review by Ahmed Hossny
mogha.review
zmogha@gmail.com
Asus ROG GX700
EDITOR RATING: GOOD (3.5)
STREET PRICE$ 5450.00
PROS
Excellent design and build quality. Brilliant overclocking capabilities. Good performance. Quiet liquid cooler.CONS
None in particular.BOTTOM LINE
The Asus GX700 combines powerful performance, good design and aesthetics, and liquid cooling capabilities into a portable package, to escalate you into a whole new gaming level.
There are quite a few levels when it comes to gaming. There is entry-level, mid-level, high-end level,... and then there's an exclusive, "God level" of gaming. The Asus ROG GX700 is a 17-inch G-Sync-equipped water-cooled gaming laptop, that attempts to take your gaming experience to that aforementioned "God level". And it manages to emerge a winner by managing to do so.
Available for a not-so-cheap AED 19,999 (!!), the Asus Republic of Gamers (ROG) GX700 is what the company claims, the world’s first liquid-cooled gaming laptop. The ROG GX700 comes with a detachable ROG-exclusive Hydro Overclocking System cooling module. The laptop also features a 4K display, though the review unit we received came with a Full HD display. The laptop is powered by an overclockable 6th-generation Intel Core i7-6820HK processor, running at 2.7 GHz (3.6 GHz Turbo).
The GX700 also comes with a discrete desktop-class NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980 graphics card, packing in 8GB of GDDR5 memory. All the internal specs are found in the main laptop unit, with the device able to function as a powerful gaming laptop – unlike some alternatives, where the desktop-class GPU is available only via an external dock.
The ROG GX700 also comes with 32GB of DDR4 RAM - the laptop itself has four slots that can take up to 16GB of RAM each, allowing you to bump your laptop's memory to up to 64GB, if need be. For storage, the laptop packs in two 256GB NVMe M.2 PCIe SSDs, bringing the total storage capacity to 512GB.
The only key difference between the review unit we received and the actual commercial unit available on the market are the display, memory and storage specs. The commercial unit of the Asus ROG GX700 that will be available on the market will come with a 17.3-inch 4K display, 64GB DDR4 RAM, and 1024 GB of NVMe RAID0 SSD array.
Coming back to the star feature of the GX700 - its liquid cooling capability. Once you connect the laptop to the cooling module, liquid coolant will be pumped around the insides of the laptop. By doing this, Asus has managed to replace its fans with a reservoir, pipes and quiet radiator fans in the secondary dock. Thus, the CPU, GPU, RAM and video RAM can all be overclocked well beyond stock speeds.
Once you open the laptop's top lid up, you come face to face with a full-sized keyboard that includes a number pad. The keys have red labels and red backlighting. You get five programmable macro keys that sit above the keyboard, and there’s a dedicated button to start and stop game-streaming software, XSplit, to which Asus provides a lifetime licence.
In terms of connectivity, the GX700 offers generous options. Connectivity options include three conventional USB 3.0 ports, a USB 3.1 Type-C connector (offering USB 3.0 speeds) and a separate Thunderbolt port. There’s a mini-DisplayPort connector for external monitors, and a full-size HDMI 1.4 port, too. Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth complete the lineup of networking kit. A Blu-ray reader is also provided for disc-based entertainment.
In terms performance, the Asus ROG GX700 aced all the benchmarks we threw at it. It is an awesome performer and a powerful laptop. The Intel Core i7-6820HK included in the laptop has a base clock speed of 2.7GHz and can Turbo Boost to 3.6GHz. The "K" suffix denotes it has an unlocked voltage multiplier, meaning overclocking is possible.
Coming to the portability of the device, we have to admit that the device is quite heavy at nearly 4-kgs. This is where the ROG hardtop suitcase can come in handy. The Asus GX700 combines powerful performance, good design and aesthetics, and liquid cooling capabilities into a portable package, to escalate you into a whole new gaming level.
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