This is a story of a hard fought battle to get in the studio one of the rarest, if not the rarest graphics cards to have graced the ASUS production line. In August 2024 ASUS launched a global competition in collaboration with Warhammer, there would be 20 custom made TUF Gaming Radeon RX 7900 XTX given away. Some would be included in full builds, others would be won as the sole prize. So you’re thinking, you guys often collaborate with ASUS, it seems a bit unfair that you’d win a prize. You’d be completely right, it would be VERY unfair, and you’ll be happy to know that we did not submit an entry, receive it as a prize or be gifted it by ASUS. We got lucky in another way. Matt had set up notifications to alert him if one went up for sale online. A few weeks ago this paid off, Matt’s phone pinged, the only one of this type of the graphics card won in the UK (we believe) went up for sale as brand new - unopened. It would be crass to discuss what was paid for it, and it’s not about money, this is about sharing something cool with you guys! We’ve unboxed the graphics card, removed all the protective covers, so lets get into the experience!
Unboxing
The Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine II Radeon RX 7900 XTX arrived with its courier in a still factory sealed outer box. There was hope that the description was accurate. Once we got into it we found everything was exactly as it should be. The box was almost perfect, a slight blemish on the top right corner, but nothing to get upset about. The outer packaging is emblazoned with Warhammer 40K Space Marine II livery and features an image of a fully armoured and equipped Captain Titus. The sides of the box are themed in a silky light blue, to match the Ultramarines armour. The aesthetics description on the rear reads ‘by appointment of the emperor, this TUF Gaming graphics card is dressed in blue to match the in-game armour of the venerable Space Marines.’ It goes on this fashion to describe the cards aesthetic features, so ASUS have got their theming on-point! We enjoy the little things in an unboxing experience and at this point we were very excited to get to the rest! So, let’s ruin the value of this collectible and cut the seals!
The inner box is materially the same as that found on a standard ASUS Radeon RX 7900 XTX, but this time it is dressed in blue. Opening it up we got our first glimpse of the top of the graphics card, which we promptly removed from the box to search for additional goodies. There was 1 additional custom inclusion which we were really happy to see, a blue, themed graphics card support/anti-sag stand. That will really help us to theme the build.
Next it was time to pull the graphics card from its protective wrapper and get a really good look at it - the wrapper did tend to distort the views a little. Oh my, this is a beauty! A picture is worth a thousand words, and luckily we have plenty of those to have a look at and draw your own conclusions, I won’t bore you with descriptions of the design. I will however tell you that the blue paint used has an almost pearlescence, shifting slightly from blue to purple as lights move and change. It was not an effect we had expected, but one we very much appreciate! We also had huge respect for the effort it would have taken to paint the fins and pipes on the heat sink gold to match the accents of the Space Marine armour - it’s not a standard ASUS colour, it’s very much custom and we love it!
The Build
Let’s be straight from the outset, this build is about aesthetics, we won’t be testing this one. Under the flash paintwork the graphics card is a standard Radeon RX 7900 XTX, so putting it through its paces isn’t strictly necessary, nor is the point. This is a showcase of something rare and beautiful, so, this week aesthetics is everything, and we’ve pulled out all the stops!
We started with the case, the TUF Gaming GT502 has an armoured visard, similar to that of an ammo crate - perfect! We were a little torn as to whether we’d go back or white with the build as finding the same blue as the graphics card was impossible. We settled on black, it was a blank canvas to allow the RX 7900 XTX to stand out, and black tends to help with saturation of RGB elements.
To follow that we chose the ROG Crosshair X870E Hero motherboard. Its straight lines and RGB elements would blend in well with a more military look. For the cooler The ROG Ryujin III Extreme was new into the studio and begging to be used, the 3.5” LCD screen would allow us to get giffy and theme everything perfectly. We added Noctua NF-A12 fans to the radiator and bottom case intake - going black meant we didn’t have RGB distracting from the colours of the graphics card. Lian Li Uni Fans AL120 V2’s finished off the airflow, positioned as side intake and rear exhaust, it allowed us a splash of back lighting to compliment the RGB on the Kingston Fury Renegade RAM without being distracting.
The jewel in the crown this time around are the gold cable extensions, themed after the amour accents of the Ultramarines. They were a bold choice, one we feared would distract from the build, but the extra flair they added cannot be overstated! We combed the 3 x 8 pin cables on the graphics card with 24 pin combs, it may make it a pain to change out down the road, but it really completed the look.
Roundup
So few will ever manage to handle one of these graphics cards in person, so we’re ecstatic to not only be able to get hands on with one, but to take our community along for the ride. This was truly special, and perhaps something we’ll never be able to repeat. We’re in love with the design of the graphics card, its little details and intricacies make it truly stand out from what is a still aesthetically pleasing bunch of ‘normal’ graphics cards. We’re proud of how the build came together, I don’t think there was a more fitting setup for such a showpiece.
Does special edition PC hardware interest you? Does it depend on which game it’s themed for? Lets have a chat in the comments. For now, it’s on to the next project!
Full Video Below.
Blog post written by Sam Thwaytes
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