It's said that all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, but in reverse order, all play and no work would result in Jack being broke, and eventually homeless. Like the rest of us, Jack has to suck it up and split his days between both. Maybe Asus had Jack in mind when it designed its new Gaming Station GS50, a burly desktop PC that's outfitted with a workstation CPU and gaming GPU.
It's one part gaming PC and one part workstation, hence the name. Specifically, it pairs a 10-core/20-thread server-class Intel Xeon W-2155 processor with a GeForce RTX 2080 graphics cards for some serious firepower.
"Whether you are a photographer, video editor, 3D animator or software developer, Gaming Station GS50 provides the speed, expandability, and 24/7 reliability you depend upon to do your best work coupled with the power to supercharge your gaming sessions," Asus says.
The system also features 32GB of ECC memory, which users can upgrade to a whopping 512GB. Base storage is a 512GB M.2 SSD, albeit SATA instead of NVMe. The latter isn't really beneficial for gaming, but for a high-end machine that doubles as a workhorse, a SATA drive feels out of place. In any event, the desktop has two M.2 slots and six SATA 6Gbps connectors.
Rear port selection consists of dual LAN ports, two USB 3.1 Gen 2 ports (Type-A and Type-C), four USB 3.1 Gen 1 ports, four USB 2.0 ports, and 7.1-channel audio jacks. Other features include a 700W 80 Plus Gold PSU, a CPU liquid cooling system, and Aura Sync RGB lighting.
Asus did not say how much this system will cost or when it will be available. The Xeon W-2155 is nearly the same as the new Core i9-9900X, only with ECC memory support, higher RAM capacity support, a locked multiplier, and a higher price. In other words, don't expect the Gaming Station GS50 to come cheap.
