All of everything ASUS at CES 2017

ASUS at CES 2017

CES 2017

It can’t have escaped your notice that CES is going on at the moment, and manufacturers everywhere are doing their best to tempt you and your bank balance into spreading the wealth. No exception to this idea is the ROG arm of ASUS who have a whole array of new products. Let’s start with their peripherals :

The Gladius II combines the most durable version of the Omron switches – 50 million clicks – with ASUS ROG Switch socket system that we’ve seen before, letting you pick and choose which switch types you prefer. Add this to the AURA lighting and an FPS heavy design and it should find a home in many environments. 

Following that are the two Strix models, the Evolve and the Impact. These similarly utilise the 50 million click Omron switches with AURA lighting, with the Evolve supporting four different swappable tops so that you can pick a design you find most ergonomic, whilst the Impact is designed for lengthy MOBA sessions. 

Lastly the GX970, although named in a manner guaranteed to cause Google search confusion, comes with the most interesting feature of the four. The side panel can be adjusted between a 10 button panel for the more complex games in your arsenal, or the more standard two side button arrangement. It’s not the only adjustable feature on the GX970 though, as you can also tweak the weight to your preference as well as pick a DPI from a lowly 50DPI all the way up to 12000.

Gladius II

ASUS at CES 2017  
ASUS at CES 2017

Strix Evolve

ASUS at CES 2017

ASUS at CES 2017

Strix Impact

ASUS at CES 2017

ASUS at CES 2017

GX970

ASUS at CES 2017

ASUS at CES 2017

Laptops

With the new Kaby Lake CPUs out it is no surprise that there are a raft of new Gaming Laptops to take advantage of them. There are a lot here, so rather than bang through them all let’s show you the highlights, in approximately the descending order of MSRP.

The GX800VH has a liquid cooling system allowing for heavy overclocks. If you’re desiring the best possible gaming then there will be few to touch the GX800VH. It has an 18″ 4K G-SYNC display, powered by two GTX 1080 GPUs. If that doesn’t put a tilt in your kilt few things will. 

Next up is the G752, a little below the GX800VH with a single GTX 1070, overclocked DDR4, a Vapor chamber to help keep the temperatures under control, and all pushed through a 120Hz G-SYNC monitor and 30-key rollover keyboard. Invite your squid friends round and all play Speedrunners without running out of key-presses.

The G701 is a GTX 1080 based system running through a 120Hz G-SYNC panel, whilst the GL502 and GL702 are the same but with GTX 1070 and GTX 1060 GPUs respectively. Wrapping up with the GL553 and GL753  which is for the gamer on a budget with GTX 1050 Ti graphics, although like all the above it still has the 30-key rollover keyboard.

GX800VH

ASUS at CES 2017

ASUS at CES 2017

G752

ASUS at CES 2017

ASUS at CES 2017

G701

 ASUS at CES 2017

ASUS at CES 2017

G502/702

ASUS at CES 2017

ASUS at CES 2017

GL553/GL753

ASUS at CES 2017  
ASUS at CES 2017  

ASUS at CES 2017

Systems

Similar to the laptops we’re going down in descending power order. Or at the very least approximately. The big one that we’ll all be lusting after is the GT51CH, a GTX 1080 SLI setup powered by a 4.8 GHz Core i7-7700K backed up by 64 GB of 2.8GHz DDR4. The AURA lighting that is such a part of the ROG range is enhanced by the central air intake which matches up to the AURA software. Lastly the case contains something I mentioned a lot in the Z270 reviews, a front panel USB 3.1 connector!

The G20CI is a single GTX 1080, a 3.6GHz Core i7-7700, AURA lighting and designed for quietness, with a mere 22db at idle and all the features you would expect from the modern Kaby Lake range of motherboards. Similarly the GD30 is a combination of coolness and customisable lighting, although it has the addition of a swappable front panel so you can have it in the black or white depending upon your personal preference.

Lastly the GR8 II is a tiny VR ready machine. A 4 litre case contains a Core i7 CPU, GTX 1060 graphics and the AURA Sync lighting that is such a part of the 2017 ROG range.

GT51CH

ASUS at CES 2017

ASUS at CES 2017

G20CI

ASUS at CES 2017

ASUS at CES 2017

GD30

ASUS at CES 2017

ASUS at CES 2017

GR8 II

ASUS at CES 2017

ASUS at CES 2017

Microphone and Router

There are loads of motherboards that form part of the ROG Z270 range, but we’ve looked at most of them in our recent Kaby Lake round up, and we’re bound to review the others in time, so for the moment let’s focus on a couple of little things that might find a home on your desk.

Firstly there is the ROG Strix Magnus microphone. With three studio level condenser microphones, environmental noise cancelling and the all important AURA lighting, it is the first ROG microphone and guaranteed to prove popular amongst the streaming community.

Lastly ASUS are taking on the mighty Netgear with the first ROG Router. Triple band WiFi, 8 Gigabit ports, two USB 3.0 ports and built around a 1.8GHz Quad Core CPU. Two of the eight ports are designed to prioritise gaming network traffic above all other things, whilst there is hardware gaming protection allowing you to disable your firewall and antivirus during gaming whilst the GT-AC5300 prevents unwarranted intrusion. You gain valuable CPU cycles during gaming without compromising your security.

Let us know your thoughts in the OC3D Forums.

ROG Strix Magnus

ASUS at CES 2017 
GT-AC5300

ASUS at CES 2017 Â