Touring the ASUS & ROG Booth at CES 2024
Visiting the ASUS and ROG booth at CES 2024
OC3D are at CES 2024. We travelled all the way from old blighty to the glowing streets of Las Vegas to see everything that the world’s tech gurus had to show us. This year, the ASUS booth was our first port of call.
This year, ASUS has been heavily pushing their BTF (Back-To-Front) PC technology, their latest OLED-clad laptops, and a huge number of other devices. In this article, we will be showing you what caught our eye at the ASUS/ROG booth, and give you as much detail as we can about what we saw.
We may explore some of these products in more detail in future articles, as we may learn some additional information about them at CES progresses. We will be covering our ASUS visit in video and written form, and you can see our video tour below.
The people behind CES
One of the joys of CES has always been the people behind the tech. Yes, we love looking at all the new hardware as much as the next enthusiast, but it’s the people at the booth that often make the event special.
At the ASUS/ROG Booth we got to spend some tome with Juan Jose Guerrero, also known as “JJ”. This some one who many ASUS/ROG enthusiasts may already know elsewhere. JJ is a very active member of the PC community, and is perhaps one of the best sources of ASUS knowledge that you will ever find. It was a joy to meet JJ again at CES, and we really appreciate the hours of work that he and others have put into making everything run smoothly at the event.
A special thanks goes to Ting. TTL met her at the ASUS booth and called her “one of the loveliest people I’ve ever met”. CES can be a lot of work, but it’s interactions like that that make the event worthwhile. Thanks again Ting!
ASUS ROG Strix LC III 360 ARGB and ARGB LCD CPU liquid coolers
At CES, ASUS showed us a new selection of all-in-one CPU liquid coolers. These new liquid coolers are ROG Strix branded, feature Asetek 7th Generation V2 pumps and are available in both LCD and non-LCD forms. Black and white versions of these new coolers will also be available.
One neat feature of these new CPU coolers are their rotatable tops. The top of both the LCD and non-LCD versions of this liquid cooler can be detached and attached with ease, allowing users to rotate the product’s screen or RGB illuminated ROG logo with ease. This gives users a lot of freedom when mounting these new AIOs, which is always a welcome sight.
An ASUS ROG Ryujin CPU water block? ASUS is full of surprises at CES!
Now here is something that we did not expect to see. This looks like a custom ROG water block that’s similar in appearance to ASUS’ RYUJIN CPU liquid cooler block. This clock features an 3.5-inch LCD screen that can be controller by users in software.
Sadly, we do not know much about this new product. The product’s called the “ROG Ryujin III WB White Edition”. Tt appears to be compatible with all motherboards, not just ASUS’ ROG Z790 Maximus Formula. We do not know this water block’s pricing or release date.
ROG CARNYX Microphone
At CES ASUS shown us their new ROG Carnyx microphone. This is a new high-end microphone option for ASUS’ ROG lineup that features a metal shock mount, a mount adapter for boom arms, a 25mm studio-grade condenser capsule, a built-in pop-filter and built-in RGB lighting.
This new microphone is designed for streamers and other content creators, and will be available in both black and white.
Meet the ASUS Zenbook DUO, ASUS’ killer CES product
I don’t know about you, but I love having a multi-monitor setup. Having more screen space can tremendously boost productivity, and the ASUS Zenbook DUO comes with two screens out of the box. For most CES attendees, this laptop is revolutionary.
The ASUS Zenbook DUO is a laptop with dual 14-inch screens. Each screen is a a 3K 120Hz 16:10 ASUS Lumia OLED display. Both can work together to give users a combined 19.8 inches of screen space. Depending on how you use this laptop’s screens, you can use it like a standard laptop (with its detachable keyboard covering one screen), with both screens mirrored, or as a dual-screen setup.
The ASUS Zenbook Duo (2024, UX8406) is powered by an Intel Ultra9 processor, which features a dedicated NPU (Neural Processing Unit) for AI processing. The laptop can feature up to 32GB of LPDDR5X memory, and up to 2TB of PCIe 4.0 storage. That’s a powerful configurations, and I’m guessing that most CES attendees wished they owned one. After all, that extra screen could help them write their articles, or edit/publish their videos faster.
ASUS showcases their first ROG NUC at CES
Last weekend, ASUS started teasing their first ROG NUC. Here it is! This ultra-compact system can feature up to an Intel Ultra 9 processor and up to an Nvidia RTX 4070 discrete graphics card.
Overall, this compact mini PC is 2.5 litres in size. Are you also imagining a 2 litre bottle of milk? Yes, it isn’t much larger than that. Within that form factor, this PC features two DDR5-5600 SODIMMs, and three PCIe 4.0 NVMe slots for user upgrades. The system also support Thunderbolt 4, and features and SD Express 8.0 card reader.
With their ROG NUC, ASUS are delivering a tonne of gaming power within a very small box. This machine is definitely a NUC, even if it isn’t Intel that’s making it.
At CES, ASUS displayed their new ROG NUC in a vertical orientation. This NUC can also be sat vertically as well. It is way the ROG NUC features a console-like form factor. That said, this mini gaming PC is much smaller than both the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
ASUS reveals their first BTF ROG Strix graphics card
If you are unaware of what ASUS’ BTF program is, BTF stands for “Back-To-Front”. Wit BTF design, all motherboard connections are placed at the rear of the board, hiding all PC cables behind your system’s motherboard tray. Unlike MSI’s Project Zero, ASUS’ BTF design has a solution for GPU power cables. This is through the use of ASUS’ PCIe High Power connection, which moves power from your motherboard to your graphics card.
Below, you can see ASUS’ ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4090 BTF OC Edition graphics card, which is installed on an ASUS ROG Maximus Z790 HERO BTF motherboard inside a ASUS ROG Hyperion GR701 BTF Edition case. ASUS has created a full ROG BTF ecosystem of products, and they look fantastic.
Looking at two complete ASUS BTF systems
ASUS also showcased a TUF Gaming BTF system at CES. This system was an all-white PC that features a BTF TUG Gaming case, a TUF Gaming Z790 motherboard, and an TUF Gaming RTX 4070 Ti SUPER BTF White Edition graphics card.
Below we can see ASUS’ PCIe High Power connector on ASUS’ Z790 TUF Gaming BTF motherboard. It runs parallel to the PCIe x16 slot that users plug their graphics cards into. This connector can deliver up to 600 watts of power to connected graphics cards. That’s more than enough for any currently available GPU.
Below we can see ASUS’ TUF Gaming RTX 4070 Ti SUPER BTF White Edition graphics card. Below we can see the GPU side of ASUS’ PCIe High-Power connector, and where it is in relation to the GPU’s PCIe X16 slot.
Closing Thoughts
ASUS had a lot to show us as CES, and what we have covered here only scratches the surface of what the booth had to show us. Simply put, there are too many people at CES to be able to get a long hard look at anything. There’s a reason why most pictures from CES aren’t of the best quality, especially on day 1.
you can join the discussion on ASUS’ CES 2024 booth on the OC3D Forums.