Let your ideas be heard - Project Dream Machine by ASUS ROG

[Bahz]

Help ROG make your Dream Machine

The ROG team really is a Republic of Gamers. Our staff includes competitive players, hardcore overclockers, and general gaming and tech enthusiasts. From engineering to design to marketing, we share a passion for creating the best PC hardware for gamers—and ourselves. Our passion isn’t unique; many in the PC gaming and hardware communities have the same drive and enthusiasm, and we want to harness it to make better products that everyone can enjoy. Project Dream Machine was created to bridge the gap between ROG R&D and the community. We’ve launched a dedicated forum to discuss what you’d like to see in the ultimate gaming machine and other ROG products.

ASUS ROG Corporate VP Joe Hsieh summarizes the project well: “ROG’s main goal is to provide gamers with the ultimate gaming hardware, and we’re constantly striving to develop products that gamers need. We believe that great products start with great design, and great design always starts from an incredible idea. We want to hear what gamers want in their dream machine, and we’ll work towards making that dream come true.”

Project Dream Machine took its first steps at our Outshine the Competition event in Germany earlier this month. We asked 150 ROG fans for input on their ideal gaming rig, and the top 10 attended a special session to discuss their ideas directly with ROG product managers. We also held a separate session with players from ROG-sponsored Ninjas in Pyjamas, who provided valuable insight on what professional gamers need to compete at the highest level of esports.

Those initial discussions covered a wide range of subjects, including overclocking, cooling, and peripherals. There was consensus on pursing top performance and avoiding the constraints that compromise purely mobile devices. The ROG fans who participated want liquid-cooled machines with quiet acoustics, and they want them to be easy to build. They also crave larger monitors—at least 27”—with high resolutions and refresh rates.

Now, we want to know what you want. This thread is open for everyone to discuss their dream machine along with ideas for other ROG gear. It will be monitored by our staff, providing a direct link between the community and our internal R&D teams. This is your chance to influence the development of PC gaming hardware. We hope to make two community-driven products per year, and we’re excited to have you be a part of the process.

Thread rules:
1) Please DO NOT post anything inappropriate, anything with: racism, sexism, nudity, politics, and profanity is strictly prohibited
2) Please DO NOT criticize other people's ideas, this is a thread dedicated to promote discussion and not a flaming war

Incentives for posting on this thread:
1) Chance to be heard by internal product teams at ASUS
2) If we plan to implement your ideas into a new product, we may consult with you during the development process, providing opportunities for you to follow behind-the-scenes progress and share additional ideas.
3) Be one of the first to receive a final sample of a product that you were a part of creating.

[Nate152]

Wow this is awesome !

Would it be possible to create a liquid cooled graphics card with the pump/radiator/fans mounted on the gpu like a heatsink, similar to an AIO but no tubes to see or a rad and fan to mount in the case. All power coming from the pcie slot and pcie cables.

Liquid cooled gpu's in sli with no tubing or fans to connect to the motherboard, the only downside is the heat would still be exhausted inside the case.

[Raja@ASUS]

Wow this is awesome !

Would it be possible to create a liquid cooled graphics card with the pump/radiator/fans mounted on the gpu like a heatsink, similar to an AIO but no tubes to see or a rad and fan to mount in the case. All power coming from the pcie slot and pcie cables.

Liquid cooled gpu's in sli with no tubing or fans to connect to the motherboard, the only downside is the heat would still be exhausted inside the case.

Someone had this idea last year, however, I suggested scrapping it because the rad needs cool airflow to better the best dedicated air solutions. No plans for something like this, but keep the ideas coming!

As a hint, I can see potential in vendor co-work to ease placement of rads.

[Eleiyas]

What about a fully kitted-out, no-holds-barred gaming desktop.

Typical ROG styling, with geometric shapes - but with tempered glass or stab. wood (not sure stab. wood would work, but it's an idea).

Fully kitted out with the latest AMD/Intel Processor, liquid cooling with all the tubes and pump (and coloured coolant), 2 Graphics cards minimum - all with fully customizable lighting and fan control.

Almost like a hand-built rig, but made by ROG

[Raja@ASUS]

What about a fully kitted-out, no-holds-barred gaming desktop.

Typical ROG styling, with geometric shapes - but with tempered glass or stab. wood (not sure stab. wood would work, but it's an idea).

Fully kitted out with the latest AMD/Intel Processor, liquid cooling with all the tubes and pump (and coloured coolant), 2 Graphics cards minimum - all with fully customizable lighting and fan control.

Almost like a hand-built rig, but made by ROG

So we'd build the chassis, too, or would you prefer co-work with a reputable vendor?

Lay out the idea in as much detail as you can, please.

[Eleiyas]

So we'd build the chassis, too, or would you prefer co-work with a reputable vendor?

Lay out the idea in as much detail as you can, please.

Purely ROG chassis, but instead of typical materials, a usage of both tempered glass and stabilized wood.

Imagine if you will, a computer in a tree, with windows.

[Korth]

"ROG Certified Program encompasses third-party hardware such as chassis, memory and coolers."
ASUS Tower PCs - ASUS Mini PCs - etc

It looks like ROG must already have access to plenty of chassis designs from a "reputable vendor", lol. Surely some of these could be used "as-is" or could be customized, modded, and kitted-out by ASUS?

My suggestions for the Dream Machine:
- fully standard mobo and PSU form factors - not ASUS-proprietary parts which cannot be user replaced/upgraded - many users will want the option of plugging in their choice of ASUS/ROG (or other brand) components, if not immediately then some months or years later when better hardware becomes available
- the option to purchase any and all replacement/upgrade parts (especially anything proprietary connectors like weird-sized fans or whatever) from ASUS/ROG
- some "modular" or multi-configurable chassis options - doesn't have to go totally overboard, but it's nice to specify whether you want solid panel vs window, a ton of LED bling or a drop of LED bling, different front panel choices (with different buttons and ports), different drive bay/cage options (don't forget 2.5" SSD clips/cages and don't forget RAID cages for neatly holding multiple drives), optional air ducts or compartment dividers to direct/optimize internal airflows, and (just because you know the people will want it) all RGB LEDs all the way!
- we've all seen TUF motherboard armor before, but we've never seen armor or backplates provided with the chassis - and imagine having heatpipes built into the chassis - these are parts of my "dream machine" but (given the variety of mobo/CPU/RAM/GPU models, and the greater variety of possible combinations between them) this would be a challenging and ambitious innovation for ASUS to provide
- complete documentation available online - including every conceivable dimensional spec which might affect a customer's cooler/block/fan/rad choices - including detailed (in)compatibility lists with ASUS and non-ASUS hardwares (as details become known) - including (tested working) 3D templates for all plastics, allow users to accent their Dream Machine's ROG theme with their own 3D-printed style
- a variety of ROG stickers and labels and badges designed to perfectly fit the machine's specific chassis and part geometries/features will make many people happy

In short ... make the thing as standard and compatible (and thoroughly-documented) as possible so people can put any piece of gaming hardware into it, so they won't have to ask if a certain fan or rad will fit ... give people custom configuration options along with the option to purchase only the specific parts they want (probably wise to sell a few baseline configs but also sell a "Build your own dream" skeleton chassis with per-part addons) ... give people a range of customization options (from "easy" sticking ROG stickers onto the chassis, to "moderate" installing ROG LEDs or sleeving their chassis cables, to "complex" 3D printing their own variant ROG components) ...

[WHO_FARTED?]

As a disabled gamer, there's ALOT that could be done to make gaming a more pleasant experience. There has been very little done to help us either join in and get into gaming or rejoin into something we once loved. 15 years ago I was left a quadriplegic, losing the ability to use my fingers and hands has been the single biggest, hardest, and most impactful issue I have faced, because you use your hands for almost every task. I can kinda move my arms but when it comes to pushing keys I basically play with 2 pencils. This means it's usually one key at a time and before you can push your next key you have to look down and find it first. I use a trackball for the mouse and besides some sort of joystick that was small and you could customize profiles on, I believe it's about the best I could hope for... unless you could make a mind reading Hmd/headphones. That'd be kinda cool to. A keyboard with aforementioned joystick on it. I did just made a small little contraption that pushes the down arrow, usually my trigger, that i use with my mouth so that I can actually be competitive. But there is all kinds of brain disorders and what have you that are not necessarily road blocks but more like stumbling blocks until someone with the know how and resources fixes them...wink wink hint hint. I wish I would have written down all my ideas i've had but then i'd probly fill your servers drive space.

[Raja@ASUS]

Keep the suggestions coming folks. Some good ideas brewing...

[Raja@ASUS]

By the way, we're also looking for feature suggestions/ideas for products - not just complete systems. Fire away!