14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday, ASUS officially announced the release of the ROG XG Station, the world's first VGA and multimedia docking station. Being part of the ROG (Republic of Gamers) series, the product is obviously designed with the gaming users in mind. The ROG XG Station was first showcased at last year's CES show and is actually an external graphics card, providing support to laptop users.
The product is based on NVIDIA's 8600GT GPU and is build on an Express Card interface, offering notebook users the power of a discrete graphic card to laptop users. It also incorporates 4 USB 2.0 ports and Dolby Technology, doubling as a USB hub that delivers true AV enjoyment. With technical specifications, the ROG XG Station provides a graphic card that runs at 540MHz, with 256MB of GDDR3 memory clocked at 1.4 GHz. The graphic card will provide users with support for a maximum resolution of 3840 x 2400.
What is really interesting about this product is its capability of providing users with an easy to use overclocking tool. The design of the ROG XG Station allows users to freely adjust the GPU's clock speed from a simple control knob. Using the product's large LED screen will allow users to monitor critical system statistics that include system master volume, GPU clock speed, current GPU temperature, current actual Frames Per Second (FPS) and gPU fan speed indications. Practically, you can enable your desktop computer with the power of a real gaming-ready desktop computer.
You can also control the settings through a control panel based on a GUI interface. The panel allows you to change modes between the notebook screen and the external LCD monitor. According to ASUS, a notebook based on Intel 945GM and 965GM graphics connected to the XG station with an ASUS EN8600GT graphics card will have a 12 and 6.7 times faster graphics acceleration respectively.
No pricing and availability were disclosed yet for this gaming-oriented product.