When one says that their gaming desktop has Nvidia GTX1080 GPU and Core i7 CPU, I tend to think huge tower that stands tall and occupies a lot space. When I was told that a gaming desktop powered by Nvidia GTX1080 is coming for review, I was wondering how big it will be. But when I saw the actual tower, I was stunned! The ASUS RoG G20CB is a powerful gaming PC with top of the line hardware, packed into a really tiny chassis. The case is just 9.5 litres in volume! Did ASUS cut the corners to keep the size down? Let us find out in this review of the ASUS RoG G20CB gaming desktop.
Key Features of ASUS RoG G20CB
- Space-saving desktop with a 9.5-liter case
- 6th-generation Intel® Core™ processors and NVIDIA® GeForce® graphics for unstoppable 4K/UHD gaming
- Dynamic 8-million-color LED effects with music sync and multi-color cycle modes
- Exclusive Aegis II software with GameAlive function for easy gameplay video recording, editing, and sharing
- Effective heat management for ultimate stability
- Whisper-quiet 22dB at idle
- The World’s Most Powerful Compact Desktop
- Gamer-centric Designs
- Infused with ROG Quality
- Robust Connectivity
ASUS RoG G20CB Intro Video
Performance
(If you are wondering why performance section is listed about design etc, you will understand by the time you finish going through the review)
The ASUS RoG G20CB is powered by Intel Core i7-6700 CPU. The CPU has four physical cores and supports Hyper-Threading. The CPU clock speed is 3.4GHz and can hit 4GHz. For generating graphics, there is the super powerful Nvidia GTX1080 with 8GB of GDDR5X RAM. We did review a lot of ASUS gaming devices earlier but this one stood tall above others. Boot up into Windows 10 OS took just 24 seconds while shutdown happened in mere 7 seconds. This is thanks to the super fast SSD drive onboard. There is a 3TB HDD provided so that you never run out space after installing handful of games.
Games that we tried are :
- F1 2016
- Rise of the Tomb Rider
- The Witcher 3
- Farcry 4
We played every game at maximum settings possible on a FullHD resolution display and the games took no time to load and easily crossed 60fps. The noise from the chassis (fans running at full speed) did increase a few minutes into each game but it never caused any problem. Though the Core i7 chip can hit 4GHz, it could not reach and sustain that speed as the air flow did not help reduce the temperature inside the chassis. The G20CB can drive three FullHD displays to have a multi-monitor panoramic gaming session, without showing lag.
F1 2016 at highest possible settings. The detail on the car, the environment was spectacular.
Return of the Tomb Raider at the highest possible settings. Look at the detail when the storm blows snow across the mountain.
Environment in Far Cry 4 was rendered beautifully. The shadow of tree leaves, the flowing water and the way leaves swayed to wind was perfect.
ASUS G20CB supports full-fledged VR. When used with Nvidia VRWorks compatible VR headsets, you can experience breathtaking effects, thanks to low latency and next-generation VR performance.
PCMark Vantage : 24835
3dMark Vantage
- 3DMark Score : 45364.0 3DMarks
- Graphics Score : 55408.0′
- CPU Score : 29384.2
NovaBench
- Score: 304
- CPU Score: 912
- Floating Point Operations/Second: 206169576
- Integer Operations/Second: 1254520816
- MD5 Hashes Generated/Second: 1412323Graphics Tests (Score: 885)
- 3D Frames Per Second: 2318Hardware Tests (Score: 42)
- Primary Partition Capacity: 238 GB
- Drive Write Speed: 245 MB/s
SiSoft Sandra
- Dhrystone Aggregated-int Native : 150.46GFLOPS
- Whetstone Aggregated-float Native : 87.93GFLOPS
- Aggregate Multi-Media Native Performance : 329.51MPix/s
- Multi-Media Aggregate-int Native : 266.09MPix/s
- Multi-Media Aggregate-float Native : 282.4MPix/s
Build and Design
ASUS is one of the few brands that has wide product catalog. They can design most of the components inside the chassis and this experience has allowed them to cram powerful desktop class hardware into a chassis that is under 10 litres in volume. This is not an easy feat. By giving ‘Republic of Gamers’ moniker to the PC, ASUS should provide absolutely top-notch gaming performance and they did exactly that. From the performance numbers and game play videos, you can see that the ASUS RoG G20CB is a monster in performance. You throw any thing at it and it will perform the job without sweating. The best feature of this desktop is the size of the chassis. The ASUS RoG G20CB is one of the very few powerful gaming desktop that does not occupy much space and at the same time, look stunning.
The design looks impressive. You will not believe that such powerful hardware is crammed into such a small chassis. The chassis has a thin red panel at the centre and on either side there is aluminium shell. The Mayan like grill that runs all around the chassis, on either side of the red frame is aesthetically pleasing. There are three RGB color zones that you can configure independent to each other. Two of these zones are on either side of the center panel while the third zone is at the bottom. The chassis is made using aluminum, with matte paint finish. The lighting can be configured using 8 million colors and can sync with music that is played on computer. By default, the LEDs will cycle through 10 different colors in breathing effect.
The surface keeps fingerprint and smudges away, thus making the chassis look clean all the time. The breathing style RGB lighting looks pleasing to eyes (default). ASUS lets you configure the lighting as per your liking using pre-loaded software. The Mayan inspired mesh designed has another advantage. There are no visible fan vents. ASUS logo is etched on left side panel while RoG logo is etched on right side panel. In short, the design indeed looks breathtaking.
Coming to ports, there are an abundant amount of ports available, supporting wide range of hardware. There are two USB 3.0 ports, a headphone and a microphone jack below the front side optical disk drive. The power button is on the top left side. There are two USB 3.1 ports, two USB 3.0 ports and two USB 3.0 ports, RJ-45 LAN port, set of six audio ports (supporting surround audio output), a HDMI port. The GPU cards accepts connections via two DVI-D ports, a HDMI ports and two display ports.
The biggest drawback of the design of G20CB is that the space inside is so tight that ASUS has to go with external power supply. Yes, even though this is a desktop, the G20CB is powered by two power bricks. One of these is a 230W power adapter (for the PC) and the second one is 180W adapter that powers the GPU. This is a real pain to have. Two power adapters mean that two power sockets are needed to supply power to G20CB. Also, the GPU power adapter comes with a really tiny power cable and that makes cable management a big headache. ASUS should have moved one power supply unit inside. It would not have occupied too much of space and would be less of a headache..
The air intake is done from the bottom of the chassis where there is a 1cm wide airflow channel. The GPU pushes hot air out through the back of the chassis. Hot air in the chassis is directed out through the vent at the top of the chassic. At idel, the G20CB generates just 20dB of sound. Two additional internal fans and copper pipes further enhance heat dissipation through fins at the top of the chassis. All these little details help in keeping G20 cool and stable during marathon gaming sessions.
ASUS has bundled a basic mechanical keyboard and blue optic scanner mouse with the desktop. Unfortunately, both are wired. The only multimedia key on the keyboard is the extra-large volume knob. Though the feel and response of knob is good, the extra high knob can hinder closing of keyboard tray. The keyboard has red backlighting for the keys and two red bands are added to either side of the keyboard giving the keyboard and classy look.
Being a mechanical keyboard, the feedback is perfect and I managed to hit close to 100wpm on 10fastfingers.com. The mechanical keys, thanks to low latency and perfect travel, are the best for extensive gaming sessions. The mouse on the other hand is too basic. There are no dedicated gaming buttons on the mouse and the sensor is also of basic quality. If you are a lot into gaming, you will have to invest in a better mouse.
Multimedia
Though the ASUS G20CB is powered by RealTek chip, the audio quality is pretty good. ASUS has pre-loaded audio wizard tool using which you can switch between preset audio modes like multimedia, movies, gaming. Lack of optical output is a bummer though. You can also use SonicMaster from ASUS to tweak it further by making custom changes to audio output.
Verdict
Keep the pricing aside and we are thoroughly impressed by the ASUS RoG G20CB. We do not come through such an all-rounder often. ASUS has not compromised on anything here. There is wide array of ports, an Intel Core i7 chip, an SSD drive, Nvidia GTX1080 graphics. The chassis looks stunning, the build quality is top-notch. The G20CB supports VR gaming and that is a big positive. But! But! But! Priced at around 1,85,000 INR, with limited scope of upgrades, the ASUS RoG G20CB is out of reach of most of the gamers in India. Those who are ready to spend 1.85 lac rupees in India can buy similar hardware for far less money and still have enough money to buy truckload of video games. ASUS RoG G20CB is perfect gaming desktop if you are looking for one that can make a style statement but there are better RoG desktops and notebooks that can do similar or better job. A sub-1L price would be pefect for the ASUS G20CB and if that is the case, we would highly recommend buying this one. You spend no time to do cable management and will be ready to ‘shoot to thrill’ in no time.
Who should buy the ASUS G20CB?
Though you can get a assembled PC at a lower price, it is not an easy task to get a powerful custom PC done like the G20CB. Intel Core i7 and Nvidia GeForce® GTX1080 generates a lot of heat. It is not an easy task for anyone to cram these into a tiny chassis and have stable gaming session(s). It takes a massive amount of effort and countless hours (unless you are an expert in this). It is ever harder to create a chassis that looks as aesthetically pleasing as the G20CB’s.
The ASUS G20CB is for specific type of gamers, the busy ones who need great looking and space-saving gaming desktop. The type of gamers who does not tinker with their PC often, who hate combing local markets for individual components, who prefers pre-built branded PCs over assembled raw monsters. If one has cash to burn and is looking for a gaming desktop with top-notch hardware, ASUS G20CB is one of the best available in the market. ASUS is famous for reliability and quality service and that also gives peace of mind to buyers.