Asus showcased a lot of neat stuff at Computex 2016, and among those is the ROG Avalon, the hardware maker's first step toward its vision for the future of DIY PC.
Sure, a lot of gamers already know how to build their ultimate gaming machines, including which component goes where and which ones are compatible with a certain motherboard, case and anything else along those lines. However, that's not the case — no pun intended — for everyone, but the ROG Avalon will take care of just that.
"To celebrate ROG's 10 glorious years of pioneering motherboard design, we have dedicated ourselves to raising the bar — with ROG Avalon," Asus says.
As for what it really is, it's basically a motherboard-chassis hybrid. A word to the wise, that means PC builders can hit two birds with one stone in a single purchase.
According to Asus, it managed to "optimize the layout to alleviate the most frustrating parts of the DIY process" thanks to that setup. In other words, it's easy to cram in the hardware PC builders want to take advantage of for their gaming experiences, such as the huge Nvidia GTX 1080 and GTX 1070 graphics cards.
To keep the good news rolling, the ROG Avalon packs in SSD, PSU and graphics-adapter boards, allowing users to simply plug in those parts without any cables cluttering up all over the place. On top of that, they're positioned at the front, making them easily accessible.
Also, the rear features a modular I/O to let users customize their connectivity options and tailor them to their needs.
As for the downside of things, the motherboard seems like it isn't replaceable or upgradable because it's designed as a single entity with the case itself. However, it does sport an Intel Z170 chipset, and that should support the processors coming in a few more years moving forward. Needless to say, a chassis upgrade will be due after that if users want to up their game.
There's still no word about its price or availability yet, and since it's still a prototype, it will probably take a while before details are out.
