OK, SO WE might be a little bit sarcastic here, but we can’t quite figure this one out. Asus has announced no less than six new motherboards, based on very basic chipsets, that are not only meant to have the lowest electromagnetic emissions in the industry, but they also feature “advanced protective shields”, “anti-surge features” and reduced “system-wide power consumption by up to 80.23 [percent]”.
Now then, let’s break this down. All electronic components have to meet stringent EMI (electromagnetic interference) tests to be allowed to be sold and the case further helps to reduce any EMI emissions to next to nothing. Had this been 10 or 15 years ago, then maybe this could’ve been heralded as a breakthrough, but we don’t really get the point here, apart from Asus scaring a lot of hypochondriacs into believing that computers are evil and will make you sick due to some invisible radiation emitting from them.
With words like “harmful” and “radiation exposure” in this press release make us wonder what Asus was thinking. The press release also claims that the motherboards incorporate a “Low Radiation Circuit Design [that] reduces the radiation produced by electrical components by intelligently positioning oppositely-charged electrical flows across each other to cancel out the fields generated.” It continues, “Finally, a Radiation Moat Design effectively eliminates radiation leakage to surrounding components by confining it to small region around an active area.”
Looking at the pictures of the specific motherboards in question on Asus’ website we can’t see any signs of the aforementioned “advanced protection shields” which we expected to be big slabs of metal covering any and all parts of the motherboard that the user doesn’t need access too. Alas, we were disappointed to find that the boards looked just like any other normal motherboard.
Hopefully some of our more educated readers can enlighten us as to what this means, as it looks like you need a degree in electronics engineering to read motherboard press releases these days. Ok, so Asus is trying to look after our health, which isn’t a bad thing, but the press release really went too far and we can see a lot people reading this and then quickly unplugging their computers and chucking them out the window.
The “anti-surge features” is another part that had us scratching our heads, as modern power supplies from any reputable manufacturers have failsafes that are meant to prevent power surges from getting to the motherboard. However, this is at least a feature that could potentially save your motherboard and any components connected to it from frying due to a power surge.
This isn’t the first time Asus has been making claims of massive power savings, either. The models on the list are all basic models and as such feature basic power regulation which makes Asus’ EPU (Energy Processing Unit) less efficient than in high-end models where it has several power phases that it can switch off when the system is idling. A system wide reduction in power consumption by 80.23 percent is unheard of, unless of course the system is put into sleep mode, but then the power saving should be about 95 percent or more.
Sorry Asus, but this likely won’t help you get new customers and most of it is scaremongering, something we didn’t expect to see from a world-leading motherboard manufacturer. We appreciate that it’s hard to come up with breakthrough features all the time, but scaring people into buying your products isn’t the way the game is played.S|A
Lars-Göran Nilsson
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