Asus pushes forward a modular gaming PC standard

Asus ROG Computex 2016

At Computex 2016, 'ROG General' Derek Yu took the stage with a particularly flamboyant leather jacket to announce a whole modular PC standard called standard called Project Avalon.

Similar to Razer's Project Christine, Avalon takes your traditional desktop PC and makes every component plug and play for easy upgradability. This includes a plug-in SSD cage, modular IO systems and something even as unheard of as a cable-free PSU interface.

Asus Project Avalon

The crux of the design is the motherboard and case are designed to a single entity. Instead of using traditional SATA ports to connect storage, power cables for the PSU or PCI-e bridges for the GPU, Project Avalon implements plug and lay logic boards.

Asus claims it will revolutionize PC form factors with a user-friendly interface. The PC also isn't holding back features hardcore PC gamers expect including full support for liquid cooling.

Asus ROG Project Avalon

Beyond creating its own case, Asus also hopes to extend Project Avalon as a PC case standard other manufacturers will adopt and create their own cases.

Asus ROG G31

The ultimate mini-PC

On top of announcing a new standard, Asus isn't ready to let go of its old form factors. The electronics firm also introduced the ROG G31 Edition 10 as a beefed up and updated version of the Asus ROG G20, while also being a special ROG 10th-anniversary gaming desktop PC

Inside the compact, 20-liter chassis, asus managed to squeeze in two Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics cards and an Intel Core i7 K-series processor for the ultimate 4K UHD gaming experience. To help cool it all, Asus has also integrated a 3D vapor chamber (first introduced in the Asus ROG G752 gaming laptop with dual air channels.

Asus ROG GX800

Liquid-cooled beast

Last but not least, Asus announced a follow up to its liquid-cooled GX700 gaming laptop with a new ROG GX800 model. The underlying chassis and external cooling system are pretty much the same, but the new version can be equipped with dual GPUs and Intel Core i7 K-series processors.

Additionally, Asus gave the keyboard a major upgrade with new 'MechTAG' mechanical switches and individual RGB lighting. The craziest thing about this whole setup is it takes two 330-watt power supplies to run this thing, making the Asus ROG GX800 more power hungry than most desktop PCs.

Kevin Lee

Kevin Lee was a former computing reporter at TechRadar. Kevin is now the SEO Updates Editor at IGN based in New York. He handles all of the best of tech buying guides while also dipping his hand in the entertainment and games evergreen content. Kevin has over eight years of experience in the tech and games publications with previous bylines at Polygon, PC World, and more. Outside of work, Kevin is major movie buff of cult and bad films. He also regularly plays flight & space sim and racing games. IRL he's a fan of archery, axe throwing, and board games.