Ask Me Anything - Official ASUS Representative

[raja@asus]

How did you decide which z87 mobos would have thunderbolt compatibility and 802.11ac wifi? It seems only the highest end ones have both, but I think I saw that the gryphon only had thunderbolt and the deluxe only had 802.11ac. Just curious as to why certain boards have one and not the other.

The idea is to align certain features with user groups and provide options for a variety of budgets. Some of these technologies are costly for us to add, and ultimately that has a knock on effect for the consumer.

 

[nadavp3]

Any chance for a ROG flavor of Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition ?
(meaning that it includes Dolby® Headphone or some other form of virtualized surround)

reason is:
I own the ASUS G75VX and beyerdynamic DT 880 Premium Headphones (250 ohms) and I would very much like to have virtual surround, the build in sound card doesn't support that and so a thunderbolt\usb3 external sound card with a high quality build in AMP and DAC with Dolby® Headphone would be perfect for me (just like Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition but with Dolby® Headphone and possibly ROG logo and color scheme)

Or am I missing something and the Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition actually supports virtual surround from usb input (aka acts as a sound card)?

Thanks!


edit:
Right now my AMP is a Marantz 2230b receiver from the late 70's, it gives a great color to the sound but to be honest it's days are coming to and end, many functions no longer work (bass cannot be changed, for example) on its decaying by the day (it has been a wonderful 40 years but its time to move on)

There are no plans to add that kind of feature to the Essence One right now. What I will say is that the SNR is very good - so channel separation creates a very solid image without needing Dolby. It's a considerable step-up from any soundcard - Dolby features included.

Thank you for the answer!
As a quick follow up: What if I was to give the Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition 2 channel sound input from a separate device (turtlebeach ear-force-dss2, in essence the connection will go: computer usb3> ear force dss2>rca 3.5" 2 channel cable> Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition>headset)
Will the Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition in theory be able to work with that? from Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition's point of view, this is just 2 channel input as any other, but in reality its tempered with and given the dolby 3d surround effect.
Would that solve my issue (with desirable outcome) or will the outcome be diminished sound quality (sense you have two devices and the Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition receives the input via 2 channel sound instead of directly from the computer, digitally)

Again, many thanks for the previews answer and know that I am most likely to get myself a Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition (to be honest, half of sell job was done when I saw my headset on your website haha)


edit:
actually, I came up with a solution but it require that the Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition will produce it's output via digital optical cable, I can see in the website that it got that port, but dos it support outputting via that port?

 

[mclovits]

I have an interesting one, as I'm considering purchasing your new Transformer Pad Infinity tablet when it is released. I am curious though, why have you chosen Tegra 4 to power the device? Are you worried that the CPU/GPU scaling issue present in Tegra 3 (to save power, causing games to lag terribly when the CPU gets bogged down, causing the GPU to not scale fully) might be a performance factor in Tegra 4? The Tegra 3 chip in my HTC One X+ struggles to run even modest games at 720p, have the developers at Nvidia or Asus found a way to work around this in Tegra 4?

We have a very close relationship with NVidia and work extensively with them and our RD and Performance analysis team. When developing hardware in a OS environment like android as well depending on a number of experience and usability factors it is a considerable task at monitoring the feedback and usage of users and attempting to ensure all applicable aspects of development incorporate these items ( software coding, hardware adjustments as well as total component selection ). In this respect we definitely looking to provide the best experience possible whether it be gaming, browsing, general application performance or system response. This is something we will work with Nvidia, Google and internally as we get closer to releasing Nvidia based hardware as well as other SOC options.

Great answer, thank you, I look forward to the new hardware.

 

[raja@asus]

Where is the Republic of Gamers located? If I pay it a visit, can you recommend any good restaurants there?

You can create such a place in your own home by using an ROG product and registering on the ROG forums to become part of the ROG community. We don't do meals on wheels, or freeze dried food additions in the box, but you do get a lot of product for the money

 

[cloakster]

First off, thank you Asus for doing this AMA

1. For products like the Transformer Book and Asus Transformer Inifinity, the release dates in US and especially Canada were unknown until they just randomly started showing up on retailer's websites. I was wondering if you guys can comment on why this happened and if we are going to get proper release dates for the upcoming Asus tablets and Zenbook Infinity.

2. I was also wondering if you can comment on how you feel on your competition with Apple in the tablet and laptop space. You seem to be creating a lot of devices to directly compete with Apple, especially with being the only company to create a 15" retina competitor with the UX51.

3. The new Asus inifinity pad with the 2560x1600 looks to be a pretty much a perfect high end tablet all around, except that its missing a digitizer pen. Any reason for that?

Thanks.

 

[frogo369]

How did you decide which z87 mobos would have thunderbolt compatibility and 802.11ac wifi? It seems only the highest end ones have both, but I think I saw that the gryphon only had thunderbolt and the deluxe only had 802.11ac. Just curious as to why certain boards have one and not the other.

As Thunderbolt is a high end specification and the corresponding external hardware being high performance as well generally being more expensive than USB 3 based solutions we align our skus with this segmentation. A user who purchase the feature set offered in a board like our Expert or Deluxe Dual is likely to also be interested in or using Thunderbolt. Most mATX users do have high end editing stations or focus on content creation as such there is no need to integrate Thunderbolt. In this same respect we have incorporated 802.11AC on our highest skus as they are most likely to have also made the investment in high performance 802.11AC routers. It is only recently that a large amount of the market has shifted to dual band N based solution ( especially in mobile products ) as such really only cutting edge adopters have the corresponding routers or setups or even needs to justify 802.11AC as this controller is considerably more expensive than N based solutions we maintain offering it on the boards richest in feature set and functionality ( Deluxe, Deluxe Dual, Maximus VI Formula, Maximus VI Extreme and our Maximus VI Impact and lastly our Z87-I Deluxe )

 

[inzone]

Is there an Asus Rampage V Extreme and will it still be LGA 2011?

What is the outlook on LGA vs BGA ? Will you be forced to abandon the LGA socket and will this be just with Intel or both Intel and AMD ?

 

[amdfangirl]

It's extremely difficult to find blower-style GPU coolers in countries like Australia.

Have you considered making reference Nvidia and blower style AMD cards?

 

[frogo369]

Can you give us any specs or other details about ASUS's upcoming Chrome OS products?

Sorry cannot discuss possible or potential upcoming hardware. All we can say is look at our track record of offering alot of difference products with different designs. We are always interested in new and interesting products. Additionally if it is something you are interested in the more feedback we get the better so let us know.

 

[etaxdoa]

What happened to HomeTheaterGate, will it return?
When will 8/9000 radeon cards be released for consumption?

 

[frogo369]

It's extremely difficult to find blower-style GPU coolers in countries like Australia.

Have you considered making reference Nvidia and blower style AMD cards?

Our focus is currently on non reference design and to provide superior cooling and acoustics. We want to ensure cool and quiet operation. A blower design generally cannot offer the efficiency need to offer both of these, it has to work much hardware and can be much louder as such we do not use them.

 

[raja@asus]

Any chance for a ROG flavor of Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition ?
(meaning that it includes Dolby® Headphone or some other form of virtualized surround)

reason is:
I own the ASUS G75VX and beyerdynamic DT 880 Premium Headphones (250 ohms) and I would very much like to have virtual surround, the build in sound card doesn't support that and so a thunderbolt\usb3 external sound card with a high quality build in AMP and DAC with Dolby® Headphone would be perfect for me (just like Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition but with Dolby® Headphone and possibly ROG logo and color scheme)

Or am I missing something and the Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition actually supports virtual surround from usb input (aka acts as a sound card)?

Thanks!


edit:
Right now my AMP is a Marantz 2230b receiver from the late 70's, it gives a great color to the sound but to be honest it's days are coming to and end, many functions no longer work (bass cannot be changed, for example) on its decaying by the day (it has been a wonderful 40 years but its time to move on)

There are no plans to add that kind of feature to the Essence One right now. What I will say is that the SNR is very good - so channel separation creates a very solid image without needing Dolby. It's a considerable step-up from any soundcard - Dolby features included.

Thank you for the answer!
As a quick follow up: What if I was to give the Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition 2 channel sound input from a separate device (turtlebeach ear-force-dss2, in essence the connection will go: computer usb3> ear force dss2>rca 3.5" 2 channel cable> Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition>headset)
Will the Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition in theory be able to work with that? from Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition's point of view, this is just 2 channel input as any other, but in reality its tempered with and given the dolby 3d surround effect.
Would that solve my issue (with desirable outcome) or will the outcome be diminished sound quality (sense you have two devices and the Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition receives the input via 2 channel sound instead of directly from the computer, digitally)

Again, many thanks for the previews answer and know that I am most likely to get myself a Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition (to be honest, half of sell job was done when I saw my headset on your website haha)

Hi,

That would not work as the E-One does not accept analog input. S/PDIF, TOSLINK or USB only.


-Raja

 

[frogo369]

What happened to HomeTheaterGate, will it return?
When will 8/9000 radeon cards be released for consumption?

We are always look at different options but as many users are now using there own media portals we no longer focus on development of HomeTheaterGate. There are number of other options like JRiverMediaCenter, Windows Media Center and XMBC and more than users enjoy with their media centric or HTPC systems. With that noted we of course continue to evaluate how we can improved the total HTPC/Media Center experience on both hardware and software levels.

Sorry cannot comment on NDA or unreleased product or potential product.

 

[Thorfkin]

If the demand is there, we'd invest the R&D in making it happen. There has to be a large enoughmarket and there has to be enough flexibility within things outside our hands to support the form factor (AGESA for example).

My question has already been partially answered so I would like to express my interest in a socket FM2 motherboard similar to the F1A75-I Deluxe. I built a Mini-ITX system around the Asus F1A75-I Deluxe and I love it. I want to upgrade it with a similar build based around AMD's upcoming Kaveri APU and I'd like Asus to make a new everything-in-one Kaveri compatible motherboard for socket FM2 like the F1A75-I deluxe.

 

[cloakster]

Any chance that we would be seeing a portable gaming laptop (14", under 4.5lbs, GT740m) from Asus in the near future? It is pretty much the only type of the laptop we haven't seen yet from Asus and its exactly what im looking for in my next laptop.

 

[ckellmeyer]

Question about WIFI Go: can the software be used on any ASUS motherboard (even if a 3rd party wifi solution is in place)? i.e. can i get a Z87 pro motherboard and a 3rd party AC wifi card and still use the wifi go software?

 

[erik-asus]

(last I checked) Why doesn't Asus have a toll-free tech support number for PC parts? I pay a premium for Asus parts, but I have to pay long distance for any tech support.

We do have a toll free number here in the US.

You can find that information here: http://www.service.asus.com/#!consumer/csn9

For Laptops and AIOs yes, but for components I don't think so.
1-812-282-2787 isn't a toll-free number

Gotcha, my fault. You are correct for component products there is not a toll free number. I don't have a solid answer for that question other than that decision was made and we do not plan on changing it anytime soon.

 

[amdfangirl]

It's extremely difficult to find blower-style GPU coolers in countries like Australia.

Have you considered making reference Nvidia and blower style AMD cards?

Our focus is currently on non reference design and to provide superior cooling and acoustics. We want to ensure cool and quiet operation. A blower design generally cannot offer the efficiency need to offer both of these, it has to work much hardware and can be much louder as such we do not use them.

In that case have you considered SKUs with shorter PCBs for SFF gaming PCs?

 

[frogo369]

Is there an Asus Rampage V Extreme and will it still be LGA 2011?

What is the outlook on LGA vs BGA ? Will you be forced to abandon the LGA socket and will this be just with Intel or both Intel and AMD ?

Sorry cannot comment on potential or upcoming product. You will have to keep a watch out for what may come out. Currently we are committed to our current Rampage Series Gene, Formula and Extreme. We are continually fine tuning and tweaking and improving performance, compatibility and overall usability via updates of the UEFI and software updates.

In regards to any socket questions all we can communicate is looking at our track record ASUS and its motherboard division is committed to performance and innovation and the flexibility that is offered in the PC DIY space. We are working to maintain this as much a possible and will continue working on boards focused at allowing the flexibility and features that interest enthusiasts.

 

[nadavp3]

Any chance for a ROG flavor of Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition ?
(meaning that it includes Dolby® Headphone or some other form of virtualized surround)

reason is:
I own the ASUS G75VX and beyerdynamic DT 880 Premium Headphones (250 ohms) and I would very much like to have virtual surround, the build in sound card doesn't support that and so a thunderbolt\usb3 external sound card with a high quality build in AMP and DAC with Dolby® Headphone would be perfect for me (just like Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition but with Dolby® Headphone and possibly ROG logo and color scheme)

Or am I missing something and the Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition actually supports virtual surround from usb input (aka acts as a sound card)?

Thanks!


edit:
Right now my AMP is a Marantz 2230b receiver from the late 70's, it gives a great color to the sound but to be honest it's days are coming to and end, many functions no longer work (bass cannot be changed, for example) on its decaying by the day (it has been a wonderful 40 years but its time to move on)

There are no plans to add that kind of feature to the Essence One right now. What I will say is that the SNR is very good - so channel separation creates a very solid image without needing Dolby. It's a considerable step-up from any soundcard - Dolby features included.

Thank you for the answer!
As a quick follow up: What if I was to give the Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition 2 channel sound input from a separate device (turtlebeach ear-force-dss2, in essence the connection will go: computer usb3> ear force dss2>rca 3.5" 2 channel cable> Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition>headset)
Will the Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition in theory be able to work with that? from Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition's point of view, this is just 2 channel input as any other, but in reality its tempered with and given the dolby 3d surround effect.
Would that solve my issue (with desirable outcome) or will the outcome be diminished sound quality (sense you have two devices and the Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition receives the input via 2 channel sound instead of directly from the computer, digitally)

Again, many thanks for the previews answer and know that I am most likely to get myself a Xonar Essence One MUSES Edition (to be honest, half of sell job was done when I saw my headset on your website haha)

Hi,

That would not work as the E-One does not accept analog input. S/PDIF, TOSLINK or USB only.


-Raja

Thanks! Last resolution/question than:
Does the E-One support Digital output via S/PDIF or TOSLINK ?
This will allow me to connect the TB EarForce DSS2 to the E-One instead of the computer (pc>E-One>DSS2>Headset) which could provide what I am looking for.

Again, thank you so much for all the info!

 

[frogo369]

I just got a 660 GTX DCU 2 OC earlier this year, is the 760 that huge of a jump that I should upgrade?

The 660GTX is a very solid card especially with the latest drivers and when used with the GeForce Experience software. Depending on your gameplay needs and the resolution you are playing this should dictate your upgrade path. The 760 will provide an increase in performance but depending on what you are playing currently and what you plan is for the next year or two you may want to consider all aspects first.

 

[frogo369]

It's extremely difficult to find blower-style GPU coolers in countries like Australia.

Have you considered making reference Nvidia and blower style AMD cards?

Our focus is currently on non reference design and to provide superior cooling and acoustics. We want to ensure cool and quiet operation. A blower design generally cannot offer the efficiency need to offer both of these, it has to work much hardware and can be much louder as such we do not use them.

In that case have you considered SKUs with shorter PCBs for SFF gaming PCs?

Yes you can see we have done this with the release of our GTX 670 DC mini which is specifically design for ultra small chassis. We hope to offer more of these type of solutions especially as we offer an extensive range of motherboards in mATX and mini ITX.

 

[slomo4sho]

Why do you not have any ITX boards for sockets AM3+ and FM2? Do you have any plans of releasing such boards?

If the demand is there, we'd invest the R&D in making it happen. There has to be a large enoughmarket and there has to be enough flexibility within things outside our hands to support the form factor (AGESA for example).

The FM2 APU platform screams small form factor yet ASRock is the only one that currently provides ITX boards. You currently have at 11 FM2 motherboards for the US market of which 9 are Micro-ATX FM2 boards so it seems that your market research is leading you to favor small form factor over ATX for this platform. Since over 80% of the FM2 boards offered by Asus are currently Micro-ATX, does Asus feel that this APU platform is better served in Micro-ATX instead of ITX form factor?

 

[raja@asus]

If Steamroller is released for socket AM3+, will your 880G-series motherboards support it?

This isn't something that we directly control. AGESA is usually optimized for the latest platform. Any signal line impedance shifts to cater for new DDR3 modules can have an impact in how well a newer processor will interact with an older chipset/platform. Newer boards will have been designed with those specifications in mind. DDR3 voltage requirements have changed consderably over the past few years as has module density and this changes trace requirements.

So I cannot give you a firm answer on that. Hope the answer does help, though.

 

[foxmclou]

I just got a 660 GTX DCU 2 OC earlier this year, is the 760 that huge of a jump that I should upgrade?

The 660GTX is a very solid card especially with the latest drivers and when used with the GeForce Experience software. Depending on your gameplay needs and the resolution you are playing this should dictate your upgrade path. The 760 will provide an increase in performance but depending on what you are playing currently and what you plan is for the next year or two you may want to consider all aspects first.

I was thinking of waiting till the 800 series, since 700 is still Kepler.... I really don't know what I will be playing after spending so much time getting the rig, I suppose I just like to know that I can play anything on high 1080p