Meet Avalon, Asus’s audacious, tightly integrated vision for the future of DIY PCs - thomasallegs

The PC's DIY computer hardware ethos is some a approval and a curse on computing. On one hand, the ingenuous ecosystem fuels introduction and serves as a major marketing point for enthusiasts. On the unusual, the BASIC purpose of PCs hasn't really changed in decades. You slot motherboards, storage, and various plug-in card game into a case and wire them up. That underlying structure helps sustain the universal natural of PC hardware—but now Asus' Republic of Gamers brand thinks it "stern do better."

At Computex 2016, Asus ROG showed off its Avalon concept PC, a computer that tightly integrates all aspects of the PC for a redefined design, but still supports the platform's DIY strengths. The end result is a creation largely devoid of wires and something that looks more the likes of a premium stereo system than a traditional computer.

Oh, and "Unlike the purely aspirational concepts often see in the technical school industry, this prototype is a working system built along existing technologies that are viable to put into mass production," Asus says. Shots fired, Project Christine.

Inside Asus Avalon

The Avalon design taps into Asus' expertness in creating virtually every senior PC hardware component. The main thrust ties the motherboard more closely to the case itself, rather than having them exist as deuce fully private elements—though Asus says "That's non to say that boards have to be inexorably tied to specific cases, just that closer collaboration creates stimulating opportunities."

One prima vantage to that is port flexibility, Asus says. Avalon's motherboard extends moral to the front of the case, thus single ports and indicators can be built right into the motherboard and appear connected the PC's face, quite than needing to make up associated to the front line panel with extenders and extra cables.

asus avalon io panels — Swappable rear I/O panels for the Asus Avalon construct PC.

Meanwhile, the rear I/O panels are modular components of their own in spite of appearanc Avalon. In other words, you can swap them out to create a Frankenstein's monster that meets your individual needs, sort o than being limited to a selection of ports hardwired into your motherboard, as is the case with traditional PCs. "VR rigs require additional USB ports to connect headsets and controllers, workstations often involve faster networking and tautologic ports, and home-theater PCs can gain from upgraded audio," says Asus.

asus avalon power supply — The custom 600W top executive supply Asus created for the Avalon concept PC features an edge connector sooner than cabling.

Those rear I/O panels connect to the Avalon's motherboard using a PCI-E-based "edge connector." Asus relies on edge connectors throughout to induce the Avalon as wire-dislodge and chivy-free as possible; the company even created a 600-W small form factor power supply for the concept that relies along that simple PCI-E connexion rather than the traditional rat's nest of major power cables. All power to secondary hardware flows through the motherboard itself.

The bays you see on the front of the Avalon concept PC house hot-swappable storage, which makes switching extinct SSDs as heart-shaped as switching out floppy disks. The storage capabilities reside on a daughter card that connects directly to the motherboard at heart.

asus avalon motherboard — The Avalon motherboard with different daughter cards connected at the bottom. Funky!

Dynamic nontextual matter cards are the one component that still requires additional power cabling inside Avalon, though Asus says it's possible to rework graphic card design to function with adjoin connectors, instead. GPUs reside in their own compartment at Avalon's outer edge, blowing lucky air out through the aired edge of the Personal computer.

The motherboard features an co-ordinated backplate with threaded holes so that you can connect aftermarket CPU cooling solutions directly to it. Asus hopes that the voltage regulator modules on the motherboard's underbody can be connected to the anatomy to have the case itself act as a heatsink for the system. That's a trick that some small form factor and understood PC cases already execute—and one that plays neatly into the Avalon's integration concept.

Equally a concept PC, there's no pricing or release date information united to Avalon, though Asus says it's "right on the edge of what's possible." The prototype certainly seems equivalent a compelling idea, at to the lowest degree in theory, and still manages to embrace DIY potential despite its tighter boilers suit system integration. That said, part of the reason that PCs have stuck to traditional designs for thus long is because the usual case-motherboard-powerfulness add-add-in card design works so well, and it resists hardware lock-in. Tying motherboard design and then tightly to the case plays well to Asus' jack-of-all-trades strengths, for case, but information technology might leave more specialized ironware vendors like EVGA out in the cold.

What practice you think? Asus wants to know. In real time that information technology's revealed Avalon to the world, the troupe's looking feedback from the industry and Microcomputer enthusiasts.