PCs are ever evolving, however on the subject of constructing one, some bits have not modified in a long time. Elements change over time, and so may their placement, however in the long run, you continue to find yourself wiring all the things collectively. At that all the time leaves some cables hanging out and obstructing the view of your costly new {hardware}, regardless of how a lot care you are taking.
Asus has taken purpose at this drawback in a revolutionary idea PC that largely (although not completely!) works round this subject and leaves you with a cleaner-looking gaming PC. It is dubbed the “Hidden Connector Idea Construct,” proven at Computex 2023, and we received a primary look.
That mentioned, although it is solely an idea and never a commercially viable product in the meanwhile, it raises some new questions whereas fixing some age-old issues.
Wait…Is This Mission Avalon 2.0?
The stagnation in elementary PC-building precepts, in some ways, has helped to make constructing a PC much less daunting, as there is a huge array of long-standing data on the market. Plus, if you happen to’ve ever constructed a PC earlier than, you kind of know the way to do it now. However in some key areas, the method may very well be improved to make constructing a system simpler and to create a cleaner-looking completed construct.
Sure issues aren’t really easy to alter, notably all of the wiring that connects the components collectively. Asus has been considering over methods to take constructing a PC to the following stage for a while now. It launched what it referred to as Mission Avalon again in 2016, a novel idea system that tried to make altering parts simpler than ever.
That concept by no means fairly got here to fruition, however now Asus is displaying off a unique, far much less bold, but vaguely comparable system idea. We don’t get a cool code-name for this one, alas. Whereas the unique Mission Avalon modified many points of the PC-building course of, this new design idea doesn’t change practically as a lot. It consists of a custom-built case, motherboard, and graphics card, all of which resemble normal parts, however with some key tweaks.
The Asus TUF motherboard used for this idea PC is exclusive in its placement of inside headers and energy connectors on the again of the motherboard, like so…
We have seen occasional hints of this, particularly with M.2 slots, and on {custom} motherboards for mini-PCs, however that is extremely irregular for a full-size motherboard. On an ordinary motherboard, you may’t add a lot of something to the again of the board as a result of the motherboard all the time mounts to a mounting tray inside a PC case. This may block entry any ports on the underside, stopping you from plugging something into them.
Consequently, to assist a motherboard with most of its inside headers shifted to the underside of the board, you’d additionally want a case particularly designed to assist plugging in issues from beneath. And that is precisely what Asus has created.
The system is labelled as a part of Asus’ TUF Gaming line, and the idea design options an Intel LGA 1700-socket motherboard, operating an Intel Z790-series chipset. This was mounted right into a {custom} case with an Asus Nvidia GeForce RTX graphics card.
Word that further edge connector on the cardboard within the photographs above and beneath. The case and motherboard design Asus is utilizing for this idea PC is essentially just like MSI’s Mission Zero idea PC and Gigabyte’s Mission Stealth PC, the latter of which is already accessible on the market.
Although Asus’s idea system is just like those from MSI and Gigabyte, Asus has taken the design a step additional by additionally hiding away PCI Categorical graphics-card cables. Asus has completed this by designing a specialised graphics card with that second edge connector, which inserts right into a {custom} slot on the motherboard…
The facility provide’s PCIe cables are then plugged into the underside of the motherboard, which feeds the ability as much as the graphics card by this connector and offers you a good cleaner completed construct. Given the protruding 12-pin connector on late-model Nvidia playing cards, this cable cleanup is extra interesting than ever. The opposite connectors to the PSU, such because the 24-pin and CPU-power, additionally get plugged in from beneath, together with any SATA gadgets and all of the headers massive and small: USB front-panel, front-panel audio, and the header cluster for switches and case LEDs.
Nice for System Consumers, However Is It Nice for PC Builders?
Asus’ new design has a number of issues going for it. It offers you a decidedly cleaner-looking completed construct, and it additionally would possible make constructing a system simpler. Nevertheless it has a number of issues which can be tough to beat, too. At first: If executed on this means, components from this technique wouldn’t be simply moved to a different system. That graphics card is just going to work on this one PC, or one other constructed on the identical Asus design idea. Nor will it’s straightforward to switch damaged components if that you must restrict option to this small subset of parts.
This turns into troublesome when it comes time to improve to a brand new graphics card or a brand new motherboard. Until Asus begins wide-scale manufacturing of components to assist this design, or motherboard and chassis distributors get collectively to work out some placement requirements for this sort of design, you’d have to purchase one other new PC, or not less than a subset of suitable components, with the intention to improve. Even when Asus had been to shift this idea into heavy manufacturing, you’d be tied to Asus and unable to purchase graphics playing cards or motherboards from competing producers if that cross-vendor coordination would not occur.
After all, as an idea, there is no assure it will see the sunshine of day. And to make sure, it is an attention-grabbing and worthwhile design for a full pre-built PC. When you don’t know the way to construct a PC and don’t need to study or improve your system your self, a pre-built model of this could ship the optimistic of getting a really cleanly constructed system with none of the cons. When you do intend, nonetheless, down the road to improve your PC your self, we’d suggest giving this ecosystem a while to cook dinner—assuming it finally ends up on the menu in any respect!—earlier than leaping in.
