Normally we wouldn't really cover kitchen gadgets, but Asus has just launched its PureGo PD100 in the US market and it's the company's first entry in this market space. However, it's also an "IoT" gadget, as it features Bluetooth connectivity and an app, as well as wireless charging.

At this point, you're probably wondering what the heck it is though, well, ASUS calls it a "Fruit and Vegetable Cleanliness Detector". In reality, it appears to be a sensor that detects pesticides and other "harmful" pollutants in water. In other words, you have to fill up your sink, wash your fruit or vegetables, then plop the PD100 in the water to tell you how dirty the water is. The idea is that you replace the dirty water with clean water until the device tells you that there's no more pollutants in the water. At $199.99 it's hard to see how this is going to be a big seller for ASUS, but maybe it'll be this year's gift from tech people to their loved ones.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced Rapture GT-AX6000, a high-performance WiFi 6 (802.11ax) gaming router with a striking all-new design. The futuristic ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 gaming router lets gamers connect more devices, and upgrades their gaming experience to the next level. Powered by a 2.0 GHz 64-bit quad-core Broadcom CPU and flagship next-gen Broadcom WiFi 6 chipsets, it delivers wireless speeds up to 6000 Mbps with ASUS RangeBoost Plus for enhanced range, so it's always primed for the biggest battles. Fully customizable ASUS Aura RGB lighting effects make the GT-AX6000 a router that demands to be seen. Built for high-speed throughput to deliver more bandwidth to more devices, the GT-AX6000 features two 2.5 Gbps Ethernet ports, and the router supports both WAN and LAN aggregation.

The ROG Rapture GT-AX6000 is a powerful 4x4 dual-band WiFi 6 router that delivers combined speeds of up to 6000 Mbps—1148 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band and 4804 Mbps on the 5 GHz band—which is up to 2.3X faster than a 4x4 dual-band WiFi 5 router. With a combination of 160 MHz channels, OFDMA and MU-MIMO technology, WiFi 6 provides up to 4X-greater network capacity and efficiency in traffic-dense environments, making it ideal for heavily populated networks.

The India traditional PC market (inclusive of desktops, notebooks, and workstations) continued its growth momentum despite ongoing supply and logistical challenges. The traditional PC shipments witnessed a 30% year-over-year (YoY) growth in 3Q21 (Jul-Sep), marking the fifth consecutive quarter of growth in India, according to new data from the International Data Corporation 's (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Personal Computing Device Tracker. A total of 4.5 million PCs were shipped during the quarter, making it India's biggest-ever single quarter. To put this in perspective, it is bigger than the total yearly consumer shipments in 2019, a year before the pandemic hit us. As a result, many brands also reported their biggest quarter of PC shipments.

Notebook PCs continue to dominate the overall category with more than 80% share. Enterprise and consumer demand helped the Notebook category to reach over 3 million units for the first time, and the desktop category also continued its upward momentum as it grew by 30.5% YoY in 3Q21.

ASUS today launched Vivobook Pro 14/15 OLED (K3400/K3500 & M3401/M3500), two freshly styled and powerful new laptops designed for the daily creative and entertainment needs of the young generation of creators. Vivobook 14/15 OLED either feature up to 11th Generation Intel Core H-Series or AMD Ryzen 5000 Series Mobile Processors, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 GPUs, 16 GB of DDR4 memory, a 1 TB SSD and a 63 Wh high-capacity battery.

For superb creative visuals, the laptops are equipped with a vivid 14-inch (K3400/M3401) or 15-inch (K3500/M3500) up to 2.8K OLED 600-nit displays, which are PANTONE Validated for color accuracy and feature a cinema-grade 100% DCI-P3 color gamut. The laptops feature a fresh and modern new design, finished in a choice of Quiet Blue or Cool Silver neutral colors. Stylish on-trend details include a unique warning-striped Enter key, and there's an oversized touchpad with full gesture support.

ASUS debuted its second generation ROG Thor power supply series with the ROG Thor 1000 W Platinum II. The design focus with these appear to be low noise and next-gen connectors. ASUS used heavier heatsinks over the various hot components of the PSU, which have double the "volume" (surface area for heat dissipation, as well as heatsink size). These are paired with a 135 mm ASUS Axial-Tech fan that is designed to direct all of its airflow axially. The PSU can sustain fanless cooling up to 500 W load, and 12-15% fan-speed up to 700 W load, with the fan only beginning to ramp up beyond 700 W. This gives the PSU a Cybenetics Lambda A++ noise-rating certification. The switching efficiency is rated 80 Plus Platinum.

Under the hood, the ASUS ROG Thor 1000 W Platinum II features a single +12 V rail design, with most common electrical protections, against over/under voltage, overload, overheat, and short-circuit. The fully-modular PSU comes with connectors that include a 24-pin ATX, two 4+4 pin EPS, one 12-pin Molex microFit 3.0 capable of up to 450 W delivery, six 6+2 pin PCIe power, twelve SATA power, three Molex, and a Berg. The PSU features a monochrome LED display that puts out realtime load, voltage, and thermal monitoring. There's plenty of addressable-RGB LED illumination, which can be controlled via a standard 3-pin ARGB connection. The company is backing this with a 10-year warranty.

With AMD's Ryzen 5000 series of processors, you needed 400 or 500 series chipset to run the latest generation. However, some reports of users enabling their Ryzen 5000 series processors to run on some 300 series chipset motherboards. And this made everyone curious if AMD's partners will ever bring proper firmware support to run Ryzen 5000 processors on AMD 300 series chipsets. According to today's round of news, ASUS and GIGABYTE have released a firmware update for their A320 boards that enabled Ryzen 5000 processors to run at their total capacity.

Added support means if you have a system with an A320 chipset and plan to upgrade your processors, you may not need to buy a whole new platform for the Zen3-based processors, and you could update your BIOS version to the latest version and perform an upgrade. Check your board's BIOS version and see if you are eligible for an upgrade on ASUS and GIGABYTE websites.

G.SKILL International Enterprise Co., Ltd., the world's leading manufacturer of extreme performance memory and gaming peripherals, is excited to claim yet another world record, in close partnership with the ASUS ROG motherboard team, for the fastest memory frequency of an incredible DDR5-8704. This incredible feat was achieved with the G.SKILL Trident Z5 DDR5 memory on the latest Intel Core i7-12700KF processor and ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 APEX motherboard.

Laying claim to the world record for the fastest memory frequency with the latest DDR5 memory, G.SKILL and ASUS worked closely together to achieve an incredible DDR5-8704, using liquid nitrogen to cool the system to subzero temperatures. Solidifying DDR5 memory as the new extreme performance standard, this memory frequency world record was achieved with the new Trident Z5 RGB memory on the ASUS ROG Maximus Z690 APEX motherboard. See below for a screenshot of the world record, achieved by the extreme overclocker "hocayu":

ASUS has a mission to deliver incredible experiences that enhance the lives of people everywhere, and the newly announced Vivobook 13 Slate OLED does exactly that. This fun-filled 2-in-1 Windows 11 marvel — the world's first 13.3-inch Windows detachable laptop —rewrites the rules to make it easier to enjoy everything, everywhere. Now, there's no need to carry multiple devices for work and entertainment — this multi-talented personal companion does it all, thanks to its brilliant OLED touchscreen and quad-core Intel processor.

It's vivaciously styled and amazingly versatile, with a detachable full-size keyboard and a cover stand that has a 170° hinge. There's also a high-precision ASUS Pen 2.0 stylus, neatly stored in a handy magnetic pen holder so it's always to hand. This do-it-all laptop is equally at home in landscape or portrait mode, with or without a keyboard, so writing, typing, or watching at any angle in any environment is effortless. It's the passport to a new world of freedom!

ASUS' upcoming Z690 motherboards have been revealed and the company has put its product pages as well as posted additional details of most of its upcoming boards, which gives us a good look at where they're heading with the Z690-series. As mentioned before, ASUS has something like 30 different SKUs, so expect to spend some time to go over all the different models.

We're not going to spend too much time on the details right now and we suggest you head over to the source links and read up on the nitty gritty bits there. A few things to point out though is that ASUS appears to have worked on its own memory overclocking standard called AEMP, which is said to handle memory that lacks XMP profiles, which implies that Intel might not have had time to work with memory manufacturers to get XMP ready for DDR5. ASUS' ROG Maximus and ProArt motherboards feature dual PCIe 5.0 slots, whereas all other models only feature one, albeit obviously a single x16 or dual x8 slots. Some boards will feature Thunderbolt 4 and ASUS has even put a front connector on some of those, although we're not sure how that will work in terms of case compatibility.

The Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) traditional PC market, (desktops, notebooks, and workstations) grew 12.7% YoY in 2021Q3, for a total of 24.4 million units, according to International Data Corporation (IDC). A strong commercial performance throughout the region is the main driver of this growth, offsetting a slowdown in consumer, which could not keep up with the unfavorable growth rates seen in 2020Q3.

The Western European PC market enjoyed solid growth (15.8% YoY). Desktops continued their upward trend and increased 21.8% YoY—outgrowing notebooks (+13.1%) for the first time in six quarters. Desktop growth can be attributed to strength on the commercial side, as employers look to equip and refresh their increasingly populated offices. Notebooks also saw solid commercial shipments but were stifled by component shortages, primarily in IC boards and panels.

If the amount of upcoming Z690 was anything to go by, one could presume that the motherboard makers are backing Intel's upcoming platform to the max, as a leaked list of what should be close to every Z690 that will hit the market, counts a total of 98 boards. The list covers ASRock, ASUS, Biostar, NZXT, Gigabyte and MSI, but not EVGA and some other smaller players.

ASUS is apparently planning no less than 30 different models/SKUs, since some are clearly DDR4/DDR5 SKUs of the same model or SKUs with or without Wi-Fi, but even so, that's a massive launch lineup. Gigabyte isn't far behind with 27, followed by MSI at 24 and ASRock at 14, if we didn't count wrong. There isn't much news in terms of details of each of the boards here though, but it's clear that the high-end SKUs are mostly DDR5, while the mid-range and standard models are mostly using DDR4. The only slight surprise here is that only ASRock has more DDR4 than DDR5 models, with ASUS having exactly half of each, but Gigabyte and MSI are going with a preference for DDR5. ASRock, ASUS and Gigabyte appear to have liquid cooled SKUs, but it's not clear if MSI will offer such a SKU of its Godlike board.

Over the past few generations of Mini-ITX boards we've seen Asus add more and more stacked layers and its upcoming ROG Strix Z690-I Gaming WiFi seems to be taking this to the next level with what appears to be no less than three stacked layers on top of the main PCB. What can be seen from the side-shot of the boards is that there's at least one PCB for audio as well as what appears to be an ARGB and fan header, as well as what should be two layers for M.2 NVMe SSDs with associated heatsinks.

The rest of the pictures of the board have been put through some kind of filter which makes it hard to ascertain any details, although we can spot a USB type-C and USB 3.0 front panel connector. Asus has carried over the VRM heatsink from the Strix Z590-I Gaming WiFi by the looks of things, although it seems like the extra NVMe slot has been implemented on the cost of two SATA ports. We'll have to wait until the official unveiling to find out the full details, which should be sometime next month.

ASUS today announced the Dual Radeon RX 6600 graphics card, combining the latest ASUS technology with the new AMD GPU to deliver 1080p gaming experiences to the midrange market.

AMD Radeon RX 6600 graphics cards bring the power of AMD RDNA 2 gaming architecture to the market. With support for cutting-edge DirectX 12 Ultimate technology including accelerated ray tracing, 32 MB of high-performance, AMD Infinity Cache, AMD Smart Access Memory technology and other advanced features, AMD Radeon RX 6600 graphics cards includes the latest technology in image quality and performance. The AMD Radeon RX 6600 supports the AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution open-source spatial upscaling solution, designed to increase framerates in select titles while delivering high-resolution gaming experiences.

ASUS gave the GeForce RTX 3070 Ti its Turbo lateral-blower treatment. Designed for cases with a strict 2-slot limitation, or workstations with multiple add-on cards that have just two slots to spare for the graphics card, the RTX 3070 Ti joins other RTX 30-series "Ampere" cards from ASUS to receive this design. Its cooler features an aluminium channel heatsink that pulls heat from the GPU and memory over a copper plate (although it's not known if this is a vapor chamber plate like on the RTX 3090 Turbo). The lateral blower features double-ball bearings. The card draws power from two 8-pin PCIe power connectors located toward the tail-end (and not on top), these are right next to SSI mount holes that could come handy in workstation cases. The card sticks to NVIDIA-reference clock speeds, with 1770 MHz boost clocks, and 19 Gbps (GDDR6X-effective) memory. The company didn't reveal pricing.

Intel is set to launch their 12th Generation Alder Lake desktop processors on November 4th alongside the new Z690 chipset supporting DDR5 and PCIe 5.0. We have recently seen the first of these new Z690 motherboards from ASUS being listed for sale by PC Canada. The listings include TUF, ROG Maximus, ROG Strix, and Prime motherboards but we don't see any mention of Apex or Extreme boards so they may not be available at launch. The models all appear to retail for less than their Z590 counterparts except for some of the Prime series models which will come as a pleasant surprise to many. We are also aware that the VRM design for these boards will receive various upgrades according to a recent report from @Komachi. The Z690 Hero is set to feature a 20+1 phase design with 90 A Power Stages while the lower-end boards will get a 14+1 design.

ASUS and Noctua today announced the ASUS GeForce RTX 3070 Noctua Edition: the world's first graphics card to use Noctua fans and a tailored heatsink that has been co-engineered by Noctua. Allowing for a reduction in noise levels of up to 15 dB(A), this refined cooling setup makes the Noctua Edition the quietest card in its class and the perfect choice for customers who demand serious GPU performance without sacrificing quietness of operation.

"Using our extensive thermal R&D experience, we've created a new GPU heatsink that's tailor-made for the performance characteristics of their state-of-the-art NF-A12x25 fans," said Kent Chien (Corporate Vice President and General Manager of the ASUS Multimedia Business Unit). "Our teamwork gives noise-conscious gamers and Noctua enthusiasts a unique graphics card that maximizes heat dissipation per decibel of noise emitted, all in a package that coordinates perfectly with other Noctua products in a DIY PC."

While we wait for Intel's official launch of its Alder Lake platform, more leaks are making their way onto the internet and this time we get a sneak peek at the maximum memory speed at four different motherboards from ASUS. The model names of the boards leaked a couple of weeks ago, which makes this leak slightly more interesting, as we can get the full model names of the board this way, since the leaker was a bit sloppy here.

Two of the boards, the TUF Gaming Z690-Plus D4 and what we presume is the ROG Strix Z690-A Gaming D4, but the Wi-Fi version, as there are no Prime gaming boards, top out at 5,333 MHz. However, this shouldn't come as a surprise, as both boards rely on DDR4 and the highest memory speed is on par with ASUS' current Z590 boards.

Back in August, we have seen rumors of ASUS collaborating with Austrian cooling specialist Noctua to develop a custom set of graphics cards based on custom cooling solutions provided by Noctua. In the early EEC listings, the references stood for a GPU based on NVIDIA's GeForce RTX 3070 GPU with a custom cooling provided by Noctua. We thought that such a collaboration would open many doors for both companies. Today, the product is finally looking like a genuine offer, and we got the first set of pictures thanks to ASUS Vietnam.

The card, pictured below, has dual 8-pin power connectors to supply the chip and has three DisplayPort connectors accompanied by two HDMI outputs. The product is a three-slot body with Noctua's iconic brown theme, featuring two large fans to cool the heatsink. While we don't know any further information, the Vietnamese pricing is supposed to stand at 26 million VND, translating to around 1137.62 US Dollars at the writing date.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced an all-new gaming peripherals lineup that channels the minimalist feel of monochrome through a striking Moonlight White color scheme. The ROG Strix Scope NX TKL 80%, tenkeyless mechanical RGB gaming keyboard, ROG Strix Impact II ambidextrous gaming mouse, ROG Strix Go Core gaming headset and ROG Cetra II Core in-ear gaming headphones are all now available in North America in this stunning colorway.

ROG has a long history of weaving Aura Sync into a huge ecosystem of devices to let gamers shine a light on their personalities through their gear - but many players also seek a minimalist look. That's why the ROG color palette is expanding to include the Moonlight White series, providing a commanding counterpart to the signature red-and-black color scheme.

ASUS refreshed the ROG Falchion compact 65% mechanical gaming keyboard with homebrew mechanical switches. The keyboard originally launched in July 2020 with Cherry MX Red switches, and its replacement on the store shelves, the new ASUS ROG Falchion NX, features ASUS ROG NX Red switches. These offer 1.8 mm key travel, and 40 gf minimum actuation force. It retains the illuminated felt-touch panel along the left side that can be used either for scrolling (slide your finger), to cycle between macro maps, and as a battery indicator. The rest of the keyboard's design and feature-set remains the same as the original. ASUS is expected to formally launch the ROG Falchion NX around September 23, 2021.

Just over a year ago, IKEA and Asus teased that they were working on something together and from October, you'll actually be able to buy the first products. There will be more than 30 new products in total, ranging from "gaming" desks and chairs, to key "gaming" accessories like mug holders and neck pillows.

It's highly likely that the pandemic has delayed these products, since they launched in China back in January, but now it seems like stock should be arriving globally. In total, there will be six product families, although the press release doesn't go into detail of what product is in each product category. The six families are UPPSPEL, LÅNESPELARE, MATCHSPEL, GRUPPSPEL, UTESPELARE, HUVUDSPELARE, which pretty much are all borrowed from various football (soccer to our American readers) terms in Swedish.

A list of upcoming ASUS motherboards based on the Intel Z690 chipset hit the radar on the Euasian Economic Commission (EEC) website, and it's telling. Intel's upcoming "Alder Lake-S" 12th Gen Core desktop processors support both DDR5 and DDR4 memory, as they form a point of transition between the two memory standards. The company's 6th Gen Core "Skylake" technically supported DDR3, helping people move between it and the then new DDR4, but motherboard vendors mostly avoided DDR3 slots. This time, the stakes are different, as component prices are on the boil, and the company would want to avoid placing the additional burden of new memory on people with DDR4 memory kits. This reflects on the ASUS motherboard lineup.

The lineup consists of the usual, predictable list of ROG Maximus, ROG Strix, TUF Gaming, Prime, and ProArt series SKUs, but what's noteworthy is that many of these come with the extension "D4," denoting DDR4 memory slots. For example, something like the Prime Z690-A comes in two variants, the standard one with DDR5 slots, and the "D4" variant with DDR4. It's interesting to note here, that the top-of-the-line ROG Maximus XIV series lacks any D4 variant, which means they'll remain DDR5-exclusive. We can't tell just from the names whether any of these models features both DDR5 and DDR4 slots; but one can definitely expect other brands such as ASRock to come up with such crazy contraptions.

To all those who missed the 6 GHz 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6E) bus, ASUS rolled out the PCE-AX58BT, a desktop PCI-Express network adapter that provides Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2 connectivity. The adapter provides a theoretical maximum bandwidth of 2402 Mbps Wi-Fi 6E (6 GHz) and Wi-Fi 6 (5 GHz), along with Wi-Fi 6 (2.4 GHz) bandwidth of up to 574 Mbps. Older 802.11ac is supported at speeds of up to 1733 Mbps, and 802.11n at up to 300 Mbps. The network controller also supports the latest WPA3 security standards.

The PCE-AX58BT connects to your desktop PC over a PCI-Express x1 slot, and an included USB 2.0 header cable (needed for the Bluetooth component). A pair of external antennae are fixed to a magnetized base that can be placed either on your desk, or on top of your PC case. While ASUS does not mention the controller, it is very likely the Intel AX210 Gig+ looking at the feature-set. It sits underneath an aluminium heatsink on an M.2-2230 card on top of the add-on card's main PCB. The company didn't reveal pricing or availability information. ASUS is readying a portfolio of Wi-Fi 6E consumer networking hardware, including the upcoming ZenWiFi PRO router.

Chinese news site MyDrivers have recently reported on increasing graphics card prices in China over the last month. These price increases come as a result of reduced GPU shipments especially of the NVIDIA RTX 3060 whose supply is down 50% with improvements not expected for several weeks. The site has tracked the prices for popular cards from ASUS, Gigabyte, and MSI with increases across the board ranging from a 12 USD increase on the Gigabyte GTX 1050 Ti up to a 92 USD increase on the ASUS RTX 3070 Ti. These supply impacts have impacted NVIDIA to a greater extent than AMD but the general price increases are likely indicative of the global trend over the coming weeks.

ASUS earlier today teased its upcoming premium home networking product, the ZenWiFi PRO router. Designed in a vertical, cuboidal body with an acrylic top that shows off its MU-MIMO antennas, the ZenWiFi PRO is designed to be space-saving on your desk, while not compromising on range or bandwidth. As an ASUS Zen product, it's likely to be high on the aesthetics, with its matte black body that resembles a skyscraper. The "penthouse" (if you can call it that), features the antennas resembling pillars, as well as an RGB-illuminated ASUS logo that probably serves other functions. The teaser already reveals that the router is designed for 6 GHz Wi-Fi 6E. It's also possible that ASUS throws in goodies such as 2.5 GbE wired LAN and WAN ports, USB 3.x type-C and type-A ports to plug in the next crop of 5G dongles, DAS, and much more. It also wouldn't surprise us if ASUS designs mesh repeaters with the same design scheme as optional accessories, or part of whole-home mesh kits.