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Asus says it will work with Lian Li, Jonsbo, and XPG on its 'Back to Future' minimalist design projects
Asus has been working on the 'Back to Future' design concept for a while and is making some inroads. The company lists Corsair, Thermaltake, Silverstone, and InWin as its partners on its global page. Asus has different BTF Design partners, including Lian Li, Jonsbo, and XPG.
Asus made a range of products where it relocated the connectors for power, data, and storage on the underside of its graphics cards and motherboards. Asus could make motherboards, graphic cards, and PC cases in-house. However, having Tier 1 case makers onboard specifically for this concept will be beneficial in the long run. In the same vein, MSI's "Project Zero" concept involves putting all the connectors on the underside to help free your PC build of cable clutter.
The History of DIY-Ape Revolution
In January, Asus collaborated with MSI and Maxsun for the Chinese market under the 'DIY-APE Revolution' branding. Beyond some motherboards that are currently in Taobao, nothing has progressed.
ASUS did have some of its products available in the Chinese market under the BTE branding. The anime-themed TianXuan TX Gaming B760 WiFi motherboard and RTX 4070 GPU introduced an HPCE connector on the motherboard and the underside of the GPU to hide the power cable. Similarly, there is a TUF-themed Intel Z790 chipset concept motherboard whose bottom has a 12VHPWR connector next to three 8-pin PCIe power connectors. Asus doesn't have any RTX 4090 BTE-concept GPU yet.
While Gigabyte did collaborate with Maingear's Stealth PC for a complete build with the same idea of keeping cables out of sight, there have been no newer versions of this system since. However, it should be easy for others to jump in if Asus, MSI, and case makers find commercial success.
More Companies the Better for BTE Concept
(Image credit: Asus China)
Having a different set of partners mentioned on the global and another on the China website doesn't help to paint a clear picture about how Asus is pushing forward, alone finally launching this line of products in the global market. However, it is understandable why this would be time-consuming if the company prefers to collaborate and execute with an ecosystem of different case choices from manufacturers for the long term rather than a one-time wonder. Names like Lian Li, Corsair, and others should help build a strong foundation and are likely to be nearer to showing the actual products under this lineup and not simply concepts.
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Roshan Ashraf Shaikh has been in the Indian PC hardware community since the early 2000s and has been building PCs, contributing to many Indian tech forums, & blogs. He operated Hardware BBQ for 11 years and wrote news for eTeknix & TweakTown before joining Tom's Hardware team. Besides tech, he is interested in fighting games, movies, anime, and mechanical watches.
