A Decent Compact Desktop System

When purchasing a pre-built small form cistron gaming PC, there are a number of criteria to wait at, almost notably performance, price, and design. The Asus GR8 Ii succeeds in two of these three areas, which makes it a decent though non outstanding pick for those afterwards a compact desktop arrangement.

The hardware in the GR8 II is great at each of the main price points, with Asus offering an Intel Kaby Lake Core i5 or Core i7 CPU along with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, up to 16GB of RAM, and up to a 512GB M.ii SSD. While not the most powerful mini PC going around, this hardware is well suited to 1080p 60 FPS gaming with quality presets ranging from high to ultra. Asus claims information technology'southward also suitable for virtual reality, although I tend to recall you lot really need a GTX 1070 for a decent VR experience.

This hardware is competitively priced, with Asus undercutting MSI and their competing Trident 3 mini-PC across the lath. Impressively, you can get a 512GB SSD and 16GB of RAM with a Core i5 CPU for under $ane,000, while the height end model with a Core i7 processor is just $1,200. In both cases, the GR8 II is cheaper than an equivalent Trident 3 by $100-300.

I too appreciate how the best value configuration – the mid-tier $970 choice – prioritizes RAM and storage space over a faster CPU. At that place is merely a marginal or negligible difference between the Core i5-7400 and Cadre i7-7700 in games, and so you'll benefit more from increased RAM and storage that Asus provides relative to its competitors.

There is likewise a decent amount of overclocking headroom for the GTX 1060 within this mini PC: I managed to push button it to a similar degree to a standard desktop GTX 1060. The CPU is unfortunately non overclockable, as it's a non-K model and temperatures are toasty on the CPU at load in any case.

My principal concerns regarding the GR8 II mostly circumduct around its design. The exterior chassis is pretty ugly thanks to the copious use of 'gamer manner' elements and aggressive angles. There's even some RGB lighting thrown in, which doesn't work with the remainder of the chassis from a design perspective. It is a compact system, though; similar in size to an original Xbox 1.

It's disappointing to see that neither the CPU or GPU are upgradeable in this system, which severely limits the upgrade paths for the GR8 2 when next-generation processors or graphics cards are bachelor. You do have admission to a two.5-inch drive bay, an K.two slot, and a single DIMM slot, but upgrading these parts aren't going to give you much more gaming performance. The GR8 II's limited cooling solution is also loud while in games, and tin be heard over in-game audio if it's located on your desk.

Shopping shortcuts:

  • Asus ROG GR8 II Mini Gaming PC on Amazon
  • Asus ROG GR8 II Mini Gaming PC on Newegg

Despite these issues, the GR8 II is still a good purchase if you're after a compact gaming system with plenty power for games at 1080p. But I would recommend hiding information technology away where information technology can't be seen or heard.

Pros: Decent hardware and performance for the price. Well suited to 1080p gaming at very high quality presets. Small chassis is only marginally larger than modern consoles.

Cons: Neither the CPU nor GPU are upgradeable. Loud under load. Ugly design with mode too much 'gamer style'.