The Asus Prime Utopia Is a Wild, Modular Motherboard From the Future
ATX has been the defacto normal for PC motherboards for nearly three a long time now, and ASUS is difficult the business with a mind-blowing new idea.
The Asus Prime Utopia is on show at Computex 2019 with a radical new design that sees the graphics card mounted on the again of the motherboard. However that’s not all. The Asus Prime Utopia proposes modular IO, 4 M.2 slots, and an OLED contact display screen panel to manage the system.
Has the longer term arrived?
The Asus Prime Utopia has upended the same old ATX motherboard design by shifting the graphics card on the again. Quite than sitting perpendicular to the motherboard in a PCI slot, the Prime has it lie flush towards the motherboard. Given the ever-increasing measurement and heft of recent graphics playing cards, this looks as if a superb resolution to supply higher cooling and slimmer circumstances.
The extra knock-on impact of this transformation is extra room for cooling the CPU, RAM and SSD’s. This inevitably means much less throttling and extra constant efficiency throughout the spectrum. The Prime Utopia makes use of the newfound free house on the entrance to mount as much as 4 M.2 slots. This may permit for some quick SSD RAID configurations that are at present unattainable on even most high-end client motherboards.
One key innovation within the Prime Utopia idea is Modular I/O. As an alternative of a hard and fast set of exterior I/O ports, the Prime combines static ports with 4 modular ports that may be swapped out simply. For instance, you may put in two Gigabit Ethernet ports and two HDMI if you’re working a recreation streaming setup. Every block connects through PCI Categorical and is totally self-contained, housing each the bodily port and the mandatory required to drive it.
One fan header to rule all of them
Asus has developed a proprietary Hydra Cortex fan header that helps as much as 4, individually managed followers from a single motherboard connection. You may management fan speeds and RGB lighting together with AuraSync for completely matched system lighting and cooling.
Asus has even added an OLED contact display screen show that serves as a dashboard to watch the motherboard and elements. This display screen can both be mounted on the case or sit outdoors as a standalone machine. The OLED shouldn’t be solely helpful for passive system monitoring, but it surely additionally permits you to modify fan speeds, clocks, and different UEFI settings, in addition to flip the system on and off.
The Asus Prime Utopia looks like a very recent and thrilling tackle the stalwart PC motherboard. Like most futuristic designs in tech, it’s definitely not one thing you’ll be able to anticipate to see on retailer cabinets anytime quickly. Asus has an uphill battle to alter the established PC case and part business to have the ability to work with this new idea.
The Asus Prime Utopia is at present on show at Computex 2019 till Might 31.
