 550W one. As for silent build I am pretty sure I could make my rig as silent as I need it in mATX case (I am ready to go with minimum overclock to keep the noise down). In the eternal dilemma between firepower and mobility I prefer mobility (within a reason).BrokenCrayons - Thursday, June 23, 2016 - link
I'm continuing to use an ATX case for cooling, but the motherboard inside it is mATX since I finished my most recent upgrade. I briefly considered grabbing a smaller case, but it seemed like a waste of $30 to pick one up when there's nothing wrong with the old Lian Li tower on wheels from 2008 aside from the fact that it's got more space than I need right now.milkod2001 - Thursday, June 23, 2016 - link
Because it might be much easier to design full atx LGA 2011-v3 motherboard with all features enabled than micro/mini atx variant. I don't see that as a big issue though. You don't have to get monster case for that. Just get the smallest decent case for full atx mobo and have it sitting under table. Or don't go for LGA 2011-v3 get something simpler if you don't need all features if offers.fanofanand - Wednesday, June 22, 2016 - link
Nice work Ian, thanks for the info!madwolfa - Wednesday, June 22, 2016 - link
What's up with leather jackets?BrokenCrayons - Wednesday, June 22, 2016 - link
It's probably just attire the company's employees believe will appeal to people within their target market.iamkyle - Wednesday, June 22, 2016 - link
Of course, the x99 Edition 10 board doesn't come with 10GbE. But still commands the price premium.Looks like ASUS is all about money instead of delivering actual value.