ASUS Announces New ROG Line At CES 2016

If the onslaught of CES press releases isn’t enough to get you excited over cool new gear coming over the next year, well, there’s still plenty more. ASUS announced a flurry of new products that will be gracing us over the coming year, and there’s bound to be something to appease everyone.

We’re not talking a couple of items here, but a rather diverse range of products; from good-old tried and trusted motherboards at various price ranges, new monitors for the 4K generation, pre-built systems, docking stations, laptops, and an assortment of peripherals.

This all marks the 10th anniversary of the ROG brand (Rebulic Of Gamers) for ASUS, delivering that little something special for that inner gamer that’s in all of us – probably.

While full details and specifications aren’t available for everything just yet, we’ll be sure to fill in the blanks as they come. First of all though, let’s get stuck in with the motherboards for the latest generation of CPUs.

Motherboards

ROG Maximus VIII Formula

The Formula range of motherboards is a firm favorites for a lot of gamers. Not only do they regularly look pretty, but are stuffed with the latest and best components, often making them last several generations of hardware. The New Maximus VIII continues this with included water-blocks for the MOSFETs, allowing for some keen overclocking stability on the power rails.

There’s a whole bunch of dazzle as well, with bunches of LEDs in select places, various color and strobing effects, all of which can be tuned to specific circumstances, such as CPU temp and/or current music track. The board comes equipped with the latest SupremeFX audio solution, as well as Intel Gigabit Ethernet.

ASUS 970 Pro Gaming/Aura

Based on the AMD® 970+SB950 chipset, the ASUS 970 Pro Gaming/Aura is the world’s first AMD 970 motherboard certified by NVIDIA to offer SLI support. It features Aura RGB LEDs for customizable lighting, SupremeFX and Sonic Radar II audio for precise in-game sound, and Intel Gigabit Ethernet with ASUS LANGuard and GameFirst technologies for fast, safe, and lag-free networking. The ASUS 970 Pro Gaming/Aura also has a dedicated water-pump header and dual USB 3.1 ports. It even supports M.2 SSDs based on the NVM Express protocol.

ASUS B150I Pro Gaming

A mini-ITX board, for those that like to keep things small and tidy. Featuring many of the top-line features from its bigger brothers, such as SupremeFX audio, strobing colors, Intel Gigabit, and an M.2 Socket, this boards also comes with integrated WiFi.

The onboard Wi-Fi supports multi-user MIMO and comes with an external 2×2 antenna to deliver optimal performance for online gaming. In addition, a dedicated onboard water-pump header ensures the very best water-cooling efficiency.

The Monitors

ASUS MG 4K Series monitors

The much-lauded ASUS MG Series now features 4K UHD 3840 x 2160 resolution options on 28- and 24-inch models. The 28-inch MG28UQ has a rapid 1ms response time to eliminate ghosting and motion blur, while the 24-inch MG24UQ has an IPS panel with wide viewing angles and outstanding color accuracy. Both use VESA Adaptive-Sync to deliver smooth gameplay without visible tearing. They also boast GamePlus in-game enhancements, GameVisual picture profiles, and Ultra-Low Blue Light filter technology for comfortable viewing.

ROG Swift PG348Q

This is the Ultra Wide almost 4K monitor, with a resolution of 3440×1440, giving it an aspect ratio of 21:9. With a 100Hz refresh rate, it also supports NVIDIA G-Sync, to help smooth out that micro-stutter. It’s still an IPS panel, with a curved display (which we’ve been seeing a lot of so far at CES). The display also includes many of the features we expect from a high-end ASUS monitor, such as the game enhancement overlays, and hotkeys that are tied to GPU functions (G-Sync refresh rate adjust).

Laptops And Desktops

ROG GT51 Gaming Desktop

The ROG GT51, winner of a 2016 CES Innovation Award in the Gaming and Virtual Reality category, is powered by a 6th-generation Intel Core i7-6700K processor and up to two NVIDIA GeForce GTX TITAN X graphics cards in SLI. ROG Turbo Gear lets users maximize the GT51’s overclocking potential with just one click, while the ASUS-exclusive Aegis II application helps monitor system parameters. In addition, a USB 3.1 Type-C port on the front panel pushes transfer rates up to 10Gbps and can quick-charge mobile devices. The GT51 also features the exclusive ROG Band, which lets users overclock the system or activate Shadow Drive, a hidden portion of the hard drive.

ROG G752 Gaming Laptop

The ROG G752 is a powerful gaming laptop powered by a 6th-generation Intel Core i7 (‘Skylake’) processor and up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M discrete graphics. The G752 has an aggressive design and sports the new ROG Armor Titanium and Plasma Copper color scheme. It features the ROG-exclusive mobile 3D Vapor Chamber thermal system for more efficient cooling and increased stability, along with a backlit anti-ghosting gaming keyboard with 30-key rollover for precise input. The G752 also uses NVIDIA G-SYNC technology to smooth out frame delivery and eliminate tearing.

ROG GX700 Gaming Laptop

Well, this is the doozy that everyone was talking about back at the Intel Skylake Launch. The ROG GX700 is water cooled with a detachable hydro module that allows overclocking. It’s powered by a GTX 980 desktop GPU (not a mobile variant), a mobile-K series 6th generation Intel Core processor (Skylake), which is overclockable. Then to top it all off, it features a 17-inch NVIDIA G-Sync 4K UHD Display. That’s a lot of hardware in a maybe not so small form factor. You can read a bit more about desktop GPUs in laptops here.

Peripherals And Accessories

ROG XG Station 2 external graphics docking station

The ROG XG Station 2 is an external graphics card docking station specially designed for ASUS laptops and graphics cards. It has a custom interface that lets notebooks harness the power of desktop graphics cards to significantly boost gaming performance. This docking station also helps charge the laptop, so users don’t have to carry the latter’s power adapter. It’s easy to hook up, as well, and it can be unplugged without restarting the laptop.  

ROG Claymore mechanical gaming keyboard

The ROG Claymore is a gaming keyboard with Cherry MX RGB mechanical switches and a detachable, macro-infused numpad to give users flexible placement options. This backlit keyboard features customizable keys with RGB lighting and N-key rollover technology. It can be synced to ROG motherboards, with hotkeys allowing users to control fan speeds, boot up, overclocking, and BIOS access. The ROG Claymore has a durable aluminum-alloy frame with Mayan-inspired detailing for a premium look.

ROG Spatha wireless/wired gaming mouse

The soon-to-be-released ROG Spatha is an 8200-DPI laser gaming mouse crafted for MMO glory. It has a magnesium-alloy chassis and features a total of 12 programmable buttons, including six ergonomic thumb buttons. The left and right buttons have a socketed design that lets users easily swap switches to customize the click feel. Out of the box, the sockets are populated with Omron® switches rated for a 20-million-click lifespan. Users have the freedom to use the mouse in wired or wireless modes, and they can enjoy polling rates up to 2000Hz in wired mode. In addition, the Spatha has customizable RGB LED effects across three zones.