GX700VO gaming system review

This review is dedicated to a very unusual device. More precisely, a system consisting of two devices: a gaming laptop with a full-fledged “desktop” NVidia GeForce GTX 980 graphics card (without the M index), and a docking station with an external liquid (!) Cooling system for the laptop. As they say, for the first time in world practice. And to completely intrigue you: the standard packaging of this system is a full-fledged branded suitcase on wheels.

Specifications

Processor : Intel Core i7 6820HK
Operating system :
Windows 10 Home
Windows 10 Pro
RAM : DDR4 2800 (OC), 2133 MHz, SDRAM, up to 64 GB
Display : 17.3 ", 16: 9, Full HD (1920x1080)
Video card : NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980, GDDR5 VRAM, 8 GB
Data storage :
Support RAID0
PCIE x 4 256/512 GB
Card reader : 2-in-1 (SD / MMC)
Camera : HD
Network : 802.11 ac
Connectors :
1 x microphone jack
1 x headphone jack
3 x USB 3.0 ports
1 x USB 3.1 TYPE C port (s)
1 x RJ-45
1 x HDMI
1 x min Display
1 x Thunderbolt
Battery : 6 cells, 93 W * h
Power supplies :
Output:
19 V, 9.5 A, 180 W
19.5 V, 16.9 A, 330 W
Input:
100 -240 V , 50/60 Hz
Dimensions :
Laptop: 429 x 309 x 33 ~ 35 mm (L x W x H)
Docking station: 417 x 368 x 114 mm (L x W x H)
Weight :
Laptop: 3,6 kg
Dock Station: 4.8 kg

Appearance

So, the ASUS GX700VO system kit includes:

• Laptop
• Docking station with integrated liquid cooling system
• Two power supplies: for a laptop and docking station
• Wired mouse

All this beauty comes in a full-fledged suitcase, quite weighty and empty.



The test copy was delivered not in such an elegant suitcase, but in the one that had already seen the views. But the “fighting” traces on it once again testify to good strength and reliable protection of very expensive contents.



The interior is filled with very dense damping material. Each component is in its own compartment, nothing hangs. The laptop and dock are additionally laced with straps.



The laptop comes with a wired gaming mouse:







Also included are two power supplies. Smaller - for a laptop, more - for a dock.



The case of the laptop consists of aluminum and plastic panels. At the rear end there are all kinds of holes and connectors, as well as radiator grilles of the cooling system:





External extremely - slots for pins that fix the laptop in the dock. Then come the connectors of the CBO circuit. Small flat slots are designed for locks that prevent the laptop from being abnormally disconnected from the dock. And in the center is the power connector.



On the right side are:

• USB 3.0
• HDMI
• Mini Dispay Port
• USB 3.1 Type C / Thunderbolt
• USB 3.1 Type C
• Rj45
• Right stereo speaker grid

On the left side are located:

• Kensington Castle
• Left stereo speaker grid
• USB 3.0 (2 pcs.)
• Microphone jack
• Audio jack
• Card reader

Recently, we wrote about the new flagship gaming laptop ASUS - G752VY . The hero of this review, although it has an even more powerful video card, turned out to be 10 mm thinner, which indirectly indicates a more compact cooling system. The covers on both laptops are designed identically, with illuminated slots and the logo of the ROG line.





Unlike the G752VY, the GX700VO does not have a separate removable panel covering the RAM and drives. If you want to upgrade, you have to remove the entire bottom cover as a whole.

Behind a translucent dark window you can see the tubes of the cooling system.







Also on the bottom are two holes for the locking pins and two holes for the dock locks.





Inside, the laptop looks almost the same as the G752VY. The frame around the display is silver and has a slightly different configuration, a different arrangement of rubber bumpers around the screen, a different arrangement of LED indicators.





The indicators are duplicated at the front end of the case: The



keyboard is identical to the one used on the G752VY, including error-free processing of up to 30 simultaneous keystrokes.









Let's move on to the fun part, the docking station. At first glance, it looks like some kind of small music center with an incomprehensible platform.







On the left is a round connector for connecting the power supply. When the laptop is connected to the dock, it receives power from it and does not consume battery power.





Lock on bottom of laptop:



Lock pin:





Massive radiators, a water block, a pump and a water heater are hidden under the grill.



Given the location of the radiators, this must be one of the supply ducts:



A large curved plate at the back of the docking station is the lever responsible for connecting the laptop to the docking station. To connect a laptop, you need to install it on the platform and press the lever. It will lower and lock in this position.









Pressing the lever activates the locks included in the bottom and rear end of the laptop. At the same time, fixing pins, a power connector, and CBO pipes are introduced into the laptop. As a result, the laptop’s internal water circuit is combined with the dock circuit in a single closed system.



To remove the laptop, you need to press the small black button that releases the locks. Beyond the window, the elements of the NWO are visible.





The manufacturer claims that the refrigerant circulating in the CBO includes an anti-corrosion additive, which allows less frequent system maintenance.

Refrigerant circuit:

Display

Here the same display is used as in the G752VY and G751JY: diagonal 17.3, resolution 1920 * 1080, matte finish. Image quality is not inferior to the previous two models.





The GX700VO also uses NVidia G-Sync technology , which we mentioned in previous reviews . It seems that this has already become a tradition for ASUS gaming laptops.

Software

The laptop has the same software set as the G752VY , so we won’t repeat it. The only difference that caught my eye was a slightly different set of available settings in the ROG Gaming Center: you can separately control the speed of the laptop and dock fans, activate the headphone amplifier, and also disable the touchpad and ROG key.









A few words about the headphone amplifier. For serious gamers, sound quality is of great importance. Thanks to the high-quality and detailed sound picture, you can detect the enemy in time or dodge the attack. Not to mention the fact that you expect from such a tricked-out laptop not only an appropriate level of performance, but also sound quality. After all, hardcore gamers are not the only games alive, there is also music and cinema. Therefore, to improve sound reproduction, the GX700VO uses an ESS Saber digital-to-analog converter and an integrated headphone amplifier. The operation of this amplifier can be controlled from the ROG Gaming Center.

Performance and work experience

The laptop is equipped with the most powerful sixth generation Intel processor (Skylake), Intel Core i7 6820HK with 8 MB of cache in the third level. The amount of RAM is 64 GB, like the G752VY. This is really a lot, and it will be many years before games with similar requirements appear, not to mention the more voracious ones.

The video card used is not the mobile GeForce GTX 980M, but the honest GTX 980 with 8 GB of memory.



The innovation also did not pass the disk subsystem: instead of traditional SSDs and hard disks, the GX700VO uses two SSD drives connected via PCIe x4 ( NVM Express protocol) and combined into a RAID0 array. The total capacity of the resulting array is 1 TB. Such a solution allowed to significantly increase the performance of the storage system (calling it “disk” is somehow awkward).



The use of such hot components as the top processor and video card affected the operating mode of the built-in, own cooling system. When the laptop works without a docking station, the fans from time to time begin to work at higher speeds, and the air flows on the radiators create a noticeable aerodynamic noise. It should be borne in mind that the processor works by default with a clock frequency of 2.7 GHz, (with an increase in load it rises to 3.6), and the RAM is 2133 MHz. The rest of the time, the laptop runs quietly enough, at the G752VY level.

With the docking station connected - and CBO - everything changes. The processor automatically accelerates to 4 GHz, RAM - up to 2800 MHz. The video card also accelerates. In other words, the laptop starts to work at the maximum of its capabilities. And very impressive features!

Benchmark results (points):

Benchmark	Without dock	With dock
Unigine Heaven 4.0	1788	2461
Unigine Valley 1.0	2934	3815
Cinebench r15
OpenGL (FPS)	85	114
CPU	713	856
3DMark Advanced Edition 1.3.708 (1920 * 1080 resolution, FXAA anisotropic filtering, 2x antialiasing)
Fire strike	10 710	14,883
Sky diver	16 411	22,775
Cloud gate	17,230	25,756
Ice storm	17,219	29,815

When the docking station is connected, both cooling systems work simultaneously - built-in and external. With an increase in load, noise from the SVR begins to dominate.

I must say that the dock itself does not work so quietly. With normal background noise in an office building, this is not so noticeable, and in a quiet room you can clearly hear the measured hum of the pump. When radiator fans come in, you forget about the pump - to cool powerful processors and video cards, fans have to work at fairly high speeds. So the noise from the docking station and the built-in cooling system merge together, and this duet is quite loud. Well, this is an inevitable fee for using top-end overclocked (!) Iron in a compact laptop case.

By the way, overclocking the GX700VO when connecting a docking station is possible not only automatically, but also manually. For this, both hardware and software capabilities are provided, for example, the Turbo Gear tab in the ROG Gaming Center application. Here you can independently set the multipliers and frequencies of the processor and video card. Such “loyalty” of the system to overclocking will interest not only hardcore gamers, but also amateurs to squeeze the latest megahertz from the “iron”.

It is curious that in some games the total noise from the cooling systems was lower than the benchmarks. This is probably due to the artificial nature of the load in the tests, which leads to faster heating of both the processor and the video card.

If you disconnect the laptop from the docking station, overclocking is disabled and the processor, memory and video card are returned to standard mode. Please note that the “standard” mode is at the level of the most powerful gaming laptop with the GTX 980M graphics card.

The battery life is short, in surfing mode the laptop lasted about 2.5 hours, and when playing shooters - a little less than 1.5 hours. Well, the energy consumption of the "filling" to match its heat dissipation. The GX700VO is tuned for maximum performance, without compromise. And lowering the frequencies when the docking station is turned off is a necessary step, without which the heating level would be unacceptable. Yes, and the CBO itself is not easy, judging by the size of the radiators and the noise level.

Conclusion

As you already understood, the GX700VO is a special, almost niche product. The appearance of this system has given a new meaning to the term “uncompromising laptop”. Honestly, not every desktop computer with it is measured on an equal footing. For the sake of curiosity, I ran a couple of benchmarks on my home computer with Core i5 and GTX 970. Of course, I realized that the results would be worse, but I did not expect it to be 4-5 times (FPS). At the same time, I am quite comfortable playing modern "heavy" games. And the GX700VO, even without a dock, was a cut above, if not two. So it can be assumed with a certain degree of certainty that this notebook will be relevant for performance much longer than my computer. Especially considering the greatly reduced power growth rates of new processors and video cards.

GX700VO - the product is not for everyone. A true Hi-End laptop world. This is a system for true gamers, enthusiasts who are ready not only to carry it in a suitcase, but also to pay an exorbitant amount. But then the owner of this more than outstanding system will receive a device that does not expire for many years. And what can we say about the effect that your appearance will have on friends and rivals with this laptop. This is not just the most powerful laptop to date (with a dock connected), but also a status item. And in the world of professional gamers is an expensive item of IT.

Recommended retail price: 399 900 rub.