ASUS - ROG Gaming Desktop - Intel Core i7-11700F - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 - 1TB HDD + 512GB SSD

Prebuilt gaming desktops exist in a lucrative space. The allure of limitless PC gaming comes with many advantages and pitfalls against console gaming, the most prominent of which is the DIY nature of assembling, maintaining, and repairing your own gaming rig. Not everyone is up to task, and such desktops present a great all-in-one, ready-to-run solution for those with limited time or who want the peace of mind of a warranty and support network. Asus’ Republic of Gamers (ROG) brand caters to this market with some of the best gaming laptops around - the Zephyrus G15 I reviewed previously was nigh perfect - but if the G10CE is indicative of their desktop offerings, there’s a lot of work to be done to make Asus’ sub-brand competitive yet. An important disclaimer: as of this review’s posting (December 28, 2021), PC components and systems are in extraordinarily high demand and short supply due to a variety of factors. I have done my best to present this review objectively, except for the value proposition, as MSRP is the variable that manufacturers can change most easily in response to such markets. - Unboxing & Setup The Asus ROG G10CE unboxes with both flair and disappointment. The machine is very well protected, with the acrylic side panel shipped in a separate indent of the styrofoam packaging for additional safety from rough handling. A microfiber sleeve covers the desktop itself, and all packing materials are easily removed and neatly organized. The machine presents cleanly with what (at first) appears to be decent cable management, the GPU is secured in a solid mounting bracket that prevents PCI slot damage in shipping, and unused power cables are included for later upgrades. Unfortunately for such a premium unboxing, the included mouse and keyboard are the lowest quality gear I’ve ever encountered, rivaling dollar store offerings. Further, no display cables are included, leaving the buyer to provide or purchase separately. Once powered up, Windows 11 installation is straightforward with only a few Asus-specific additions. Some Asus software is included to control the included RGB LED lighting and edit performance profiles, but these stay out of the way and serve more function than marketing (other brands could take note here). Windows 11 Home performs well enough as the natural evolution to Windows 10, and users coming from the older OS should find a lot of familiarity after acclimating to the interface. - Performance, Thermals, Noise Right off the bat, the ROG G10CE fails to impress with a very poor airflow and fan configuration. The front, top, and rear (motherboard backside) panels are entirely solid with no perforations, leaving the single 92mm rear exhaust fan as the only device generating airflow in or out of the system. The non-acrylic side panel is vented to allow some air in, but once the acrylic panel is installed side airflow is diminished to a trimline vent around the edge of the panel. Needless to say, airflow is poor and even removing the side panel entirely doesn’t help matters much due to the small CPU cooler. Benchmarking reveals the shortfalls of this cooling setup. In stock form, the G10CE fails to impress as the 11700F idles between 55C and 60C. In Cinebench r23, a CPU-heavy workload, the processor temperature immediately jumps to 95C, activating thermal throttle and reducing its clock speeds from 4.9GHz down to 2.8GHz, eliminating any potential gains from Intel’s Turbo Boost technology. As a result, the i7 falls behind a nearly five-year-old AMD CPU of the same core and thread count, scoring just 8400 points in multi-thread testing (the 11700F should score 13,000 - 14,000 when properly configured) and 1502 in single-thread. Testing the G10CE in games, at least, doesn’t show the cooling issue nearly as much due to most games’ reliance on single-core performance. Here, the 11700F can handily hit its rated boost speed in short bursts, with sustained performance on only a handful of cores and clockspeeds settling in close to 4.5GHz. I couldn’t see any frame stutter on the handful of games tested (Forza Horizon 5, Grand Theft Auto V, and Rocket League) that wasn’t a result of the hard disk drive’s slow performance against the SSD. Modern CPU-intensive titles like Microsoft Flight Simulator or Hitman 3 may show the issue more dramatically as they rely on many cores simultaneously, but I don’t have these to test. The Nvidia RTX 3060 included here is plenty powerful despite its compact board and modest cooler. Graphics performance is as expected for such a GPU: 1440p gaming at 60 FPS with High details is easily attained, and competitive (high refresh rate, 144Hz+) 1080p is a breeze. Being a more recent GPU, I was able to push DirectX 12 titles like Forza Horizon 5 at 4K with a mix of High and Ultra, with the system ever so slightly outperforming my comparable GTX 1080Ti system at the same resolution and settings, albeit within margin of error (67FPS on the 3060, 65FPS on the 1080Ti). The card never throttled nor exceeded 75C even under prolonged load, indicating adequate cooling on the GPU. Sadly, to reach what performance this machine can muster, acoustics were sacrificed. The CPU and exhaust fans are exceptionally noisy when they spin up. The hysteresis (how quickly and how often the fans change speed) is the most obnoxious part of it all, as with any small CPU load the temperatures spike and briefly activate full speed fans, sometimes several times per minute. The result is a constant rise and fall of noise that’s very distracting, and can be heard through headsets at reasonable volume. A better CPU cooler and chassis fan would have made this much less of an issue, but poor fan curves are to blame. These seemingly can’t be adjusted from the BIOS, either. Outside of gaming, the system is quite responsive thanks to the NVMe SSD. Though basic, the disk runs at a clip much faster than even the best hard disk drives, leading to a snappy Windows experience. Load times are quick, and the small space of the SSD is made up by the larger-capacity HDD included as a secondary drive. Performance off the HDD is acceptable, with streaming assets loading in time on all the games I tested, but I would still have preferred a single 1TB SSD over a 512GB + 1TB loadout. - Part List, Build Quality In what’s a refreshing change from major OEMs, the ROG G10CE is built entirely from standardized, modular components with no proprietary form factors or connectors. This ensures minimal e-waste as it makes servicing, upgrading, and recycling the system far easier. Indeed, any Geek Squad or experienced PC builder can service the system using off-the-shelf components, making support beyond the warranty very attainable and giving the system a long service life. The list of included components (at least for my unit, there may be variances from batch to batch) is as follows: -Intel Core i7-11700F 8-core, 16-thread CPU (2.8GHz base, 4.9GHz boost) -Asus B560 microATX motherboard* -1x16GB Hynix DDR4-3200 memory, 22-22-22-52 timings, 1.2v -Asus Phoenix RTX 3060 12GB Single-Fan Graphics Card -Western Digital SN530 512GB NVMe SSD -Toshiba DT01ACA100 1TB SATA HDD -Great Wall E500 500W Power Supply -Intel AX201 WiFi 6 + Bluetooth -Asus ROG microATX Case *Unknown model. Appears to be a variant of Asus’ B560M CSM motherboard with black PCB and limited BIOS. Unfortunately, the non-proprietary parts don’t make up for the fact that this is a cheaply made and artificially limited system. The motherboard is hardly adequate for the power draw of the 11700F, and the BIOS is locked down such that no overclocking or memory tuning options are available. As far as I can tell the board does not support XMP. The CPU cooler is very basic and cut-rate, showing signs of poor manufacturing quality (marred, rough plastics and a noisy fan bearing), and the rear fan is a similarly cheap device that seems to only operate in on or off modes. The cheaping out compounded a bigger problem I had with the desktop. When I first received my unit, it would power on but would not boot. Asus did not include a PC speaker on the motherboard, so I had to source one of my own and plug it into the mainboard to get diagnostic beeps. A GPU error was the culprit, and nothing on the board seemed out of place after inspection. However, upon removing the back panel I found that the GPU power cable was never inserted into the power supply. All power supply connectors have a locking tab, so the cable jostling loose in shipping should not have been a concern. I was very disappointed and questioned what the typical user experience would be trying to diagnose the issue through Asus’ support - this is a trivial oversight that a reasonably experienced user can solve easily, but still an oversight that should never have passed QC. A simple power-on test or visual inspection would have caught this. - Bottom Line This was a tough one to review. On paper and in casual use, the combination of parts performs okay with a lot of noise, but high-performance demands make this machine fall flat. Asus’ decisions to cut costs show in many areas, ultimately leaving the value proposition as the one potential redeeming factor. Sadly, Asus doesn’t have this going for them either. At an MSRP of $1,399, the G10CE in this configuration is just too expensive for the caliber of parts included. The part list above reveals a machine that should be sold around $999, even with components and a Windows 11 license at or near their MSRP (OEMs buy them in bulk for less than retail, of course). With proper cooling and better build quality the cost would be justified, but it’s clear this machine was designed to be cheap from the get-go and the corner cutting is far too obvious. Not recommended.

Got it at 1100 which is graat comsidering it is 11th gen i7 intel. With 16gb ram and rtx3060 graphics card. The reason it gets loud is becsusee the cpu fan is tiny with a tiny heat sink so it has to work overdrive and even then the temos still get above 80’ if youre not careful. I bought a $40 heat sink and fan from best buy and installed it easy on top of the cpu and now everything is quiet and runs cool below 75’. Great deal!!!!!

Pros: Decent GPU with 12GB of DDR6 memory. i7 CPU, 512GB SSD for system, 1TB HDD for storage. Comes with both an acrylic side panel and a metal side panel. Cons (yes, I'm nit-picking) : 16GB of ram is a single stick - why gimp a system by putting a single 16GB stick in it when you could put 2x 8GB and get dual channel performance? CPU cooler has a lot of room for improvement - ASUS shows a tower-style heat-sink in it's advertising for this model , but yet as you can see in my photos it's definitely not. Airflow is sub-standard - with the acrylic side-panel air comes in from around the stand-offs of the panel - if you have pets be prepared to have to blow out the hair from inside the computer VERY often! WIth the metal side-panel, there's just some holes that were drilled in the panel. ASUS needs to give a case that has better air-flow from the front and more than just one fan in the case (80mm in the rear for exhaust). No USB-C ports on a modern machine? What's up with that? Fans are LOUD. Single-fan GPU - forget about overclocking it. Sure, I have complaints, but the machine does game really well . Frame rates are very good (pretty much on-par with my last-gen Geforce 2070 Super), Even with my complaints I put aside my home-built gaming rig and am using this machine as my daily driver. ASUS is my manufacturer of choice for building a machine - they can put out a decent pre-built but there is some room for improvement!

It wasn’t that long ago that my high-end Alienware Aurora R9 gaming rig was state-of-the-art, sporting then new Nvidia GeForce 2080 Super graphics card. Well as technology gets better, prices decline, as is the case here. This Republic of Gamers machine retails for roughly 60% of my previous machine, and outperforms it largely due to the RTX 3060. Alienware may operate on larger margins and remains more of a specialty brand, though ASUS is likely trying to cut into the upscale market with their ROG Republic of Gamers branding. They’ve made great strides though I don’t feel they’re there yet. This machine is rather basic, and would be largely mediocre if not for the price reason to buy it, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, that’s still very limited supply as a stand-alone unit unless it’s built-into an already assembled pre-configured machine. The machine build quality is respectable, though the green and purple PS/2 connectors on the back (pictured) are definitely a throwback to the previous decade. There’s not a tremendous amount of value-add, the pack-in keyboard and mouse are lightweight plastic and cheaply made, most harder core gamers likely have speciality peripherals. (Note: this was also an initial complaint of the Alienware R9) Note of caution : installing this unit I had limited visibility and thought I had a dud machine, plugging in DisplayPort, and then HDMI to a 38-inch LG Ultra Widescreen failed to get an image. ASUS does NOT include an internal speaker so I had no indication what was wrong. Once I dug the machine back out and looked closely I saw my error, the DP / HDMI cables must plug into the Nvidia card, and not the top pair of jacks. I verified it was not listed in the 1-2-3 step instructions. Once fixing my error I realized that it did in fact boot just fine, before the lengthy MS Windows 11 update. Note: photos with 3rd party peripherals Specs Intel Core i7-11700F 16 GB Ram Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 1 TB HDD 512 GB SSD Pros + Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics proc + Very Good Basic Gaming Machine + convenient top access USB ports + extra SATA connectors + DisplayPort and HDMI + side plexiglass option + console gaming alt + relatively quiet fan + decently built + Windows 11 + Forza Horizon 5 and MSFS 2020=VISUALLY STUNNING Cons -BYOKM - cheap keyboard and mouse -limited expandability - NO USB-C / TB -no room for additional drive bays -lacks optical or S/PDIFF digital -lacks multichannel output -no motherboard speaker -internal thermal airflow Conclusion If you’re in the market for a modestly priced, entry level gaming rig, this ASUS ROG is for you. It’s a no-frills basic machine, I’d not normally recommend to a close friend whom I’d help build a machine from higher quality components. But if you’re not a DIY and want a decent machine, that includes the hard-to-find Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card, I do recommend you give the ASUS ROG a shot.

Verdict: The ASUS ROG gaming desktop isn’t perfect, but it is a solid option for a “turn-key” ready-to-go gaming desktop at an affordable price. This machine also offers opportunities for some upgrades to improve performance. First Impressions. The CPU was packed very well, ensuring the safety of the system. The computer comes with a see-through cover if you would like to see the inside of the computer and take full advantage of the light display. The package includes a very basic keyboard and mouse, and some extra cables to add hard drives. Design. Gaming rigs tend to have flare, sometimes to much though. This rig is not too big (relative to the gaming category), it has customizable LEDs, it comes with an optional see-through panel, and it has a nicely designed face. It looks really sleek overall, without going overboard. Well done on the physical design! In terms of function, there is space in the case for some upgrades (bigger fan and additional RAM), but airflow is generally lacking. While the metal panels that come installed on the computer have holes that allow for some airflow, the clear panel doesn’t have any holes, so using the clear panel could lead to a decrease in performance due to heat. I am actually thinking of drilling holes in the clear panel so that I can still use it without additional heat. General computer performance. The computer comes with Windows 11, which was my first time using it and I love it! The 11th Gen Intel Core i7 delivers 2.5GHZ of processing speed, and paired with the 512GB SSD, the user experience is snappy and very enjoyable. 512GB SSD may not be enough for many gamers once you start to download all your games. While I would have preferred a 1TB SSD, I am happy about the included 1TB SATA Hard Drive because of additional storage requirements. The SATA drive allows me to store pictures, music, and backups, and I am using the SSD drive just for the current games I play (usually only two or three). The computer includes a single stick of 16GB of RAM; 16GB is lower than my two other computers (both gaming laptops). I plan to add another stick of 16GB in the near future. Gaming performance. What I love about this computer is that you can run most games at 1080p on ultra (tested with GTA 5), and older games on 4k (including Ghost Recon, which ran at about 9GB of the available 12GB VRAM), with great performance, right out of the box. While this gaming rig may not be sufficient for serious gamers who want to run 4k resolution with max settings on every game, it is a computer that casual and regular gamers can pick up and be quite happy with for a long time. The ASUS Armoury Crate app lets you set up gaming profiles for specific games or for specific settings so that you can fine tune the computer to your needs. I paired this desktop with a 27” ASUS Gaming monitor, and the experience has been very nice. Things I love. - Design has flare without going overboard - Customizable LED show is awesome - I7 processor and SSD provide a snappy experience - Windows 11 ensures operating system longevity and more security - GeForce RTX 3060 provides quality gaming performance at max settings if playing at 1080p, and 4k for some games - WiFi 6 capable - Lots of space for additional RAM Things I don’t love. - Very cheap mouse and keyboard. Don’t bother unpacking… use your current gaming hardware, or buy new ones - The fan speed adjusts continuously under load. While this is expected, the fan noise is noticeable unless wearing headphones. Fan activity is probably indicative of the lack of airflow in the rig - 16GB of RAM is ok, recommend upgrading to 32GB - 512GB SSD may not be enough for many gamers - No USB-C Overall, this ASUS ROG Gaming Desktop is a fantastic option for the casual and regular gamer that doesn’t want to break the bank, but still wants a solid rig for the next 3 years. Just make sure that you consider your performance needs, and what components you may want to upgrade. I can say that I am enjoying the experience on this computer and I do recommend it.

On paper this Asus prebuilt gaming machine has a lot of potential because it has a 512 gb NVMe SSD, NVIDIA RTX 3060 video card, Intel’s i7 11700F CPU, 16 gb of 3200 ddr4 ram, 1 tb 7200 rpm Hard Drive, WiFi 6 and Bluetooth support as well as built in RGB lighting. But once I started digging into to it I realized that its not quite as nice as I had hoped. Don’t get me wrong I still think it’s a five star deal because of the components and their performance for the dollar but some of the build makes me wonder what Asus had in mind. None of the items below are show stoppers and the system performs quite well considering the build. Overall I think the system even with its quarks is great deal. When you are looking in this price range for a good gaming desktop its hard to find anything better. Here are the things that caught me by surprise. - The ddr4 ram is 3200 mhz but it’s a single module so it doesn’t use dual channel memory. The existing module works fine but having two modules using dual channels is better for gaming. - The included hard drive is a Toshiba 1 tb drive which isn’t enough space for my games and videos. Sadly, there is not a second drive bay even though there are plenty of Sata connectors on the motherboard. The only option is to swap out the existing drive for a larger one. - There are two M2 NVMe PCIe slots, the first M2 slot holds the WD 512 gb SSD but the second slot is missing the standoff and screw so to add another SSD you have to purchase the mounting hardware. - The chassis has no front or top ventilation and if you install the clear side panel it only leaves a small gap for air to enter via the side. Overall this chassis lacks good ventilation. - The chassis fan and the cpu fan meet the requirements but are small thus when running full speed which happens often due to the temperatures they can be rather noisy. - There are no USB-C or Thunderbolt ports however there are PS-2 connectors! I have no idea why anyone would include PS-2 connectors. I also am shocked they didn’t include at least one USB-C for high speed transfers. On the plus side there are lots of USB-A ports. - The enclosed mouse and keyboard are bare minimum so expect to replace them. Performance: I spent the better part of a day running this desktop through benchmark testing to see how well it would perform and how well the temperature of the motherboard, GPU and CPU would be maintained with the limited amount of air flow in the chassis. While performing all these test I used Armoury Crate to set the system to the TURBO setting – this is the ASUS recommended setting for gaming. Using the 3DMARK stress test the GPU ran at 100% utilization and the temps of the GPU and CPU averaged around 75 degrees Celsius. Throughout all the other test as well as when playing games I would check the CPU temp and it again stayed in the mid 70s. Per the 3DMARK testing this build is slightly below average for its component level which I suspect is due to the single ram module. The Graphics score was 8608 and the CPU score was 7437. Here are some of the estimated game performance scores I got while testing with 3DMARK as well as some Geekbench5 scores. 3DMARK Graphics Score = 8608 CPU Score = 7437 Battlefield V @1080p Ultra = 105+ FPS Battlefield V @ 1440p Ultra = 85+ FPS Apex Legends@1080p Ultra = 140+ FPS Apex Legends@ 1440p Ultra = 95+ FPS GTA V @1080p Ultra = 80+ FPS GTA V @ 1440p Ultra = 50+ FPS Fortnite @1080p Ultra = 125+ FPS Fortnite @ 1440p Ultra = 90+ FPS Red Dead Redemption 2 @1080p Ultra = 40+ FPS Red Dead Redemption 2@ 1440p Ultra = 30+ FPS Geekbench5 Single Core Score = 1545 Multi Core Score = 6831 Open CL Score = 99577 Cuda Score = 100343 Vulkan Score = 70989 Setup: The setup was straight forward with no issues. I connected the monitor to the HDMI port and the mouse and keyboard to the rear USB ports. There are also 3 Display port connectors available if you want to connect multiple monitors. The system comes with a medal side panel that can be replaced with the enclosed clear plastic panel. You just remove the medal side panel, screw in four standoffs and then attach the clear panel with four large screws. The unit powered on and it went through several updates both Windows 11 and ASUS generated. The system comes with MyASUS and Armoury Crate apps already installed but both needed multiple updates. Using Armoury Crate you can manage the components as well as set the RGB lighting throughout the chassis. Setting the color schemes was simple and overall looked good with the plastic side panel installed.

Very good for all my games! Asus is back with its new products, it's worth the price.

After using it extensively over the past few days, the ASUS ROG Gaming Desktop gets my emphatic recommendation. I am completely blown away by its performance! It has the horsepower to run any PC games on the market, and run them well. If you are looking for a powerful Windows 11 gaming PC at this price point, then look no further. There are gaming desktops that offer more performance, all of which are more expensive of course. In this unfortunate climate of supply shortages, you can’t go wrong with a pre-built gaming rig like this. I won’t get into the specs, which are clearly detailed on the product page, but rest assured that it has more than enough processing power and memory to easily handle any gaming or productivity needs you ask of it. After the initial setup, the system startup and app response times are lighting fast. Games and software are very fluid and responsive. I was especially impressed by the impressive frame rates and resolution. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 video card really makes a difference! A basic mouse and keyboard is included in the box so all that you need to get started is to connect it to a gaming monitor. There are more than enough ports and empty slots to accommodate some future expansion. There are 3 open slots to accommodate memory expansion in addition to the included 16 GB’s of installed RAM. A noticeable omission is that there is not a native USB-C port. But I feel that most gamers at this price point will be satisfied with the expansion capabilities. One important fact to remember is that the active video output ports are from the NVIDIA video card, which is located in the middle back of the chassis, not the video ports in the rear top left. For gaming a SSD drive is a necessity because it vastly improves the system speed. The 512GB SSD drive is adequate for most, but I am supplementing it with an external 1 TB SSD drive. I am very impressed with the build quality. It feels very solid without being too heavy. The RGB LED lighting look really nice and is fully customizable using the ASUS application. Also included is a clear side panel that can be installed to replace the right side panel. I especially like that it has easily accessible top front ports (1 headphone jack and 2 USB-A ports). I wanted to give Windows 11 a quick mention since it is so new, and most people have likely not used it yet. There are differences between Windows 10 and 11, but users of Windows 10 will be familiar with the new layout. Windows 11 is a work in progress and I am expecting a similar experience that many of us had when Windows 10 was released. There is a lot to like about the new Windows OS, but I expect a trial and error growing process. I could write a separate lengthy review of Windows 11 in of itself, but am keeping my Windows 11 observations concise, because I want to focus on the ASUS ROG. This gaming desktop is equipped with enough processing power and system memory to play any PC game out there. It is an excellent choice for any gamer that wants a powerful PC, but can’t or doesn't want to spend more money than what this rig costs. Because of the capabilities, performance, and features, you can’t go wrong by choosing the ASUS ROG.