ASUS Ascent GX10 Internal Hardware Overview
Removing the bottom plate of the Ascent GX10 reveals additional components that must be removed to gain meaningful access to the system.
Once we remove a further metal plate, we are able to reach the sole user-upgradable component of the Ascent GX10, its M.2 SSD. Atypically, this is an M.2 2242 (42mm) slot, so the GX10 is not able to take full-size (2280) SSDs. That said, the 2242 form factor still provides enough space for up to 4TB of NAND in the current generation of drives, and ASUS offers GX10 configurations with 1TB, 2TB, or 4TB of storage.
Internally, the M.2 slot is wired up to a PCIe 5.0 x4 root port, meaning the slot supports the latest and greatest in SSDs. However checking out ASUS’s spec sheet, only their 4TB configuration actually ships with a PCIe 5.0 x5 SSD; the other configurations are paired with PCIe 4.0 x4 SSDs. So buyers needing the greatest possible SSD bandwidth (for burst workloads, at least) will want to take note.
The 1TB drive included with our review sample is labeled ESL01TBTLCZ-27J2, which seems to be an internal ASUS designation for a 1TB SSD based on a Phison T27 controller and paired with TLC NAND.
Digging deeper still, we are able to remove the entire motherboard and heatsink-fan assembly from the case.
Providing cooling for the system is a sizeable heatsink, with two Delta fans pushing air through it. Each is labeled as consuming 6 Watts of power.
Moving the fans out of the way, we get a bit of access to the motherboard for the system. Though with its high cooling needs relative to its compact size, we find that pretty much every chip of note is covered by a copper base plate, with heat pipes leading back to the heatsink.
This includes the GB10 SoC itself (right), the ConnectX-7 NIC, and even the 128GB of LPDDR5X memory.
Despite the clear similarities to NVIDIA’s reference design with their own DGX Spark, ASUS is at least using a board they have built themselves, rather than buying a complete board from NVIDIA. Towards the right side, we can see the “GX10” designation, and on the top of the photo, there is an upside-down ASUS on the board. ASUS also put work into the cooling in the system.
As a quick one, we have a short if you want to see more angles:
And with the GX10 disassembled, let us get to it running.
