CES announcements are fully underway, and ASUS" ROG brand is joining the fray with a couple of new desktop computers. The ROG Strix GT35 and GA35 are aimed at the high-end of the market, while the GT15 and GA15 are meant to be more affordable. The difference between the GT and GA models is that GT versions come with Intel CPUs, while GA variants use AMD processors.
Starting with the ROG Strix GA35/GT35, we"re looking at third-generation AMD Ryzen processors up to a 16-core Ryzen 9 3950X, or 10th-generation Intel Core chips, which haven"t been announced for desktops yet. The mahcine uses a 240mm radiator and liquid cooling to keep the CPU running cool. These can be combined with up to a triple-fan ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2080 Ti so you get the cream of the crop when it comes to performance.
The motherboard is an ROG Strix X570-F, which supports PCIe 4.0 and multi-GPU configurations, so not only can you double down on your graphics performance, you can make use of the expanded bandwidth for other components.
For storage, you can get up to a 1TB SSD plus a 1TB or 2TB HDD, and there"s an empty M.2 slot on the motherboard in case you want to expand. ASUS also claims this machine is ideal for esports tournaments, with two hot-swappable SSD drive slots hidden in the front doors, so players can easily bring their gaming profiles and games along. For RAM, you can get up to 64GB of DDR4 memory at 32000MHz.
As we"ve come to expect from gaming machines, the ROG Strix GA35 comes with support for Keystone II, an NFC device that can store your custom settings linked to your ROG ID so you can quickly set them up on a new machine.
For I/O, there"s a lot of ports, with two USB Type-A and two USB Type-C ports on the front, all USB 3.2 Gen 1, and split headphone and microphone 3.5mm ports. On the rear, you get five more USB Type-A ports, four being USB 3.2 Gen 1 and one being Gen 2, and a USB Type-C port, which is also USB 3.2 Gen 2. There"s also HDMI 2.0b, DisplayPort 1.4, a gigabit Ethernet port, five audio jacks for stereo sound and one SPDIF port.
As for the GA15, it will top out with a Ryzen 7 3800X CPU and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super for graphics. Storage options max out at 1TB SSD storage and up to a 2TB HDD, and you can get up to 32GB of DDR4-3200 RAM.
The machine features a dual-chamber design that separated the CPU, GPU, and motherboard being isolated from the storage bays so there"s no cooling interference. The wide vents on the chassis let more air in, which allows the machine to be as quiet as 35dB while playing Metro Exodus.
As usual, there"s RGB lighting inside and out, and a glass side panel lets you see the interior of the machine being lit up by the RGB effects. While there"s no Keystone support, you can still configure the RGB and sync it with other Aura Sync-compatible devices.
The ROG Strix GA15 still offers a few connectivity options, with two USB 3.2 Gen 1 ports on the front, one Type-A and one Type-C, plus split 3.5mm jacks for headphones and a microphone. On the back, there PS/2 ports for both a mouse and a keyboard, plus six USB Type-A ports, two of which are USB 3.2 Gen 2 and four being USB 3.2 Gen 1. There are also DVI-D, D-Sub, HDMI 2.0b, DisplayPort 1.4, and Ethernet ports, plus three audio jacks.
Both the GA15 and GA35 will be available in the first quarter of 2020, but because 10th-generation Intel processors are still to be announced, the GT15 and GT35 models will come later in the year. ASUS didn"t provide pricing information.