Asus C90 Customizable Notebook Hands on at Asus Headquarters (pics)

We were at Asus headquarters today and got some hands on time with the upcoming C90 desktop replacement style notebook. The C90 is going to be one of, if not the most, customizable notebooks on the market to date. Every aspect of it will be upgradeable and it will use the Intel Conroe processor platform.

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The C90 will be a whitebook machine, meaning customers and resellers will be able to buy the barebone C90 notebook and drop in the components that they want. The basic specs on the machine are as follows:

• Supports Intel Conroe desktop processor platform, 1.86GHz - 2.66 GHz (E6700)
• 15.4" screen
• 2.0 Megapixel camera built-in
• HDMI
• Bluetooth
• TV-Tuner integrated
• E-SATA
• 8-in-1 media card reader
• 802.11n
• Graphics: NVidia (???? -- we can't tell)
• Finger Print reader
• HD-DVD and Blu-Ray drive capable
• 3 USB ports
• Piano gloss finish with inlaid pattern

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Asus emphasized that every component for the C90 will be upgradeable. You name it: Processor, LCD, hard drive, memory, graphics card (and we can't say everything about the graphics card for a little while because Asus asked us not to, cough), optical drive -- take the old one out and put a new component it, all within minutes. The notebook is designed around the core principle of it being easy to upgrade.

Upgrade until your hearts content (view large image)

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The C90 has a glossy finish on top (view large image)

Asus C90 underside, check out all of those vents! (view large image)

And an even more giant vent on the back side! (view large image)

A look at the left side ports (view large image)

DVD drive (view large image)

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2.0 MP web camera (view large image)

The C90 should be hitting the market in the mid-May time frame, though no specific date has been set.