Asus ROG XG Station 2: my experiences

[jackeyjoe]

I seem to be one of the few people who has managed to get my hands on an XG Station 2, with it being the only external GPU option(it's the only one available in Australia) I thought I'd give it a go. Unfortunately it has been an overly frustrating experience, with nothing working. Let me preface by outlining how I intended to use the XG Station. My dream was to have a portable laptop(in this case a dell XPS 15 9560), which when at home could plug into an egpu dock so I had extra graphical oomph at home. My dream was shattered when I first tried plugging them in, they didn't work together!

Let me outline what I have figured out thus far:


The XG Station is based off a TI83 controller(confirmed here http://imgur.com/a/SGMTB). For people like me with Thunderbolt 1575 controllers that 'don't support' egpu's(even though the controller does), in theory it's game over unless our devices get updates supporting them. However, competing products like the AkiTio Node and newer Powercolor Devil Box run off the same TI83 controller and have had updates allowing them to work anyway. How? They add support for devices that don't officially support egpu's(like my XPS 15). Now, I can't even get onto Asus support because their email us page won't recognise my serial number(it's needed to send an email), and they aren't replying to any tweets I send which makes it quite hard, to say the least, I'm getting frustrated. All I want to know is if I have to return it due to a lack of any future firmware updates adding support.


Aside from glaring software problems, the actual device is well built for the most part, I don't like how the case folds apart, I can imagine the lock being a weak point, everything important is well built though. The style isn't for everybody(although if you're here you probably like it) but it looks ok enough, less flashy in person than I expected. Of what I could test, it's fast. Really fast. USB and ethernet are quick, easily matching my desktop(~280mb/s copying off an USB SSD). I like the idea of an extra USB type A, if I had a GPU I'm sure the extra bandwidth not allocated elsewhere would help.

Anyway, this is just a post hoping to draw attention to a glaring issue with the new Asus ROG XG Station 2, which will probably put a lot of people off buying it. I'd really appreciate if anybody who knows how to get onto support without using that web form to give me a nudge in the right direction too!

[BoutTime01]

ImDez wrote:
Here is the topic about both models 702 and 502: https://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?91258-Why-have-a-crippled-JHL6240-Thunderbolt-3-port-in-th...

I checked I have PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_15c0: https://vendev.org/pci/ven_8086&dev_15c0/

Gents is there a difference between the 702 and 502 maybe?

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[ImDez]

Screen size?

BoutTime01 wrote:
Gents is there a difference between the 702 and 502 maybe?

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[ImDez]

Did ASUS-OP stop replying in this thread due to wrong declaration that

ASUS-OP wrote:

GL702VM should feature 40Gbit/s controller.

?

[U2Desire]

ASUS-OP wrote:
Hi ImDez,

Where did you see the GL702VM say it it using JHL6240? My last reply is purely on the controller spec. GL702VM should feature 40Gbit/s controller.

regards,

I have a GL702VM and based on all the info I could find it is using the JHL6240 half speed controller. According to my searched 15BF is the LP controller. So not all GL702VM's are ising full speed controllers. Am I wrong??



Edit: Just noticed someone already pointed this out.

[BoutTime01]

U2Desire wrote:
I have a GL702VM and based on all the info I could find it is using the JHL6240 half speed controller. According to my searched 15BF is the LP controller. So not all GL702VM's are ising full speed controllers. Am I wrong??



Edit: Just noticed someone already pointed this out.

It would be a joke if only it was funny. I've received two different answers from two different Asus representatives and one of the has confirmed the official Asus websites contain the wrong information.
Quite simply Asus should only update the Thunderbolt firmware for external GPU compatibility on machines that can run an external GPU at full 40gbit/s.
That would be the one surefire way of informing people of what hardware they have.

Download firmware and start the install. If it's compatible it will install, if it's not it will show a message stating that the Thunderbolt port/controller is only half speed and therefore not compatible.

Come on Asus, it's not that hard is it?

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

[Slick8791]

Is there any official information from ASUS on IF the XG Station 2 is going to be available in North America?

According to this article, there are no current plans to sell it in the US: http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/asus-xg-station-2-graphics-amp

[ImDez]

Slick8791 wrote:
Is there any official information from ASUS on IF the XG Station 2 is going to be available in North America?

According to this article, there are no current plans to sell it in the US: http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/asus-xg-station-2-graphics-amp

check here https://egpu.io/external-gpu-buyers-guide-2017/

[ASUS-OP]

Hi Slick8791,

From what I was told, the launch schedule is still to be decided.

regards,

Slick8791 wrote:
Is there any official information from ASUS on IF the XG Station 2 is going to be available in North America?

According to this article, there are no current plans to sell it in the US: http://www.laptopmag.com/articles/asus-xg-station-2-graphics-amp

[Slick8791]

ASUS-OP wrote:
Hi Slick8791,

From what I was told, the launch schedule is still to be decided.

regards,

Thanks! At least I don't have to worry about hammering my credit card right now... 😉

[CladMaster]

ASUS-OP,

And what about the other models .... ?

G752VL / VY ? Are these able to work at 40Gbit/s ?

Global link for G752VL states 40Gbp/s
https://www.asus.com/Laptops/ROG-G752VL/

US link states 20Gbp/s
https://www.asus.com/us/Laptops/ROG-G752VL/

This is the same for the G752VY pages, both pages differ with the Thunderbolt 3 details.