The Republic of Gamers is the gaming arm of computing powerhouse ASUS, and they are always bringing out cutting-edge hardware and peripherals that make gamers drool.
The latest ROG notebook to hit the country – and which is available through Tarsus Distribution – is the 15.6-inch Republic of Gamers Zephyrus M (GM501).
It’s an absolute beast of a machine, sporting some of the latest advances in PC computing hardware all packed into a compact, gorgeous chassis that gamers can take with them wherever they go.
The Heart of the Beast
Before we get into everything else, we simply have to cover the most important part of any gaming notebook. The heart, if you will: the graphics chip, or GPU.
Here, that’s the NVIDIA GeForce GTX1070 – a superbly powerful GPU capable of running games at 1080p resolution at frame rates well in excess of 60 frames per second.
And that’s important, because the Zephyrus’s designers paired it up with a 1080p display that not only sports a refresh rate of 144Hz and a response time of 3ms, but which uses NVIDIA’s G-Sync “adaptive refresh” technology to ensure that the graphics card’s output is matched exactly to the screen’s refresh rate.
Here’s a quick video from Engadget that does a great job of showing off G-Sync and why it’s so important:
Gaming on Ultra
The result of this ideal marriage of display technologies is the G501’s super-smooth gaming performance, and a system that can easily handle any game on Ultra settings at 1080p.
Gamers can even lower the quality of their visuals to get even faster performance – useful when gaming competitively – and in so doing they’ll see their games flying along at close to, or right on, the display’s 144Hz maximum refresh.
What a pleasure. Especially in a portable, mobile PC.
The rest, just as good
The fantastic thing about the Zephyrus M GM501is that the rest of it is just as good as the graphics chip.
For starters, ROG chose Intel’s Core i7-8750H as the brains of the system. It’s a six-core, 12-thread processor that has a max turbo frequency of 4.10GHz, meaning it can tear through even the toughest computing tasks like they’re adding 1 + 1.
Throw video editing, photo editing, code-compiling at it, and it’ll finish them off like they’re no big deal, and that’s what anyone wants in a notebook computer, not just gamers.
It’s also the reason the GTX1070 performs so well: there is simply zero CPU bottleneck holding the card back, allowing it to perform to its full potential. It’s a match made in heaven.
By now, 16GB of RAM is standard on any gaming system (8GB is okay, but is just too little for some games), and that’s what this system has.
Storage, too, has received the “best approach” treatment, as the Zephyrus M GM501 has a super-fast 256GB M.2 3x4PCIe NVME solid-state drive for the OS, paired with a 1TB hybrid mechanical data drive. That means Windows responds quickly and boots up fast, and there’s plenty of snappy secondary storage for data and games.
The last nod to the gaming aesthetic is the presence of a gorgeous 4-zone RGB-backlit keyboard that can be programmed to light up in a number of ways. Gamers love them some RGB goodness, so this fits well with the notebook’s intended demographic.
It’s a looker
Here’s a closer look at the device:
Some clever extras
The Zephyrus M GM501 is also one of the slimmest notebooks ROG has brought out, which is great for people who like their notebooks to look good, but not so great for anyone who knows how that thin-ness can compromise on a notebook’s heat-dissipation capabilities and battery life.
ASUS knows all that, and has put things in place that solves all of those concerns. First, there’s a clever hinge system that kicks in when the notebook’s lid is opened; it raises the GM501 off the surface it’s on, increasing air flow underneath the notebook and reducing temperatures by 20%.
Second, ASUS lets users switch between using the GTX1070 and the integrated Intel HD Graphics 630 with the press of a button. The Intel chip uses a lot less power than the GTX1070, extending the battery life when the notebook is not plugged into power.
That’s pretty impressive, right there.
A great all-rounder
All of this comes together to make the Republic of Gamers GM501 gaming notebook a fantastic all-rounder, able to tackle the latest games as well as any work you’d like to do on it, with ease. All of the Republic of Gamers laptops also come with ROG backpack, mouse, and headset in one box.
These are now available to all of Tarsus Distribution’s resellers; if you’re interested in more info or you’d like to place an order, you can contact the ASUS PM, Diana Hughes, by email or you can phone her on 011 531 1000.
