ASUS ROG XG Station finally launches

Phew. A few more months of nothing and we would've been forced to put this thing on vaporware watch. None of that nonsense will be necessary now, however, as ASUS has finally gotten its act together and officially launched the ROG XG Station. Hailed as the "world's first VGA and multimedia docking station," the ExpressCard-interfacing unit comes bundled with a 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8600 GT, four USB 2.0 ports and a snazzy display for good measure. Not unlike ASUS at all, there's nary a mention of a price or release date -- so yeah, we're right back where we started.

[fischju @ May 28th 2008 1:03PM]

This is going to be driver hell

[Mehdi Cheddadi @ May 28th 2008 1:03PM]

http://mcheddadi.googlepages.com/pciexpressmini

Oh yeah I'm gonna go get that for my old dying pc!
HD gaming here I come!

[Slyver @ May 28th 2008 1:05PM]

That took some time to arrive..
And now it only has 8600gt for some notebooks this will be quitte an upgrade but come shipped with that chip now.

[R K @ May 28th 2008 1:06PM]

Only an 8600 GT?
Where's my GeForce 9800 GX2 in ExpressCard form?

[Blaine Oliver @ May 28th 2008 1:10PM]

Way to overdo it, apart from the fact it would be massive to carry with you, it would be restricted by the bus bandwidth, anything past 8600 is useless.

[404 @ May 28th 2008 1:35PM]

Well I thought he was funny...

[joshky @ May 29th 2008 11:17AM]

by the way. that thing was designed to be basically a box with a pci-e slot (in a nutshell).

theoretically, you can retrofit it with your own graphics card. drivers are a different story but if you're really that desperate for even more than 8600.....

[IT-Accountant @ May 28th 2008 1:15PM]

please be real!

[waingro @ May 28th 2008 2:01PM]

Okay but price and when will it be on newegg for god sakes this thing should be for sale now and for under 200 for all the damn time we waited for this!

[Fara @ May 28th 2008 2:15PM]

A few more months? I put it on vaporware list a 6 months ago.

[Robotochan @ May 28th 2008 2:49PM]

I was going to get this but got bored and got a Vostro 1700 with a 256MB 8600GT built in. Kind of glad it hasn't come out!

[aron @ May 28th 2008 3:34PM]

I suppose I could finally play Civ 4 on my inspiron, but I'd be hardpressed to pay anything over $300 for this. If it costs anymore, might as well buy a whole mediocre PC and throw in a last-gen videocard. Actually, for $300 I rather go out and buy another console. The concept is great, but for me, it's hard to imagine a price where this product would succeed and also bring profits to Asus.

[ksmith @ May 28th 2008 3:44PM]

Too bad my eeepc doesn't have an express card, or I would sooo rock this.

[MacMan @ May 28th 2008 4:07PM]

Hi

Will this work with a MacBook?

Bye bye GMA950 :)

[Jon @ May 28th 2008 3:28PM]

what does this thing even do?

[Luke "MacMan" Centino @ May 28th 2008 4:10PM]

Its an external graphics card for laptops essentially.

It has an LCD that shows GPU speed, temp etc and the big dial overclocks the included 8600GT card. It can apparently be cracked open and any PCIe card can be used in it's place.... but whether or not that incurs performance/stability issues remains to be seen.

[Richard Lai @ May 28th 2008 7:24PM]

Man, what took them so long? In Hong Kong I get a lot of people who ask "Can I upgrade my laptop's graphics card?" and I had to keep telling them to wait for a bit. And that "bit" was like, what, over a year?

Ah well, all we need now is a price tag.

[Mobius_1 @ May 29th 2008 12:11AM]

I think I read this article last year, oh wait, oh right...

C'mon Asus, you have no idea how many people want this (or maybe just wants to buy a new laptop every 2 years or so)

[Noah @ May 29th 2008 12:46AM]

Is there any better connector for it? Perhaps eSATA or USB 3?

[iofthestorm @ May 29th 2008 1:53PM]

Those aren't as fast as PCI-E.

[iofthestorm @ May 29th 2008 1:55PM]

Does anyone know whether this is expresscard 34 or 54? My new ultraportable/tablet HP tx2000z only has a 34 slot and it'd be nice to have a docking station like thing for playing some games when I've got it plugged in.

[xerxes @ Jun 9th 2008 4:39AM]

guys*...i gotta 15 pin vga port n a tv out(s-video) port in my laptop...it has a 965gm chipset x1300...so umm...can i connect this device to my laptop?

[mattanator15 @ Jun 14th 2008 1:53AM]

I heard that these are only compatible with Asus laptops, but then again the shop that told me this is notorious with telling lies so they can sell you something new.

[matt @ Jun 23rd 2008 2:36AM]

I think it's crap you need another monitor and keyboard. Also I think it's crap that Asus wants you to think this isn't the Duke Nukem Forever of gadgets. Does anyone else always see the word "Asus" and think "Anus"? I do.

[Vences5 @ Jun 30th 2008 1:56AM]

No, only you.

[DarkLN1X @ Jun 26th 2008 12:00AM]

Any prices yet?, ive heard from it just today, could work in mi Presario C series?

[strider @ Jul 5th 2008 6:38PM]

Better U hurry ASUS... MSI is going to launch Luxium this year too and I think is cheaper and it can be more powerfull than XG Station, becouse I'll put my 8800gt on it... There are more than 10 million people waiting for these external graphics card for their laptops...

[DankBudz @ Jul 27th 2008 11:50PM]

So any1 knows whats up with this?