Customer Ratings & Reviews

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.

Great dual purpose machine for everyday use and moderate gaming out of the box. The components are decent and seem to work very well together. Contrary to a lot of other reviews, I managed to squeeze in three 4TB drives into this case (after removing the 1TB drive) as well as two 1TB SSD's while leaving the 512gig M2 drive alone. I've also upgraded the ram to two sticks of dual channel over the stock single stick it came with and replaced the stock CPU cooler with a Cooler Master heat pipe and a Nocturn 92 mm case fan. I installed my SoundBlaster ZX over the onboard audio, and purchased a USB Blu Ray optical drive. Everything works well and I am quite pleased with this purchase. I've always built my own PC's, but in today's market just finding a decent GPU that's not insanely priced is quite difficult thanks to all the bitcoin miners. This machine seemed like a decent foundation, and so far it's met all my expectations. In closing, straight out of the box you won't be disappointed in this machine. It's not a custom gaming rig by any stretch, but then again at the price and the components used to build it, it's a great value. Mine came with Windows 11 home on it, I chose upgrade to Windows 11 pro and entered my Windows 8.1 Pro key and now I've got 11 Pro running on it. I've read reviews about it being noisy, which is partly accurate, also about it running hot. But after updating the Amoury Crate (Asus's control panel) it seemed to quiet down considerably and the temperatures seemed to a lot cooler. I had already ordered the new fan and CPU cooler, so I installed them anyway. Overall the transition to this new machine has been excellent.

Rating: ★★★★☆ The Asus ROG Gaming Desktop with the Intel i7-11700F, 16GB of memory, an RTX 3060 GPU, and a dual-storage setup (1TB HDD + 512GB SSD) delivers an impressive gaming experience that’s hard to overlook. Here's a breakdown of what makes this machine stand out and where it could use a bit of improvement: Performance: 4.5/5 Equipped with the Intel i7-11700F and RTX 3060, this desktop handles modern games with ease. Whether you’re diving into AAA titles or exploring expansive open-world games, the combo delivers smooth frame rates and high settings. The 16GB of RAM ensures multitasking is seamless, making it a solid choice for both gaming and productivity. Storage: 4/5 The dual-storage system is a great feature, offering a good balance between speed and capacity. The 512GB SSD is perfect for quick boot-ups and fast load times for your most-played games and applications. Meanwhile, the 1TB HDD provides ample space for additional games, media, and files. However, for some, 512GB might still feel a bit restrictive, especially with larger modern game files.

This pre-build is an alright build only this is that it short on cooling fans it only has an gpu can and an back fan. The bios does not have ai tweaker. The ram is okay but suggest changing them for an dual one with 8gb each will provide better gaming. I don’t like how when changing it to an glass cover it has an gap in there but I think it for better cooling not sure.

Great PC for the price. Plays pretty much every game i have at high or ultra settings.

The fans are loud but that's my only complaint. Fantastic budget gaming PC, she's run everything I've wanted on high or ultra settings.

So I know other reviews mentioned how bad the cooling is but I thought those were potentially exaggerated. They are not. The CPU was sitting at just under 70C idle so anything from browsing to opening an application would cause the CPU to peg at 100C and the case fan to run at full trying to cool it down. Both the CPU fan and case design are inadequate for this setup. I honestly don't understand why Asus is selling it in this way. Since I was replacing a previously self-built unit, I had a case with front, top, and rear fan already that I decided to move everything to. Then I got a Noctua NH-U12S and a 2x 16GB dual channel ram to actually take advantage of the system. Unfortunately the motherboard does not actually support XMP so now I am replacing that too. So all in all, yes I was finally able to upgrade to an RTX based system but the amount of upgrades needed to the pre-build should be considered by anything thinking to buy. Had to upgrade: - CPU Fan (required) - Case (recommended) - Ram (although I will probably still use the other stick) - Motherboard (not required unless you want XMP ram)

Great pc for the price runs triple a games just fine

I am not much of a hardcore gamer. But it’s a great PC for school work, photoshop, and games on Steam such as FFXIV, Baldur Gate 3, and so on. I have not had a problem with it and the graphics look great to me.

Great computer for a new pc gamer, have had no issues at all with every game I’ve tried

Have had this prebuilt for almost 3 years now and it’s been great. The one issue I have is that I have to manually turn on the fans in windows since the bios is locked.

Asus has done it again, this thing is a work horse, runs every new title that comes out with ease, very quiet and lots of upgrade ability, there are no cheap parts in this, all are actual components from reputable manufactures.

I am unable to play Dead by Daylight or Rust on this computer without the whole thing crashing. My powersupply also burnt out and had to be replaced. I don't know if these things are related, but i have just had a lot of issues with this computer i have never had before with way cheaper setups.

Very quiet but kicks like a horse. I play my games on high graphics and only find myself having issues when I linked up all three monitors and played two games at once. Don't question me.

Really good for my fist pc im a console user and im enjoying this pc

It’s been a great computers so far. Got blue screened before a year once thankfully the manufacturers warranty covered it. Pretty loud. Will have to look into something to make it quiet.

Been having this computer now for a year now, and i have nothing bad to say about it. Its great for the price and runs all the games i want to play.

ive had no issues with it, using it as a streaming/gaming rig and it runs beautifully. upgraded the ram and changed the case though as im not a big of this one. overall worth it in my opinion

Very good pc build and over all great product only wished there was better ventilation in the tower but it gets the job done for gaming, art, photo editing, and vr gaming!

1 of the best gaming computers i ever purchased. To bad my computer went bad on me.