lineus Tech tips coverage of computex 2016 is brought to you by the Corsair
lap dog the gaming Command Center that allows you to use a full-size Mouse and
mechanical keyboard on your couch and by
MSI so this right here in the ASUS Booth
is the Rog Avalon one of the
most bewildering demonstrations that I've
seen even at a trade show probably since
project Christine 2 and a half years ago at C s they're taking kind of the idea
okay of these modules that you slide into kind of a computer back plane
breaking the ATX form factor and the constraints that it imposes upon us once
and for all but in a more realistic
Direction so this right here is a finished sort of high-end configuration
of what an Rog Avalon might look like and it's got a few key advantages so
number one is that with two simple buttons you can pull off the right and
the left side panel along with this Plexi top a very very unusual internal
layout so the motherboard is actually right up here on the top but
conspicuously absent are any cables
other than the two for the fans for the radiator and the two that go into the
graphics card that's plugged into a PCI Express 16x slot over here on the side
and this is very very intentional so in order to achieve a near caess
design for what is probably though it's
very early stages right now probably going to be a barebone system ASUS has
taken a normal motherboard and pretty much completely blown it up so all of
these uh you know dog fish code name boards that I'm holding here are pretty
much what is inside the bottom module you can see they clip together with
solid connectors whether they're 24 or8 pin connect Connors like you would
normally find on a motherboard or slot style connectors like you might find on
say for example a barebone server so the
idea behind it is that anyone can DIY
their own barebones machine with this thing whether it's thanks to the 2 and
1/2 in hot swap SATA cages in the front
whether it's thanks to the fact that there are no obstructions when you're
trying to install a motherboard like you would typically see on a barebones
computer or whether it's just for the easy access to the memory modules here
in the top not only that but they're saying
that if this were to come to Market they would be looking at ways to Future proof
it as well in a way that you typically can't do with a motherboard so these
right here are IO modules that would be able to unplug and plug into the back
and they would support anything from higher Performance Audio Solutions to
extra m.2 slots for an additional SSD
all the way up to oh I don't know new unreleased IO connections like say for
example you know let's say they had done this two or three years ago and USB
type-c came out of nowhere boom you could add type c to your
machine now with all of that said I have
some serious reservations about this
concept so for one thing ASUS I love them dearly but they have
been the kings of building something once with the idea of future proofness
and upgradeability and then either never
delivering on upgrade modules or in the
case of things like the hyperkit or things like those Thunderbolt ex modules
that you can theoretically plug into almost any ASUS full-size normal
motherboard the availability or the cost
is a serious concern so for things like
upgrading these modules I'm kind of looking at it going even if they're
cheap to manufacture the regional office wants their cut the
distributor wants their cut the retailer wants their cut you got to pay shipping
on the darn thing does it even make any
economic sense and compared to a regular barebones where it could already have
the power supply and the motherboard installed where you're basically plugging in SATA power SATA data and two
connectors for your graphics card compared to that are we really achieving
anything better here especially considering that the I is very similar
though it was pointed out to me that it supports four dim slots not two compared
to an IT export is very similar to what you would see on an ITX
motherboard these are hard questions for anyone to answer right now but I'd love
to hear from you guys in the comments is a susus product manager who is very
bullish on this idea correct or am I so
thanks once again to Corsair for sponsoring our trip to computex this
year you can check out the lap dog at the link in the video description and a
shout out to MSI they are showing off they are showing off their new Aegis X
desktop as well as their GTX 1080 gaming X graphics card we've got that Linked In
the video description as well so don't miss any of our computex coverage by
making sure you're subscribe to L Tech tips and I will see you guys at the next
Booth or maybe Luke will