ASUS ROG GX800 hands-on: A next-gen water-cooled gaming beast

ASUS announced a behemoth of a gaming laptop at Computex 2016 called the ROG GX800. This is a follow-up on the GX700, which made a big splash for its water cooling dock. The dock has been improved this go-around to ensure stable CPU and GPU overclocking.

Under the hood, you can now hook up two video cards in SLI. GTX 980 cards are definitely supported, and GTX 1080 support may eventually be included. Two 330W power supplies keep this monster purring. The 18-inch display will be available in either FHD or 4K resolutions. Hardcore gamers will also appreciate the new mechanical keyboard with anti-ghosting technology. The keys enjoy a little under 2.5 mm travel, and each one hosts a dedicated RGB LED. The processor is an Intel 4.4 GHz i7-6820HK, backed up by a 1428 MHz GPU, up to GB of DDR5 3.8 GHz VRAM, and up to 64 GB of DDR4 2800 MHz DRAM.

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It would have been great to see all of this come to bear on some honest games, but both demos we saw at Computex were simply videos on playback. On paper, the GX800 builds on its predecessor in just about every category. This keeps it in the realm of overkill for any but the most hardcore gamers. In terms of sheer style, you've got lots of classically sharp lines, though it's not quite as ostentatious-looking as some gaming laptops out there. As you might expect, rig like this doesn't come cheap. Expect it to hit store shelves at the end of August for around $6,000.