Originally Posted by
illuminatiASUS
Hello Everyone,
First off thank you to leeghoofd,cryptik,mecho gruh,utnorris,in-fluence,racinf turtle,watcho,kgtiger,devil kce,talonmen,kuebk,kuchaii,zanzabar,kowciller,mons tru,chinstrap,massive overkill,xoqolatl,iandh. If i missed anyone my apologies I appreciate everyones time and effort is replying.
After the first round of feedback along with other direct communication feedback i worked closely witht the ROG product managers and r&d team to provide the input (from the ACI America Region on what the future of ROG boards should be). This ranged from PWM design to cooling implementations, bios options, layout , controller choices and much more.
In regards to delay on my part on commenting on the thread it has been quite busy for me as i have been dealing with the launches and refresh of a number of products as well as events ( such as ces ) although things have no signs of slowly down i have little more time to get back to forums.
With that said I would like to thank you all especially the one's that took the time to list what they like and what they did not as well as defining clear recommendations and not just the fact that they did not like the board or something specific without feedback. The key to this thread and real development is having an understanding at what is practical in terms of need/want and what is fundamental in terms of expectations.
To go over some of the feedback there have been some consistent messages.
1. Go Digital ( we of course previously went digital and were an innovator in this regard ) As I am sure some of you know there are benefits to both Digital and Analog PWM designs and a lot goes into the consideration of this. I am not going to go into extensive detailing outside of that fact on the previous design like the RIIE and we found internally very benefits to maintaining a Analog Phase Design.
With that said we have incorporated a new Digital + design in our upcoming ROG boards
2. Heatsink concerns and overall cooling performance. There are a lot of different statements when it comes to temperatures and what is acceptable and what is not. An important factor to remember is a heatsink has to be efficient and if it is it should dissipate the heat and therefore be hot to touch. No this of course can vary depending on the size, composite and other variables. I have been very aggressive about communicating cooling at both stock levels and overclock levels needs to always be at the forefront of design consideration.
Another question in regards to heatsink and cooling is do you prefer a single heatsink solution that cools better or a solution that is modular (one for the mosfets one of the sb/pch / nb or other area of the VRM) that may not cool as well. Or is ultimately just about cooling and regardless of being modular or unibody whatever is the best?
The reason for the question goes to the fact some users what to maybe cool the northbridge on the X58 but leave the mosfet cooling for the VRM as opposed to having to replace everything.
3. Sound solution on the motherboards. This is a topic of definite interest as some do not care so like it and others hate it. Currently our approach with ROG audio is to provide the best codec we have available and integrate onto the board providing a better class of audio and fidelity this is additionally improved by working with creative and integrating there X-FI software suite. Personally i have been recommending a different approach. It is to include a sound card with the unit ( similar to the supreme fx module ) but based on our Xonar based audio hardware providing users with a higher quality solution than what comes on motherboards as well as providing amplified headphone out and amplified microphone. This would then be easy to either use or not use depending on the choice of the user.
Is this a solution you would be interested in seeing?
4. Legacy connections on ROG boards? Overall we have moved away from placing IDE or Floppy connections so i think that covers most complaints but what about other connections.
Such as PS2, PCI
We have considered leaving these as some gamers and users like using the PS2 port instead additionally some benchers sometimes like being able to use a old generation PCI card.
5. Fan Controls and sensors and headers. I think we have actually made strides more so than any other vendor in this dept. I know many consider Abit to have defined the best of the best, but as some have noted they are no longer an option. We are looking to really ensure a strong set of options on the hardware and software/bios side.
With our current P55 solutions and upcoming solutions this has been a strongly voiced opinion from me and ASUS ACI. We currently have a number of options present along with a high count of fan headers (on ATX ROG boards). You have the ability to set target temperature and min and max fan cycles. This is the best that could be integrated in our current P55 solutions due to GPIO limitations of the controller but we have made a focus to push forward on upcoming board and includes controllers that allow for more options and more settings and allow independent fan control for the CPU and Chassis. We are also looking at options for minimum and maximum voltage for the as well. I think shortly we will offer the best fan controls available. Additionally i would like to confirm on people like the ability to have the temperature probes on the ROG series of boards? I also assume people think that the sensors should always come included with the board if this is a feature.
6. Bios options and updates. There has been the opinion that multiple bios updates are something that is bad. I think there needs to be a clear understanding that there is a difference to refinement and support of a bios and board that just releasing bios updates because we are fixing issues.
No board ever can be 100% perfect but we spend a lot of time before production to ensure the bios release is solid and performs to the expectations of what we hold the segmentation for that board. There are always cases of in the field back that of course we consider, test and weight and may incorporate into our bios. I see this as a strong suit for us in the fact we are continually releasing bios updates trying to best support possible in whatever context the update relates to. As I have previously communicated I am considering opening a official thread on certain key boards to have bios input for things we may be able to incorporate or consider for that board. Please let me know if this is something you think the community would be interested in.
With those main points out of the way below i will note features users agree are not needed.
CPU Level UP ( this is a feature in the bios that allows novice overclockers to select a CPU overclock via the name of the CPU ) an example is going from a 750 to 870 without knowing anything more than that.
Memperfect ( this was a memory testing utility built into the bios additionally it allowed attempted to set you memory in relation to what you defined for your BCLK ). I think the idea of having a memory testing application in the bios is fine but the additional aspects of the feature are not needed.
Any type of additional hard drive controllers? ( speeding HD ) although does mean not have additional feature hardware controllers like SATA6G? Which are not native to X58 or P55.
Game First Packet Priority software?
Features to keep
Dual Bios (swappable)
LCD Poster (along with ROG Connect)
Probe it multimeter reading
On board switches (what switches do you always want to see on the board) just power and clr cmos and reset or other as well?
Q- Connector
Q-Shield (padded and emi reducing i/o shield) additionally maintain backlight shield
Q-LED ( like debug code ) quick 4 point led display for faults related to the CPU, Memory, Graphics or boot device. We feel this is easier than reading debug codes (although we understand some users still want it).
I think this covers a good amount of what has been detailed. I will wait for any other specific feedback in concerns to things that should be incorporated or considered before submitting my next round of feedback. As always thank you for your time and effort and input. Please enjoy the rest of your day.
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