Illegear has announced the new U3 “workstation”. This is apparently a productivity minded notebook for power users; notable from its lack of discrete GPU. That said, its probably more interesting because it’s one of the few laptops to have external GPU bundles as a purchase option.
The baseline Illegear U3 ships with an Intel Core i7-8550U, with no alternatives for customisation. Paired with this is 8GB DDR4 2400MHz RAM and a 256GB M.2 SATA SSD; graphics come in the form of Intel UHD Graphics 620. The display itself is a 13.3-inch QHD+ panel.
Memory can go up to dual channel 32GB DDR4 2400MHz RAM, while the SSD options range up to a 512GB M.2 PCIe SSD. An additional 2.5-inch SATA bay can also be filled with options up to a 2TB SSD. Admittedly, this is an extremely expensive alternative and customers should pay attention to the extra charges.
Illegear does not appear to have included space for a discrete GPU, as additional graphics expansions only come in the form of external GPU enclosures. These connect to the U3 through its Thunderbolt 3 port and come with a choice from an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060, GTX 1070, GTX 1070 Ti, GTX 1080, or GTX 1080 Ti.
The Illegear U3 is already on sale, with the base model costing RM5,299. On the other hand, a fully tricked out U3 with GTX 1080 Ti eGPU, 32GB RAM, 512GB SDD, and 2TB SSD will cost an impressive RM15,364.
[Source: Illegear]
