ASUS has recently announced their Republic of Gamers (ROG) XG Station 2 external graphics enclosure. The serves as a successor to the original XG Station launched in 2007. The XG Station 2 is able to drive high-end graphics and expand the connectivity of your machine.
Inside the XG Station 2 you’ll find a PCI-Express 3.0 x16 slot and two 6+2 PCIe power connectors which can power the card with up to 500W of power. The power supply can also provide up to 100W of power to recharge your notebook.
The ROG XG Station 2 connects to your notebook or desktop using a Thunderbolt 3 connection. The 40 Gbps that the connection has not only drives the graphics card, but also a Gigabit Ethernet controller and 4-port USB 3.0 hub. The Thunderbolt 3 connection can be supplemented by an additional USB 3.0 connection to your host machine. While this is not necessary ASUS claims that it will improve performance.
Keeping your graphics card cool are three 70 mm cooling fans. The enclosure will feature RGB lighting, which can be controlled with ASUS’s Aura software. The ROG XG Station 2 is expected to start selling in Q1 of 2017.
