Asus showed off external graphics, customizable keyboard and mouse at CES

We didn't have a chance to stop by Asus's showcase at CES this year, but our partners in crime at Maximum PC did, and they got a look at some interesting hardware for the upcoming year. Like most of the other hardware vendors out there, Asus has a new mechanical keyboard and mouse on the way. The keyboard offers a detachable number pad that can be attached on either side (we saw a near-identical set of keys at Gigabyte, too). The mouse is more interesting, allowing you to swap out different switches to customize the feel of the mouse.

Also at the Asus suite: an all-black ROG Maximus VIII Formula motherboard with LED lighting and an external graphics dock to rival Razer's. According to Asus, this dock doesn't use the 40 Gb/s Thunderbolt 3 protocol, but rather a proprietary solution to deliver full PCIe bandwidth. Sounds fast, but unlikely to become compatible with a wide array of systems.

Check out Tuan's write-up over at Maximum PC for more on Asus's CES 2016 tech.

Wes has been covering games and hardware for more than 10 years, first at tech sites like The Wirecutter and Tested before joining the PC Gamer team in 2014. Wes plays a little bit of everything, but he'll always jump at the chance to cover emulation and Japanese games.

When he's not obsessively optimizing and re-optimizing a tangle of conveyor belts in Satisfactory (it's really becoming a problem), he's probably playing a 20-year-old Final Fantasy or some opaque ASCII roguelike. With a focus on writing and editing features, he seeks out personal stories and in-depth histories from the corners of PC gaming and its niche communities. 50% pizza by volume (deep dish, to be specific).