Stefan Mileschin

ASUS on Monday introduced its new ROG Strix Hero II and ROG Strix Scar II gaming laptops. Originally, ASUS positioned the ROG Strix family of notebooks as its entry-level gaming systems. The new GL504-series notebooks use different chassis, feature better display options, and up to GeForce GTX 1070 graphics. Quite predictably, they are also more expensive than their predecessors.

Before jumping to details, let us remind you the key difference between the said notebooks. The ASUS ROG Strix Hero II and ROG Strix Scar II GL504-series laptops are based on exactly the same 15.6-inch platform, but the manufacturer positions them differently. The Strix Hero II PCs are designed for MOBA gamers, whereas the Strix Scar II — called after the SCAR rifle — are aimed at FPS gamers. Therefore, the latter may be outfitted with a better GPU, a display featuring a 144 Hz refresh rate (up from 120 Hz on the previous-gen models), whereas the former may come with a more affordable screen. Now, back to business.

The Base & Cooling

The new ASUS ROG Strix Hero II and Scar II GL504-series notebooks use Intel’s quad-core Core i5-8300H or six-core Core i7 8750H processors joined by up to 32 GB of DDR4-2666 memory and equipped with a hybrid storage system comprising of an up to 512 GB PCIe/NVMe SSD and an HDD (or Seagate’s FireCuda SSHD in case of entry-level SKUs). The ROG Strix Hero II is outfitted with NVIDIA’s GeForce GTX 1060 GPU (an upgrade when compared to the GL503), whereas the ROG Strix Scar II may come with either the GTX 1060 or a considerably more powerful GeForce GTX 1070 GPU.

To cool down the rather powerful components, ASUS equips the new ROG Strix Hero II and the ROG Strix Scar II laptops with its latest cooling system dubbed the HyperCool Pro. The cooling system is comprised of two 12-Volt blowers capable of spinning at a very high speed (according to ASUS, which does not quantify the claim) along with multiple heat pipes and radiators featuring 0.1-mm thick fins installed around the perimeter of the chassis. Furthermore, the most powerful Strix Scar II GL504GS SKU comes with additional heat pipes for the GPU and VRMs that also tend to generate a lot of heat. The advanced cooling system enables CPUs to run in Turbo mode for longer periods of time. Meanwhile, ASUS allows users to set up their preferences for performance (Overboost mode) and silence (Silent mode), so the two blowers are not going to annoy when they are not needed (at least based on what ASUS says).

https://www.anandtech.com/show/12862...70-new-chassis