IFA is turning out to be an odd place full of weird announcements focused on PC gaming and enthusiasts rather than just mobile phones and electronics. ASUS has gone in the completely opposite direction today, announcing not just a series of gaming notebooks but a new series that is water cooled. I'm not making that up.
That is the new ASUS ROG (Republic of Gamers) GX700 series of gaming notebooks, coming in the 4th quarter of 2015. Looking for a price? You won't find it here but you will find a lot of interesting technology. This is what ASUS claims about the GX700:
- All-new flagship gaming laptop
- 4K 17-inch display
- Water-cooling system with pump/radiator
- Mobile K-series CPU with overclocking
- NVIDIA GeForce GTX graphics (TBD)
A 4K screen in a 17-inch form factor is going to…have exceptionally small pixels. Clearly this is going to need quite a bit of Windows-based text and format scaling to make sure the desktop experience is usable. ASUS is using the new K-series Skylake processor that is unlocked and allows for overclocking in the same way you do so in the desktop market.
Oh, and what's this? An unannounced mobile GeForce GTX GPU? I doubt this is anything more than a currently shipping Maxwell GPU with some additional horsepower behind it, possibly more closely matching performance of the desktop GTX 980 Ti.
And of course, let's talk about the water cooling system. I asked for more details but ASUS wasn't budging. Clearly if you market this as a notebook there has to be portability to the device so expect that large portion that is front in center in the above picture to detach with quick connections to the notebook housing. That large external base will likely hold the pump, radiator, reservoir and even some docking functions like display connections, USB, etc. With water cooling and an unlocked Skylake processor you should expect some impressive overclocking capability considering the form factor!
I would assume that if you disconnect the machine to take on the road without the water cooling base the hardware would run at slower speeds with normal in-case fans as we see with other designs on the market today.
This sound amazing, crazy and kind of senseless, but I need to try it right away. Expect to pay top dollar for something like this especially considering the component cost of the screen, CPU, GPU, etc. not to mention the specific engineering for the new housing and design. I'll keep my eyes out for more information on the ASUS ROG GX700!
I’ve been wishing Microsoft
I’ve been wishing Microsoft would do something like this with the surface Pro. Active cooling dock that unlocks higher CPU/GPU clocks and is quieter than the internal fan…
This is one of the stupidest
This is one of the stupidest things ever.
It looks like the laptop has
It looks like the laptop has a hemorrhoid. Not only is this thing ugly, but why on earth would someone lug around a heavy gaming laptop to then plug it in to a gaming dock…The only way this idea could work is if it were an ultrabook or something light and portable to carry.
Theres nothing saying how
Theres nothing saying how heavy this thing is, so it could be a reasonable carry weight. And the rig could still be plenty capable of playing games at high resolutions/frames without the dock, but with it, they can over clock and get an even better experience.
Bottom line, this is for a particular set of enthusiasts, and while it may not make sense for everyone, those it does make sense for should be very happy with it.
cool !
cool !
very cool
very cool
As a truly sophisticated
As a truly sophisticated hardcore hardware enthusiast, you both make me sick.
Do they just still call it a
Do they just still call it a because it had a flip-up screen?
This is idiotic.
It’s probably a “Lady in the
It’s probably a “Lady in the streets, freak in the sheets” kind of situation, where you can use it as a laptop when you travel, or go to work, then bring it home to the dock so you can game like you were on a desktop. Its still a laptop, it just has a price of equipment that helps it be more than that.
It’s not going to be for everyone, but its still a cool product that I’m sure there will be a market for. And who knows, this may unknowingly pave the way for some new travel centric water cooling solution for laptops going forward.
For all the power of an
For all the power of an over-clocked desktop and the portability of Samsonite luggage.
Back when I was bankrupting
Back when I was bankrupting myself with gaming laptops I would mostly use them at home on my desk (since it had just enough battery to go from outlet to outlet (if you hurried)). It’s nice to see this being tried by a major manufacturer. I don’t expect this to sell well, nor work well, and it doesn’t have to. I would like to see how the dock interfaces the water cooler to the pipes inside the laptop though. I imagine it will be a tricky procedure.