ASUS AVALON aka "The LEGO PC"
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2017-05-06
·
915 words · ~4 min read
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lineus Tech tips coverage of computex 2016 is brought to you by the Corsair
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lap dog the gaming Command Center that allows you to use a full-size Mouse and
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mechanical keyboard on your couch and by
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MSI so this right here in the ASUS Booth
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is the Rog Avalon one of the
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most bewildering demonstrations that I've
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seen even at a trade show probably since
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project Christine 2 and a half years ago at C s they're taking kind of the idea
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okay of these modules that you slide into kind of a computer back plane
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breaking the ATX form factor and the constraints that it imposes upon us once
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and for all but in a more realistic
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Direction so this right here is a finished sort of high-end configuration
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of what an Rog Avalon might look like and it's got a few key advantages so
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number one is that with two simple buttons you can pull off the right and
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the left side panel along with this Plexi top a very very unusual internal
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layout so the motherboard is actually right up here on the top but
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conspicuously absent are any cables
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other than the two for the fans for the radiator and the two that go into the
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graphics card that's plugged into a PCI Express 16x slot over here on the side
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and this is very very intentional so in order to achieve a near caess
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design for what is probably though it's
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very early stages right now probably going to be a barebone system ASUS has
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taken a normal motherboard and pretty much completely blown it up so all of
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these uh you know dog fish code name boards that I'm holding here are pretty
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much what is inside the bottom module you can see they clip together with
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solid connectors whether they're 24 or8 pin connect Connors like you would
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normally find on a motherboard or slot style connectors like you might find on
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say for example a barebone server so the
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idea behind it is that anyone can DIY
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their own barebones machine with this thing whether it's thanks to the 2 and
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1/2 in hot swap SATA cages in the front
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whether it's thanks to the fact that there are no obstructions when you're
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trying to install a motherboard like you would typically see on a barebones
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computer or whether it's just for the easy access to the memory modules here
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in the top not only that but they're saying
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that if this were to come to Market they would be looking at ways to Future proof
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it as well in a way that you typically can't do with a motherboard so these
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right here are IO modules that would be able to unplug and plug into the back
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and they would support anything from higher Performance Audio Solutions to
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extra m.2 slots for an additional SSD
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all the way up to oh I don't know new unreleased IO connections like say for
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example you know let's say they had done this two or three years ago and USB
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type-c came out of nowhere boom you could add type c to your
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machine now with all of that said I have
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some serious reservations about this
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concept so for one thing ASUS I love them dearly but they have
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been the kings of building something once with the idea of future proofness
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and upgradeability and then either never
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delivering on upgrade modules or in the
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case of things like the hyperkit or things like those Thunderbolt ex modules
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that you can theoretically plug into almost any ASUS full-size normal
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motherboard the availability or the cost
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is a serious concern so for things like
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upgrading these modules I'm kind of looking at it going even if they're
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cheap to manufacture the regional office wants their cut the
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distributor wants their cut the retailer wants their cut you got to pay shipping
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on the darn thing does it even make any
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economic sense and compared to a regular barebones where it could already have
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the power supply and the motherboard installed where you're basically plugging in SATA power SATA data and two
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connectors for your graphics card compared to that are we really achieving
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anything better here especially considering that the I is very similar
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though it was pointed out to me that it supports four dim slots not two compared
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to an IT export is very similar to what you would see on an ITX
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motherboard these are hard questions for anyone to answer right now but I'd love
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to hear from you guys in the comments is a susus product manager who is very
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bullish on this idea correct or am I so
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thanks once again to Corsair for sponsoring our trip to computex this
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year you can check out the lap dog at the link in the video description and a
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shout out to MSI they are showing off they are showing off their new Aegis X
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desktop as well as their GTX 1080 gaming X graphics card we've got that Linked In
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the video description as well so don't miss any of our computex coverage by
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making sure you're subscribe to L Tech tips and I will see you guys at the next
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Booth or maybe Luke will