Asus ROG GX700VO
By Zeus’s beard, what have you done Asus?
MOBILE GAMING has always had a certain stigma. It’s more expensive than a console, yet insurmountably inferior to the towering powerhouse of a desktop PC. Take the GTX 970M as an example. It comes with 1,280 CUDA cores, 384 fewer than its desktop sibling, a lower base clock, 192-bit memory bus as opposed to 256-bit, and half the memory bandwidth of its counterpart. Unfortunately, the story doesn’t stop at GPUs, either, because even though Intel continues to push the boundary in terms of performance per watt and economic power savings, its mobile processors suffer the same setbacks.
So, why on earth would you buy one? Usually, there’s just one reason: Convenience. Perhaps you travel a lot, don’t have the space for a full-sized desktop, or are heading to varsity? Then a gaming laptop may be your only solution. Fortunately, last year Nvidia announced the launch of its full-fledged mobile gaming GTX 980. Designed specifically for use in notebooks, this chip was, in essence, identical to its desktop counterpart. The same number of CUDA cores, texture units, and ROPs, and it even managed to retain the 256-bit memory bus. The only difference? A slight reduction in clock speed, to allow for the increased thermal output of a desktop processor. On its own, the mobile GTX 980 would make any gaming laptop an absolute monster of absurdity, especially at 1080p. However, couple it with
Intel’s latest overclockable Core i7-6820HK, and you’re starting to see performance similar to the mid-range desktops we’re used to—but in a far smaller form factor. However, Asus didn’t think that was good enough. After all, if you’re forking out so much money on these components, why on earth would you want an underclocked GPU and CPU? Thus, the world’s first liquid-cooled gaming laptop, the GX700VO, with its phenomenal water-cooling dock, was born.
IN THE DOCK
How does this contraption work? Well, there are two parts: the dock, with a rather substantial power brick, and the laptop itself. While your dock is plugged in, you simply slot the laptop on to the top of its mounting points, and press the mechanical, metallic lever down on top. It then locks into place, to the sound of a large beep, indicating that the dock is secure, and the coolant system is activated. The GX700 itself detects whether it’s securely plugged into the dock, and activates the GPU and CPU overclocks.
We do have to address old Nelly in the room—this laptop costs $5,000. Is there any way to justify that? Probably not, but it does come with some nifty features. Our variant, the VO, came with an Intel Core i7-6820HK (2.7GHz stock, 4.0GHz docked), 64GB of DDR4 SDRAM (2,133MHz stock, 2,800MHz docked), two RAID0 configurations, housing a total of 1TB of storage (one being a PCIe M.2 RAID0 setup), a G-Sync enabled 60Hz 17-inch 1080p IPS screen, a full-sized keyboard, and what can only be described as a monstrously sturdy flight case, for those moments when you need to escape the country, laptop, dock, and all.
Performance-wise, we were a tad cruel, and compared it to our zero-point desktop. After all, desktop performance is the name of the game, correct? Cinebench Single and Multi-Threaded performance shone, achieving 663 points on the multi-core test, sans overclock—just a touch behind a well overclocked i5-6600K. In gaming, average frame rates remained well above 60fps in both FarCry and TheDivision, with 3DMark achieving an impressive score, exceedingly close to our GTX 980.
Has Asus achieved what it set out to do? Yes, but at what price? This machine, although incredible in its conception, is nothing more than an exercise in engineering. This is strictly for those with bottomless wallets, and the desire to have the very best portable gaming experience possible, and an adequate experience at home. To put this into perspective, a full desktop equivalent, including monitor, peripherals, and speakers, comes to about $3,300—that’s $1,700 less than the GX700. We’ll say no more.