Asus Debuts High-Tech Marine Cool Motherboard at CeBIT
Posted 03/09/09 at 10:49:17 AM by Paul Lilly
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Asus has been showing off its cool and quirky Marine Cool concept motherboard at CeBIT, and it's like nothing you've ever seen before. We say 'cool' in a literal sense, as the board's underbelly comes equipped with a backplate the company says utilizes "micro-porous ceramic" technology. According to Asus, the backplate provides "aerospace-grade thermal dissipating," while also adding to the board's structural integrity. Combined with the metal heat-pipe module covering the chipset and PWM, Asus says "these revolutionary designs improve heat dissipation by up to 2 fold."
The prototype board also boasts an onboard UPS consisting of a built-in polymer battery in the gray portion of the backplate, providing backup power and preventing damage in the case of a blackout. But the quirkiness comes in the form of SO-DIMM memory slots typically found on notebooks. We suppose the space-saving slots might have made sense on paper, but that's probably where it should have stayed. However, we do dig the built-in Failover Memory, which Asus says guarantees the system will boot when using incompatible or faulty memory.
Thoughts on the Marine Cool motherboard? Hit the jump and sound off.
Image Credit: Anandtech
Master Chief would be
Submitted by Denis63 on Tue, 03/10/2009 - 11:24am
Master Chief would be proud! This board belongs in Halo!
-Denis
Not bad
Submitted by MAJORzer0 on Tue, 03/10/2009 - 3:54am
This set up is easy on the eyes and I bet it works in theory but how well does the "micro-porous ceramic" tech really work. It ceramic is good at disipating heat but if you don't get that pressed up to the board there will be a pocket of heat between the ceramic and mo-bo. I'm not really into the Idea of having something right up on the bottom of my board. I'll be honest though I have no idea if their matirial is conductive. I gotten word of conductive ceramic and that makes me queezy about putting that into my case. Great idea with the onboard UPS though kudos....SODIMM?!?!?! survey says *BZZZT!!* wrong answer. I'm sure it will find it's home with their $400 dollar keyboard computer thingy we read about a bit ago...
~No one said it would be easy....they just said it was worth it...~
Submitted by smashingpumpin on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 8:36pm
that's one cool-lookin mofoin mobo! if you look at it for a while, it looks like a futuristic RTS base built on space (with the black background lol)
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...and what does this have to do with porn?
Submitted by cataha on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 7:33pm
After my last choose that i made about a mobo it didn't matter how it looked, cause most of the time it's under the table and the only time i'm looking at it, is when i have to vacuum it or upgrade something..
It's probably for Display only type of deal.
Submitted by tehR0XX0Rz on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 4:10pm
I am so looking forward to $1,000 "Extreme Gamer" motherboards.
Submitted by grayscare0 on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 1:06pm
It looks stunning, but I wish it wouldn't use SO-DIMMs. It would have been an excellent performance board.
Bigger is always Better
Submitted by blueaball on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 11:43am
Ok, this board is FREAKING COOL!!! not just from a fashion sense, mind you. A HTPC would be great for this mobo, but I think they should go bigger. Make an E-ATX board, 2 CPU's, and slots for DDR3. And although it has great features in a small package, they would be much more appreciated on a bigger motherboard/skulltrail setup.
Submitted by linkmaster6 on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 11:17am
looked through the site... what socket is it 775? No one really offically says
Submitted by erolsipar on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 12:22pm
It is a LGA 775.
It has a nothbridge and South Bridge so its not a LGA 1366.
New Markets Maybe
Submitted by Peanut Fox on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 10:54am
If this board (or rather it's SO-DIMM design) is popular enough, it could creat a new market for performance SO-DIMM memory moduals.
While I love the look, the cons of not being able to use performance memory mean I'd not likely use this in my main rig. The looks are also wasted in an HTPC since you normally wouldn't use a case with a clear side panel, and even if you did it would look outta place in most theater setups.
Nice Ideas
Submitted by Bender2000 on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 8:45am
I like the thought process of using SO-DIMMs, but not for a performance board. This board makes sense in the micro-ATX form factor. Imagine the advantages when building a LAN party box. Space freed by using SO-DIMM and SSDs make it easier to cool the CPU and GPUs. And who doesn't want that?
Submitted by Hg Dragon on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 9:04am
I was thinking more along the lines of a home theater/media center rig. The reduced thermals mean reduced noise profile for a box tucked next to your nice big screen TV.
Submitted by Hg Dragon on Mon, 03/09/2009 - 8:37am
Yeah, this board looks pretty damned cool (in more ways that one, apparently). The SODIMMs are iffy at best however. If you're looking for a "thermal over perfomance" solution, this would be great. And great looking.
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