ASUS Shows Off Latest Gamer Hardware at CES

For the gamer who demands the best, ASUS has unveiled a couple of sweet products at CES worth checking out. First up is a duo of networking product releases; the RT-N66U router and EA-N66 wireless adapter. It may lack lights, LEDs and other fancy bling, but the RT-N66U is designed to offer unparalleled wireless performance for gamers that need it. It’s essentially two routers in one, combined to offer a 900Mbps connection (one band operates at 2.4GHz; the other at 5GHz).

The RT-N66U (below, left) becomes the first router to use ASUS’ latest user interface, which aims to make the setup process an absolute breeze. For the past couple of years, ASUS has been pushing out some great router interfaces, so I’d be interested to see what the one here looks like.

The EA-N66 wireless adapter isn’t nearly as ordinary as the name implies. It features a unique aesthetic design (above, right) and a patented “orthogonal” antenna design. At the time of writing, ASUS’ official website isn’t loading for me, so I can’t dig deeper into the specs. However, I believe this to be a USB-based adapter that would simply sit atop your PC, or in an open area. It can act as a repeater and access point, perfect for those blessed with big houses.

On the motherboard side, ASUS has announced the ROG Rampage IV Formula/ThunderFX, an X79 offering. It’s the “ThunderFX” component that makes this motherboard so unique, an external headphone amp, splitter and volume control. Headphones and mic plug into the front, and then the volume and amp boost can be adjusted. Interestingly, this amp isn’t only for PC, but is also supported for use with the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. There’s no word on whether or not ASUS is going to sell this product separately, but in time it does seem likely.

Finally, a brand-new Xonar audio card has also been unveiled, called “Pheobus”. This card is designed to be used for either headphones or speakers, can deliver a signal-to-noise ratio of 118dB and as become tradition for ASUS, features an amp that can power headphones up to 600 ohm.

Taking things a bit further, similar to the ThunderFX, the Phoebus includes an external box (though much smaller) that allows the user to adjust the volume without having to alt-tab or finger around for keyboard media keys. If you plug your microphone into this device, ASUS’ “ROG Command Technology” will help decrease environmental noise around you by 50%. I have played with far too many people that could have used this!

Overall, a great gaming showing from ASUS. Is it wrong that I want it all?