Welcome to another ASUS PCDIY Live Stream!

Today we're showcasing some of the most exciting innovations across the ASUS and ROG ecosystem, featuring next-generation OLED gaming displays, creator-focused monitors, flagship power supplies, and the latest WiFi 8 networking solutions.

Leading today's lineup are the brand-new ACE Series esports monitors, engineered for competitive gamers who demand exceptional speed, responsiveness, and visual clarity. We'll also explore cutting-edge OLED technology, creator-grade color accuracy, advanced power delivery solutions, and networking products designed to power the next generation of gaming and content creation while meeting the needs of the modern digital household.

Whether you're building or upgrading an esports rig, a professional creator workstation, or looking for the best wired and wireless networking experience, we've got something for every PC enthusiast.

Although it has been available or up for pre-orders in other regions, the ROG Rapture GT-BN98 PRO is now available to pre-order in the US.

For those interested in the Pre-Order link, here you go:

• ASUS eShop (US): https://eshop.asus.com/us/rog/90ig0an0-ma1a0v-rog-rapture-gt-bn98-pro.html
• ASUS eShop (CA): https://eshop.asus.com/ca-en/90ig0an0-mx1a0v-rog-rapture-gt-bn98-pro.html

For those unfamiliar with this router, let's go into the details. Let's first start by talking about WiFi 8.

WiFi 8 - More Speed Through Stability and Efficiency

Most everyone's first reactions to hearing that WiFi 8 and WiFi 7 have the same maximum theoretical speed is, "What? Why bother with WiFi 8?" That's right, if you weren't aware; WiFi 8 doesn't include a boost to max speed beyond 46Gbps.

However, WiFi doesn't provide your devices with the max theoretical speed, generally. WiFi performance from a router to a device depends on a lot of factors, such as the distance from the router, quality of the signal, interference from other devices, internal processing power and heat mitigation, and more. This is why your WiFi might suffer from slow performance in houses or units that have a lot building materials that block signal penetration, if you have multiple devices connected to your router across different bands, or congested channels. These issues aren't new to WiFi.

WiFi 8 is cleaning up those areas to improve performance across the board. Here are some of the ways that you'll see this benefit:

• Up to 2x faster higher median throughput
• Up to 2x wider IoT coverage
• Multi-AP coordination with lower latency
• Multi-Device boost to provide smarter spectrum in crowds

For a more detailed explanation, this is how WiFi 8 addresses practical problems that users typically encounter across different usage scenarios:

• Higher sustained speed at mid-to long range - Most people are aware that the further devices move away from the AP, the signal gets weaker and speeds drop. WiFi 8 reduces sudden slowdowns at mid-to-long range, improving the throughput falloff rate and keeping connections more stable.
• Connectivity for low-powered devices - Most IoT devices transmit at lower power than routers, which can result in weak return signals and frequent disconnections. WiFi 8 strengthens two-way communication, enabling low-power devices to maintain stable links.
• Coexistence with other networks - In densely populated environments (such as apartment buildings or offices), signals from multiple routers may overlap, causing interference. WiFi 8 introduces smarter spectrum coordination and interference mitigation, keeping speeds stable.
• Enhanced Multi-User Capacity - When multiple devices connect simultaneously, traditional WiFi often experiences congestion. WiFi 8 enhances spectrum efficiency, dynamic scheduling, throughput, and latency to ensure that bandwidth is used effectively.

ROG Rapture AI Boost - Making gaming easier with every connection

A gaming router seems like a silly thing from the outset. First, it doesn't do any gaming. Second, if you understand a little bit about networking, many of these features look like simple QoS tweaks. Third, and last, you might wonder how easy or cumbersome it is to use and configure these features. However, what makes a router an ROG gaming router is the combination of hardware, software, management, and ease of use to jump right into your online gaming experience.

The ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro handles your traffic in a lot of ways - from the connection point to the destination point:

• Device Optimization - Automatically detects gaming devices across its LAN, WiFi, and gaming port connections, applying acceleration and optimized latency.
• Adaptive QoE - Analyzes live network conditions and application demands to dynamically allocate bandwidth, ensuring smooth gameplay even during high-congestion, multi-tasking scenarios.
• Bundled GTNet Service - Uses real-time latency analysis to route traffic through the fastest - not just the shortest - path to game servers, reducing congestion and helping to maintain low-latency connections.

Port Control Authority - 10G Ports, Multi-WAN, VLAN and 20G Link Aggregation

While the ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro features robust software and firmware management for your wireless connections, the router also gives you exceptional speed and configuration options to handle your home network and devices:

• Dual 10G Ports with a dedicated 10G Gaming Port - Choose to enable an ultra-high-speed 10 Gbps ethernet backhaul and/or setup the 10G LAN port as a dedicated gaming port that prioritizes gaming traffic
• Four 2.5G LAN Ports - 3x 2.5G LAN ports and 1x 2.5G WAN/LAN ports provide plenty of bandwidth for entertainment, home studios, and ultra-fast ethernet backhaul
• Multi-WAN with auto-WAN detection - Input support includes a 10G WAN/LAN and a 2.5G WAN/LAN port for flexible configurations
• VLAN support to organize devices - Simplify your home network management by creating logical groups to more easily apply specific security rules and manage access
• Up to 20G Link Aggregation - Combine two Ethernet links into one single logical link for a local network with up to 20 Gbps bandwidth

Designed for High Performance and Easy Management

ASUS routers take a holistic approach to the entire design when it comes to the hardware, software, and cooling to ensure that the router performs at its highest level at all times. ROG gaming routers take this to the next level.

Beginning with the hardware, the ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro features a 2.6GHz quad-core processor, 2 GB RAM, and 256MB flash memory. This ensures plenty of performance to handle multiple tasks and coordination among the many features and adaptive functions. This is all cooled by a thick aluminum top-plate along with an enhanced nanocarbon layer. The elevated stand design - combined with a specially-engineered vent and heatspreader - helps to achieve up to 35% better heat dissipation for more stable performance under sustained load. As a quad-band router, it uses multiple antennas, including eight external optimized antennas and refined RF tuning to help ensure stable connections across your entire location.

On the software-side, ROG Rapture routers contain a comprehensive configuration menu through the browser-based config or through the ASUS Router App. You can view the Client list for insights to all devices connected to the router, including bandwidth usage and WiFi signal strength to more quickly manage your network. Use the WiFi Insight screen to detect WiFi and non-WiFi interference and automatically optimize channel usage. The same screen keeps a detailed 24-hour event history so you can find when the interference occurred, what triggered it, and how your network responded.

Easily create subnetwork SSIDs with Smart Home Master and Guest Network Pro

Why settle for a single SSID when you can make multiple SSIDs with their own policies, security settings, and performance targets? If you have a variety of IoT devices, kids, gaming devices, VPN service or prefer an SSID with MLO, this router can handle it.

From the outset, it sounds so logical you might wonder why you haven't done this before:

• Guest Network - Create a scheduled or one-time access network that creates multiple independent networks and VLAN combinations, allowing for full control over access permissions, bandwidth management, and content filtering for each network
• Gaming Network - Connect your gaming devices like the ROG Ally series or your PC for the best connection quality and gaming experience
• IoT Network - Create a network for all of your TVs, smart appliances, smart plugs, thermostats, IP cameras, and other common smart home devices. This isolates these devices from the rest of your network to help manage devices that are sometimes difficult to update or may have higher latency than other devices
• VPN Network - Connect to your preferred VPN service through a dedicated subnetwork with one click.
• Kid's Network - Configure online time and access without needing to dive into more complicated parental controls. Although you can still configure each device manually through other parental controls, simply connecting to this network automatically applies certain limitations that you set within the SSID configuration menu
• MLO Network - This is a default network that merges multiple bands to allow compatible devices to switch between bands to prioritize important traffic, so your devices stay fast and responsive even during peak usage

Top-notch AIProtection keeps your router and connected devices safe

As with all ASUS routers, the ROG Rapture GT-BN98 Pro includes a variety of security features to protect all of your connected devices. Our upgraded AiProtection suite continuously safeguards your network and browsing experience with built-in advertisement and tracker blocking, helps to detect and block malicious sites, infected devices, and other potential vulnerabilities. You also have additional parental controls over devices and a on-tap router security assessment to identify vulnerabilities in your security settings to help prevent malicious activity or connection attempts made by infected devices.

To learn more about the ROG GT-BN98 Pro, visit the following:

• Product Page
• Tech Specs

What are your thoughts about WiFi 8? Have you already upgraded to WiFi 7, planning to, or considering to skip this generation? Let us know in the comments below.