ASUS Shines with New Marine Cool Motherboard Concept

[Xandubomb]

This year ASUS will try to leave the competition far behind, by introducing a brand new motherboard concept, the Marine Cool series. The Marine Cool series design goes far ahead from current Republic of Gamers (R.O.G.) mainboard products. For starters, the new motherboard has a new back plate that utilizes "micro-porous ceramic" technology and spreads across the whole PCB. The heat-pipe system that cools the motherboard's main components is also different, compared to current shipping products. Although the cooling technology remains the same, the whole look of the system reminds of a robot armour. Finally, it looks that ASUS engineers have decided to use SO-DIMM modules to cope with current Core 2 processors (if I'm right that appears to be LGA775 socket). I know it sounds a bit crazy, but pictures don't lie. Have a look and write what you think. The ASUS Marine Cool prototype will first appear during this year's CeBIT 2009 in Hannover, Germany.

TechPowerUp
Anandtech

I don't know why they're using laptop memory, but I really like the backplate idea.

 

[Jorsoft]

Why are they using laptop memory? Is it just because of the size restrictions on the board?

 

[saltynay]

It could actually be a chance of genius as it would allow for much larger heatsinks with flat dimms however speeds on laptop memory are rarely pushed as most laptops aren't overclockable.

 

[Nukem]

I think the board looks cool as h---, but I agree, lappy ram? Hmmm, we'll see... but what's the price for this eye candy?

 

[C0RR0SIVE]

If more and more motherboards are made this way, it could eventualy mean a single type of RAM for computers, DDR3 or DDR2 in sodimm format instead of the regular DIMM format, allowing for more components, and easier cooling. Could also be the PCIe slot... I have seen a few get just in the way of the RAM, so if you populate all the DIMMS or the wrong ones you couldn't use a add in pcie x16 card...

 

[thirdshiftdj]

Asus Marine Cool concept

CeBIT 2009 officially starts next Tuesday, but we already have some early coverage from cold and wet Hannover, Germany. ASUS has given us an early look at their Marine Cool design concept. Just like concept cars at the major automobile shows, this particular motherboard is meant to introduce new design ideas into a rather "me too" market.


ASUS was rather coy about what design and layout aspects will eventually make their way into future motherboard products. However, one major design change we expect to see in upcoming boards is the new back plate that utilizes "micro-porous ceramic" technology to dissipate heat quicker and to provide structural integrity to the motherboard.

The new heatpipe system also improves chipset and PWM cooling compared to shipping products, while the layout receives a few tweaks for usability. We are not too wild about the SO-DIMM slots for a performance oriented system, but they do save real estate space and perform well on mainstream systems. The heatsink design and technology behind it (cannot comment further, yet) is certainly an item that we liked. In fact, the design reminded us of a few design elements from Space:1999 (yes, some of us are that old).

AnandTech

 

[hikaricloud]

Re: Asus Marine Cool concept

If nothing else, it's interesting.

 

[philbar71]

Re: Asus Marine Cool concept

what are they thinking with the laptop ram slots??? that sucks :/

 

[veg1992]

WHAT? They were two threads.. what are you people smoking

 

[thirdshiftdj]

why is it merged? Just delete mine

edit: smoking crack laced w/ pancake batter