ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) has announced the availability of ROG Mothership (GZ700), a new desktop replacement laptop that redefines the form factor for portable gaming machines.
Instead of sitting flat like a normal laptop, ROG Mothership has an upright chassis that draws more air into its advanced cooling system. Its keyboard detaches and folds to fit different scenarios, giving gamers the freedom to find the perfect position, and the innovative design leaves enough room to put all the speakers right below the screen.
The exquisitely machined aluminum chassis contains an ultrafast and ultra-detailed NVIDIA® G-SYNC® display powered by the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX™ GPUs, and also houses an eight-core Intel® Core™ i9 processor coated with liquid metal thermal compound. Better cooling enables the CPU and GPU to be pushed beyond stock speeds and still sustain exceptional performance with demanding workloads. The factory‑overclocked core is complemented by an insanely fast RAID 0 disk array with three NVMe™ SSDs, plus next-gen networking that enables greater than gigabit speeds for both wired and wireless connections.
A radical concept made real, ROG Mothership caters to connoisseurs who appreciate the engineering and craftsmanship that goes into premium PC hardware. This groundbreaking desktop replacement redefines what’s possible for portable gaming machines that take hardcore horsepower to go.
Revolutionary design
ROG Mothership introduces a detachable keyboard with a folding design that dramatically reduces the system’s overall footprint. This grants the flexibility to not only position the keyboard to suit the user’s stance, but also replace it entirely without wasting desk space. Separating the keyboard and display makes it easier to situate the screen in multi-monitor arrays or on a shelf to achieve the optimal height for comfortable extended use.
When the bottom edge of the chassis touches a surface, a stepless kickstand pops out automatically to allow one-handed deployment. The hinge offers a range of angles for different setups, from standing straight and leaning back.
The unique design is so much better at cooling that the final thickness of the ROG Mothership chassis was reduced to only 29.9 mm — over 10 mm thinner than the first prototype.
The motherboard is meticulously shaped and painstakingly populated to make the most of the limited space on the circuit boards and maximize open space for the cooling, battery, and speakers. There are even cutouts to make room for the mechanism behind the kickstand hinge.
The main body pieces are machined from solid slabs of aluminum using a precise CNC milling process that ensures a perfect fit. The process steps through 114 individual tooling stages and takes nearly 20 hours to carve every little detail. Most of the keyboard housing is machined aluminum as well, wrapping ROG Mothership in a protective metal jacket that’s strong enough to survive everyday knocks and bumps. Each piece is brushed and anodized for a flawless finish that’s guaranteed to turn heads.
Advanced cooling
Compared to a typical laptop, the standing design lowers CPU and GPU temperatures by 14°C and 10°C, respectively. Outlets flanking the top corners blow warm exhaust away from the user, while putting the components behind the screen keeps the keyboard cool even after hours of continuous gaming. A special shield prevents heat from the CPU and GPU from affecting the display.
Thermal Grizzly liquid metal is used to coat the CPU instead of standard thermal paste to reduce CPU temperatures by up to 13°C. The block that sits on the CPU also has a special internal fence that prevents liquid medal from leaking out over time.
A network of eight heat pipes linked to the CPU, GPU, graphics memory, and voltage-regulator module (VRM) transfer thermal energy to the heatsinks at the edges. They stretch across four heatsinks lined with 375 ultrathin copper fins. The fins are just 0.1 mm thin, allowing for more to be packed into each heatsink without impeding airflow. They combine for a surface area of nearly 200,000 mm2.
The standing orientation lifts the air intakes off the table, exposing them to less dust, and particles that do enter the cooling system are drawn into anti-dust tunnels that shoot them out of the chassis.
Fan speeds are governed by expertly tuned system profiles that can be adjusted via keyboard shortcuts. Turbo mode uses the highest frequencies and fan speeds to reach maximum performance, while Balanced mode optimizes performance and cooling to drop noise levels for gaming. Silent mode goes even further to reduce acoustics for lighter workloads and less demanding games. It’s also possible to create a custom profile with chosen fan speeds and frequencies.
ROG Armoury Crate software can also take charge of cooling duties. The system utility includes new Scenario Profiles that allows the association of applications with specific operating modes and other system settings, like lighting effects. Once configured, Scenario Profiles seamlessly switch between modes based on the task at hand. They’re the product of a larger Intelligent Cooling philosophy that uses tailored hardware and smart software to improve performance and optimize acoustics.
Factory overclocked, with RAID
ROG Mothership pushes its CPU and GPU into overclocked territory right out of the box. The Intel Core i9-9980HK CPU usually runs at up to 4.2GHz with all eight cores and 16 threads engaged, but is boosted to 4.7GHz in Turbo mode. Having fast clocks and 33% more cores than the previous generation prepares the system for a wide range of heavy workloads, from rendering complex 3D scenes and effects-laden videos to pairing hardcore gaming with simultaneous streaming, recording, and voice chat.
The CPU features up to 64GB of power-efficient DDR4 memory for content creators working on big projects and power users with compulsive multitasking tendencies. It’s also linked directly to an industry-leading NVMe RAID 0 array. SSDs normally connect to the chipset, which is constrained by a DMI link to the CPU with only four lanes of PCI Express 3.0 bandwidth — the same as a single high-end M.2 drive. The three-drive HyperDrive Extreme array in ROG Mothership connects two SSDs directly to the CPU, bypassing the DMI bottleneck and enabling peak throughput up to a staggering 8700MB/s. All three drives are covered by a heat spreader that improves cooling for sustained storage loads.
The next visual frontier
Graphics duties are handled by a GeForce RTX 2080 GPU that’s factory overclocked to 1880MHz at 200W. The GPU cooperates closely with the G-SYNC display, which matches its refresh rate with the frame rate in real time. And when the user’s not gaming, they can take advantage of the proprietary ASUS GPU switch technology to extend battery life. With a few clicks and a reboot, it’s possible to switch between the RTX 2080 driving the display for a better gaming experience and NVIDIA Optimus® technology for longer battery life.
ROG Mothership is available with a choice of two 17.3-inch displays. One focuses on speed by scaling up to 144Hz with a 3ms response time. The high refresh rate enables impeccably smooth gaming visuals in FHD. The picture looks incredibly crisp thanks to the quick pixel response, which helps to focus on fast-moving targets.
The other display option uses a 4K UHD panel that runs at up to 60Hz. It produces incredibly detailed images and lets video editors view full-size 4K UHD footage at native resolution. This display also draws from a larger palette thanks to full coverage of the Adobe RGB colour gamut.
Both panels are based on IPS-level AHVA technology with wide viewing angles that take full advantage of the detachable design, whether it’s to glance at a chat to the side while playing on an external monitor, or to prop up the system on a shelf to binge-watch with a bunch of friends.
Soak in the soundscape
The standing form factor gives ROG Mothership impressive sound from four front-facing speakers directed right at the user. The speakers are powered by smart-amplifier technology that boosts the total output to an effective 16W while also monitoring temperatures and excursion to prevent distortion and damage to the cones. The speakers provide louder output, more bass, and greater dynamic range.
The audio is further enhanced by a premium ESS SABRE DAC and headphone amp with Hi-Res Audio certification up to 24 bits and 192kHz. The output has greater range, less distortion, and a more accurate frequency response than conventional alternatives. Sonic Studio III software adds surround sound virtualization for headphones and other devices like VR headsets and even external USB DACs.
Recording is handled through a microphone input or by the array mic that sits next to the webcam. The built-in solution filters out background noise like typing and game audio to capture voice more clearly, while the webcam captures 1080p / 30 fps footage fit for streaming and Windows Hello facial recognition.
Have the keyboard your way
The detachable keyboard flips down to sit at a comfortable angle for typing. In seconds, it pulls away from magnetic anchors and folds to reduce the footprint by half. Hiding the hinge inside the machined aluminum keyboard frame was one of the most difficult aspects of the project. When separated, the keyboard connects over low-latency 2.4 GHz wireless for maximum flexibility or via the included USB Type-C™ (USB-C™) cable.
Each key has 2.5 mm of travel enhanced by fast-firing Overstroke technology. The underlying switches are built to last and rated to survive 20 million presses. Curved caps keep fingers centered, while a wider space bar provides a larger target for thumbs. The function keys are separated for easier recognition, and the touchpad on the right transforms into a backlit numeric keypad at the touch of a button.
Per‑key backlighting opens up a world of options for customizing colours and effects for different games and applications. A few clicks in the Armoury Crate software are all that’s required to highlight important keys and clusters. The same software controls the RGB lighting embedded below the display and behind the kickstand, and it can synchronize with compatible peripherals via Aura Sync.
Connect to the next generation
ROG Mothership features a 2.5G Ethernet controller that more than doubles the speed of typical wired ports. It’s paired with a next-generation Intel Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) module that pushes peak throughput up to 2.4 Gbps under ideal conditions. In addition to boosting flat-out speed, it borrows techniques from the cellular industry to improve traffic management and overall efficiency for busy networks.
Patented ROG RangeBoost tech augments the Wi-Fi by constantly scanning surroundings and shifting between two pairs of antennas to maximize signal strength. The antennas are arranged to cover each other’s dead spots to improve reception and extend range.
Users can connect up to three displays via HDMI 2.0, Thunderbolt™ 3, and USB‑C. The latter comes directly from the GPU. With three USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports and one Gen 1, there’s enough connectivity to power a complete desktop experience.
AVAILABILITY & PRICING
ROG Mothership GX700GX will be available starting in Q2. Check with your local ROG representative for details about availability, configurations, and pricing in your region.
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This entry was posted on April 24, 2019 at 10:00 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Asus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
ASUS Republic of Gamers Announces ROG Mothership
ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) has announced the availability of ROG Mothership (GZ700), a new desktop replacement laptop that redefines the form factor for portable gaming machines.
Instead of sitting flat like a normal laptop, ROG Mothership has an upright chassis that draws more air into its advanced cooling system. Its keyboard detaches and folds to fit different scenarios, giving gamers the freedom to find the perfect position, and the innovative design leaves enough room to put all the speakers right below the screen.
The exquisitely machined aluminum chassis contains an ultrafast and ultra-detailed NVIDIA® G-SYNC® display powered by the latest NVIDIA GeForce RTX™ GPUs, and also houses an eight-core Intel® Core™ i9 processor coated with liquid metal thermal compound. Better cooling enables the CPU and GPU to be pushed beyond stock speeds and still sustain exceptional performance with demanding workloads. The factory‑overclocked core is complemented by an insanely fast RAID 0 disk array with three NVMe™ SSDs, plus next-gen networking that enables greater than gigabit speeds for both wired and wireless connections.
A radical concept made real, ROG Mothership caters to connoisseurs who appreciate the engineering and craftsmanship that goes into premium PC hardware. This groundbreaking desktop replacement redefines what’s possible for portable gaming machines that take hardcore horsepower to go.
Revolutionary design
ROG Mothership introduces a detachable keyboard with a folding design that dramatically reduces the system’s overall footprint. This grants the flexibility to not only position the keyboard to suit the user’s stance, but also replace it entirely without wasting desk space. Separating the keyboard and display makes it easier to situate the screen in multi-monitor arrays or on a shelf to achieve the optimal height for comfortable extended use.
When the bottom edge of the chassis touches a surface, a stepless kickstand pops out automatically to allow one-handed deployment. The hinge offers a range of angles for different setups, from standing straight and leaning back.
The unique design is so much better at cooling that the final thickness of the ROG Mothership chassis was reduced to only 29.9 mm — over 10 mm thinner than the first prototype.
The motherboard is meticulously shaped and painstakingly populated to make the most of the limited space on the circuit boards and maximize open space for the cooling, battery, and speakers. There are even cutouts to make room for the mechanism behind the kickstand hinge.
The main body pieces are machined from solid slabs of aluminum using a precise CNC milling process that ensures a perfect fit. The process steps through 114 individual tooling stages and takes nearly 20 hours to carve every little detail. Most of the keyboard housing is machined aluminum as well, wrapping ROG Mothership in a protective metal jacket that’s strong enough to survive everyday knocks and bumps. Each piece is brushed and anodized for a flawless finish that’s guaranteed to turn heads.
Advanced cooling
Compared to a typical laptop, the standing design lowers CPU and GPU temperatures by 14°C and 10°C, respectively. Outlets flanking the top corners blow warm exhaust away from the user, while putting the components behind the screen keeps the keyboard cool even after hours of continuous gaming. A special shield prevents heat from the CPU and GPU from affecting the display.
Thermal Grizzly liquid metal is used to coat the CPU instead of standard thermal paste to reduce CPU temperatures by up to 13°C. The block that sits on the CPU also has a special internal fence that prevents liquid medal from leaking out over time.
A network of eight heat pipes linked to the CPU, GPU, graphics memory, and voltage-regulator module (VRM) transfer thermal energy to the heatsinks at the edges. They stretch across four heatsinks lined with 375 ultrathin copper fins. The fins are just 0.1 mm thin, allowing for more to be packed into each heatsink without impeding airflow. They combine for a surface area of nearly 200,000 mm2.
The standing orientation lifts the air intakes off the table, exposing them to less dust, and particles that do enter the cooling system are drawn into anti-dust tunnels that shoot them out of the chassis.
Fan speeds are governed by expertly tuned system profiles that can be adjusted via keyboard shortcuts. Turbo mode uses the highest frequencies and fan speeds to reach maximum performance, while Balanced mode optimizes performance and cooling to drop noise levels for gaming. Silent mode goes even further to reduce acoustics for lighter workloads and less demanding games. It’s also possible to create a custom profile with chosen fan speeds and frequencies.
ROG Armoury Crate software can also take charge of cooling duties. The system utility includes new Scenario Profiles that allows the association of applications with specific operating modes and other system settings, like lighting effects. Once configured, Scenario Profiles seamlessly switch between modes based on the task at hand. They’re the product of a larger Intelligent Cooling philosophy that uses tailored hardware and smart software to improve performance and optimize acoustics.
Factory overclocked, with RAID
ROG Mothership pushes its CPU and GPU into overclocked territory right out of the box. The Intel Core i9-9980HK CPU usually runs at up to 4.2GHz with all eight cores and 16 threads engaged, but is boosted to 4.7GHz in Turbo mode. Having fast clocks and 33% more cores than the previous generation prepares the system for a wide range of heavy workloads, from rendering complex 3D scenes and effects-laden videos to pairing hardcore gaming with simultaneous streaming, recording, and voice chat.
The CPU features up to 64GB of power-efficient DDR4 memory for content creators working on big projects and power users with compulsive multitasking tendencies. It’s also linked directly to an industry-leading NVMe RAID 0 array. SSDs normally connect to the chipset, which is constrained by a DMI link to the CPU with only four lanes of PCI Express 3.0 bandwidth — the same as a single high-end M.2 drive. The three-drive HyperDrive Extreme array in ROG Mothership connects two SSDs directly to the CPU, bypassing the DMI bottleneck and enabling peak throughput up to a staggering 8700MB/s. All three drives are covered by a heat spreader that improves cooling for sustained storage loads.
The next visual frontier
Graphics duties are handled by a GeForce RTX 2080 GPU that’s factory overclocked to 1880MHz at 200W. The GPU cooperates closely with the G-SYNC display, which matches its refresh rate with the frame rate in real time. And when the user’s not gaming, they can take advantage of the proprietary ASUS GPU switch technology to extend battery life. With a few clicks and a reboot, it’s possible to switch between the RTX 2080 driving the display for a better gaming experience and NVIDIA Optimus® technology for longer battery life.
ROG Mothership is available with a choice of two 17.3-inch displays. One focuses on speed by scaling up to 144Hz with a 3ms response time. The high refresh rate enables impeccably smooth gaming visuals in FHD. The picture looks incredibly crisp thanks to the quick pixel response, which helps to focus on fast-moving targets.
The other display option uses a 4K UHD panel that runs at up to 60Hz. It produces incredibly detailed images and lets video editors view full-size 4K UHD footage at native resolution. This display also draws from a larger palette thanks to full coverage of the Adobe RGB colour gamut.
Both panels are based on IPS-level AHVA technology with wide viewing angles that take full advantage of the detachable design, whether it’s to glance at a chat to the side while playing on an external monitor, or to prop up the system on a shelf to binge-watch with a bunch of friends.
Soak in the soundscape
The standing form factor gives ROG Mothership impressive sound from four front-facing speakers directed right at the user. The speakers are powered by smart-amplifier technology that boosts the total output to an effective 16W while also monitoring temperatures and excursion to prevent distortion and damage to the cones. The speakers provide louder output, more bass, and greater dynamic range.
The audio is further enhanced by a premium ESS SABRE DAC and headphone amp with Hi-Res Audio certification up to 24 bits and 192kHz. The output has greater range, less distortion, and a more accurate frequency response than conventional alternatives. Sonic Studio III software adds surround sound virtualization for headphones and other devices like VR headsets and even external USB DACs.
Recording is handled through a microphone input or by the array mic that sits next to the webcam. The built-in solution filters out background noise like typing and game audio to capture voice more clearly, while the webcam captures 1080p / 30 fps footage fit for streaming and Windows Hello facial recognition.
Have the keyboard your way
The detachable keyboard flips down to sit at a comfortable angle for typing. In seconds, it pulls away from magnetic anchors and folds to reduce the footprint by half. Hiding the hinge inside the machined aluminum keyboard frame was one of the most difficult aspects of the project. When separated, the keyboard connects over low-latency 2.4 GHz wireless for maximum flexibility or via the included USB Type-C™ (USB-C™) cable.
Each key has 2.5 mm of travel enhanced by fast-firing Overstroke technology. The underlying switches are built to last and rated to survive 20 million presses. Curved caps keep fingers centered, while a wider space bar provides a larger target for thumbs. The function keys are separated for easier recognition, and the touchpad on the right transforms into a backlit numeric keypad at the touch of a button.
Per‑key backlighting opens up a world of options for customizing colours and effects for different games and applications. A few clicks in the Armoury Crate software are all that’s required to highlight important keys and clusters. The same software controls the RGB lighting embedded below the display and behind the kickstand, and it can synchronize with compatible peripherals via Aura Sync.
Connect to the next generation
ROG Mothership features a 2.5G Ethernet controller that more than doubles the speed of typical wired ports. It’s paired with a next-generation Intel Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) module that pushes peak throughput up to 2.4 Gbps under ideal conditions. In addition to boosting flat-out speed, it borrows techniques from the cellular industry to improve traffic management and overall efficiency for busy networks.
Patented ROG RangeBoost tech augments the Wi-Fi by constantly scanning surroundings and shifting between two pairs of antennas to maximize signal strength. The antennas are arranged to cover each other’s dead spots to improve reception and extend range.
Users can connect up to three displays via HDMI 2.0, Thunderbolt™ 3, and USB‑C. The latter comes directly from the GPU. With three USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports and one Gen 1, there’s enough connectivity to power a complete desktop experience.
AVAILABILITY & PRICING
ROG Mothership GX700GX will be available starting in Q2. Check with your local ROG representative for details about availability, configurations, and pricing in your region.
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This entry was posted on April 24, 2019 at 10:00 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Asus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.