Asus debuts ROG desktop, mechanical keyboard, cool lighting accessories at CES

Asus unloaded a truckload of announcements prior to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, some of which fall under its Republic of Gamers label. One product is already on the market, while another device – a limited-edition laptop – finally received a launch date and price. Everything else listed here appears to be sparkly new products.

The company’s game-centric portfolio for the show isn’t exactly robust. For starters, we have a new desktop supporting up to an overclocked eighth-generation Intel Core i7 processor, and up to a GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card. The lineup also consists of a new mechanical keyboard that relies on Cherry MX RGB switches, while all other products are cosmetic in focus and bring illumination to your physical gaming space.

ROG Strix GL12 Desktop

Key Specs

CPU: Up to an overclocked 8th Gen Intel Core i7

Graphics: Up to a GeForce GTX 1080

Storage: Easy-swap SSD tray

Lighting: Customizable Aura Sync RGB

Release date: April 2018

Starting price: TBD

The first product in the gaming-themed batch is the ROG Strix GL12 desktop. According to the company, it will be configurable with up to a six-core eighth-generation Intel Core i7 processor with an out-of-the-box overclocked maximum speed of 4.8GHz. That tease points to the Core i7-8700K chip released in the third quarter of 2017 with a base speed of 3.7GHz and a maximum speed of 4.7GHz. It’s joined by graphics options of up to a Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 add-in card.

Outside the processor and GPU aspects, Asus says the new desktop includes an easy-swap SSD tray for quick storage upgrades. It also supports the Aura Sync platform for synchronizing colors and lighting effects across all compatible platforms. Supporting more than 16 million colors, this platform illuminates two angular “slashes” embedded in the front, and the water block’s red ROG logo seen through the left side’s transparent panel.

Unfortunately, that’s all the information we have prior to the official reveal during the show. Product images show two USB-A 3.1 Gen1 ports, two USB-A 2.0 ports, an SD card reader, and a headphone jack on an I/O panel mounted at the top of the front panel. We expect to hear more details in the following months.