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

[WHO_FARTED?]

another thought i had was an all in one that use pc components and not laptop.

[Raja@ASUS]

another thought i had was an all in one that use pc components and not laptop.

Might be worth listing a proposal of specs and components...

[Bahz]

We hope everyone who sees this thread can help spread the word to other members as we're open to all product suggestions/ideas.

[MassNerd]

ATX Power supplies are dumb devices today.

How about pushing for a interface between the motherboard and PSU (PMBus) for status, fan control and even lighting effects.

My other suggestion as M.2 takes off is to offer an optional M.2 expansion bay that can mount in a 3.5" drive bay with 6+ M.2 slots. It would have to have a PCIe Switch to fan out and plug in somewhere on the MB (maybe the existing M.2 slot).

[Korth]

Suggestions, not for a "Dream Machine" but for some kind of "ROGbox" ...

Basically an all-in-one (ultra) small form factor PC, not unlike an HTPC, which comes packed with decent (processing/memory/graphics) hardware for lightweight/middleweight "PC" gaming. It doesn't need to pack the latest top-tier tech, it only needs to hold its own vs laptops and game consoles (ie: XBox and PlayStation), have a browser, play movies, play music, etc. If you can't make it truly tiny (like a pocket-sized Android box) then you can make it look good (like a ROG-styled fully modded and pimped gaming PC packed with LEDs, etc - but on small form factor scale). It needs to be priced around what people would pay for a game console. It needs to come with some sort of remote, keyboard, or gaming controllers. It needs to "just work" the first time (and every time) it's powered on, no WinOS hassles, no nagging about updates, no complexities - much like a typical Android/Kodi device. SteamOS might be a good choice, there's no need to run a WinOS because the (Intel/ARM CPU/GPU or AMD APU?) hardware won't be capable of leveraging DX12 technologies anyhow. People won't care, so long as it "just works", there's a list of popular game titles to run on it, they simply plug in three cables and start playing a game half a minute later, and they see performance/graphics better than anything their buddy's console can put out, lol. Today's wimpy low-power CPUs and GPUs can easily run 3D games on high(ish) quality at 60fps 1080p, they might even push out 30fps 4K; today's SSDs can store tons of games and savedata, today's USB and wireless gizmos can make a universally-compatible pocket-sized video arcade into a (low cost) reality.

Lots of these sorts of computer boxes are already available. Even ASUS offers a few. But none of them are built just for gaming and none of them are ROG.

[Zatarot]

A dream machine usually consists of no compromise top-shelf parts not really a dream if the wallet is deep enough. For me one part and one of the most regardless of how big the wallet is that keeps eluding me is the perfect monitor. It is always a compromise and our fine friends at NVidia have made things even worse by convoluting things with g-sync by adding cost not value to anyone not using their hardware, when it comes to monitors.

[Bahz]

Keep the great ideas coming and if anyone sees a good idea that's worth expanding on, please do so.

[jpmboy]

We've been able to assemble ram, motherboard and cpu configurations for a long time now... but this ability has yet to appear regarding the graphics subsystem. IMO a major step forward for the enthusiast (gamer, compute, etc) would be the ability to buy a graphics card PCB and plug in ram and the core gpu. In other words, a component graphics subsystem where the end user can assemble the Graphics card as we do for cpu/MB/ram. Yes, this requires a complete re-engineering of the gfx PCB to allow for "ram slots" of some kind, a gpu socket , and a UEFI-like GPU bios. No doubt it is a big undertaking, but to me represents the next level in DIY gaming PCs, where the graphics subsystem is the driver of performance.

For a pre-assembled/built product, a gaming laptop with external G1/4 connections to use with an external water cooling unit (like the aquacomputer 360 for example) would be a fantastic product... like an ASUS Poseidon... but the whole laptop can be run stock/air or on water. A Poseidon Laptop!

[Ha|o_003]

Hi Raja, really cool of you guys to solicit feedback like this.

First, I agree with MassNerd's M.2 idea above, being able to fit 4-8 M.2 SATA SSDs in an enclosure the size of a 2.5" SSD would be a great way to minimize volume required for drives. Personally I have 5 2.5" drives, and if I could reduce that down to an enclosure the size of one that would be really cool.

Second, I would love to see ASUS release a high end small form factor board. Make it in for X299 and X370, price it around $300, and give it two PCI-E x16 slots. No board like this exists, and would be the only choice for those who want to run single slot SLI or Crossfire in an ITX size chassis. The majority of ITX cases also have two slots, so I doubt that fitment would be an issue. I have seen a lot more interest in ITX systems lately, but lack of board options is quite problematic. I would have upgraded from my X79 Sabertooth by now if a board had been released with the right feature set.

This kind of move allows ASUS to dominate that niche, and could be a lower volume, higher margin product. Because ATX and mATX are so saturated, there are only two ways to compete: Price, and features. Going after a niche market would allow a higher margin product and at a reduced level of competition. (Similar to EVGA's dominance with the SR-2). As far as the features on the board, I would give it the same feature set as the Z270 STRIX has, with the addition of a USB-C port. For a higher volume variant, another board could be made with a single PCI-E x16 slot. For branding, the single slot board could just stick to the STRIX brand; "ASUS ROG STRIX X370 mITX", while the dual slot could be something like "ASUS ROG STRIX X370 SLI/CFX mITX".

[Raja@ASUS]

We've been able to assemble ram, motherboard and cpu configurations for a long time now... but this ability has yet to appear regarding the graphics subsystem. IMO a major step forward for the enthusiast (gamer, compute, etc) would be the ability to buy a graphics card PCB and plug in ram and the core gpu. In other words, a component graphics subsystem where the end user can assemble the Graphics card as we do for cpu/MB/ram. Yes, this requires a complete re-engineering of the gfx PCB to allow for "ram slots" of some kind, a gpu socket , and a UEFI-like GPU bios. No doubt it is a big undertaking, but to me represents the next level in DIY gaming PCs, where the graphics subsystem is the driver of performance.

For a pre-assembled/built product, a gaming laptop with external G1/4 connections to use with an external water cooling unit (like the aquacomputer 360 for example) would be a fantastic product... like an ASUS Poseidon... but the whole laptop can be run stock/air or on water. A Poseidon Laptop!

Nice ideas - both of them, JPM.

The GPU challenge would be the lack of standards for connector interfacing and any variance in optimal trace impedance between GPU architectures. There may be some flexibility, given the custom AIO layouts. I can talk to the engineers here and see what the roadblocks are. Probably some of what I mentioned, plus the cost of setup for something that's not available off-the-shelf.