Tegra 4, Z87 And Thunderbolt/802.11ac, And An RoG Vacation
Q. 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)
A. 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.
Q. When are you planning to release the GTX780 DCII into the Swedish market? Just wondering if I'm supposed to stick around and wait or just get a reference.
A. This going will be going into production shortly and be available soon in North America as well as other regions. Overall availability should be within the next month or so.
Q. Why didn’t you choose Tegra 4 to power your new Transformer Pad Infinity tablet?
A. We have a very close relationship with Nvidia and work extensively with them with 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 look to provide the best experience possible whether it is 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.
Q. How did you decide which z87 mobos would have Thunderbolt compatibility and 802.11ac wifi?
A. The idea was 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. 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 purchases 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).
Q. Where is the Republic of Gamers located? If I pay it a visit, can you recommend any good restaurants there?
A. 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! :)
Q. Can you give us any specs or other details about Asus's upcoming Chrome OS products?
A. All we can say is look at our track record of offering a lot 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!