Asus showcases Prime Utopia motherboard concept

[HEXUS]

Marks the 30th anniversary since its first motherboard launch with striking modular design.

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[afiretruck]

Intriguing. I like the idea of mounting expansion cards like GPUs on the back-side to allow more space for NVMe drives on the front.

[GinoLatino]

Those two black tubes in the last picture really look out of place...

[Iyney]

Those two black tubes in the last picture really look out of place...

The Fans in general look a bit oddly placed to me. Unless there are holes behind for airflow!

[aidanjt]

Not exactly *ATX compatible. Asus would pretty much have to produce every bit of related hardware around it themselves. And it's going to be way too expensive for it to get mass adoption. Still, split chamber design at the form factor level is a discussion that needs to be had in the industry.

[Ballantin]

Am I the only one that think this thing is monstrous?

[N3mesis]

Not exactly *ATX compatible. Asus would pretty much have to produce every bit of related hardware around it themselves. And it's going to be way too expensive for it to get mass adoption. Still, split chamber design at the form factor level is a discussion that needs to be had in the industry.

I'm not sure you are getting the point... It's a concept for a future form factor and not something that will be coming out any time soon. Just something that could happen and really only if other manufacturers would get on board.

[Ttaskmaster]

Am I the only one that think this thing is monstrous?

No, this is HEXUS, where most members are against any kind of colour or design aesthetic. You're in good company here... well, except in one of my threads. I saw this and immediately thought it was something out of an early 2000s sci-fi film... which is kinda awesome.
My only problem with that era is that all sci-fi screens were blue. I prefer the more colourful 80s, myself.

But personally, I really like the look and concept of this thing.
It's a bit like a Nintendo game cart, but that can change. The OLED is fantastic, which saves me from trying to learn coding and implement my own cacky amateur-modded version, and the untidy-looking 'exposed circuitry' of most motherboards is now hidden away behind stylish coverings... Even the RGB might finally start to look the way it always should have!

More of this kinda stuff please!!

[Xlucine]

I'm not impressed by the case, it's a terrible waste of space. GPU on the other side is good with water cooling, but for air cooling CPU and GPU you'll end up with a pretty thick case

[aidanjt]

I'm not sure you are getting the point... It's a concept for a future form factor and not something that will be coming out any time soon. Just something that could happen and really only if other manufacturers would get on board.

Thanks for parroting back what I said, and telling me that I don't understand.

[Iota]

Interesting concept, is this for when CPUs become big enough to cover more than 50% of the available form factor?

[chrestomanci]

Intriguing. I like the idea of mounting expansion cards like GPUs on the back-side to allow more space for NVMe drives on the front.

Better to leave the expansion cards where they are, and move the M.2 NVMe drives to the back. That way the motherboard stays compatible with most cases. Some MiniITX motherboards already do that.

The main downsides are that it means more work if you want to upgrade your M.2 drive, though I doubt many people do that often, and you can't have a big heatsink on the drive, but again very few do because they are also used in laptops.

[davesom555]

Deffo need some innovation in the motherboard arena!

[Xlucine]

Better to leave the expansion cards where they are, and move the M.2 NVMe drives to the back. That way the motherboard stays compatible with most cases. Some MiniITX motherboards already do that.

The main downsides are that it means more work if you want to upgrade your M.2 drive, though I doubt many people do that often, and you can't have a big heatsink on the drive, but again very few do because they are also used in laptops.

Fill the motherboard tray with cutouts everywhere there isn't a standoff (or where you need support for a standoff), and it'd probably be easier to change SSD than it is currently if your SSD slot is under a GPU (just whip the other side panel off, and away you go)