SFF Asus G20 gaming PC unboxing

[HeXen]

Just thought I'd share my unboxing experience since there isn't much out there on this system yet.

Specs:
- ASUS ROG G20 Chassis
- Core i7-4790 3.60-4.00GHz
- GeForce GTX 970 EVGA SuperClocked Edition
- 8GB DDR3 1600MHz
- 120GB Intel Pro SSD
- 1TB Hybrid 8 gig SSD
- ASUS H97 Mini-ITX
- Slim - 8x Multi DVD Optical Drive
- Custom color rebranded Logitech F710 gamepad
- Rebranded Bluetooth mini media keyboard/touchpad
- Asus wired kb/mouse combo.

Peripherals and wires

The product info binder contains some various benchmarks, serial numbers and disks, warranty info and a nice thank you card.

Size comparison with my PS4 and previous micro ATX rig

 

[HeXen]

Continued:
A couple more, there are over a dozen tests but you get the idea.

It's also not much louder than the PS4 except when the EVGA card is full throttle.

Case is designed to expel all fan exhaust to the back and to the top.

CPU has a custom heatsink and fans. Heatpiped to a larger heatsink where the dual fans push it towards the top vents. I have an SSD drive which is to the upper left area that fits 2.5 inch drives and below is a 1tb hybrid drive with 8 gig ssd. Guess I'll use this to put my Steam games on. To the right there is additional ram slot for upgrades. Everything comes apart really easy except for the fact that they use tiny screws which can be bothersome. The video card sits in a similar holder to that of the Alienware X51 and has a riser card.

And running in front of my TV. The lighting allows for 8 million combo's but red suits it fine.

 

[DaveSimmons]

Nice. If I was getting a prebuilt this would be tempting.

I keep thinking I'll build a mini-ITX system some year, but last time I went the opposite direction with the Antec P280 full size case to make a quiet build easier.

It's also not much louder than the PS4 except when the EVGA card is full throttle.

Does that happen for most games, or only if you run some benchmark? How bad is the noise then?

 

[HeXen]

This EVGA is the ACX 1.0 version unfortunately and not the 2.0. So I think the card is noisy after gaming for a while. Noisier than my 6800GTX but overall it's still quieter than my previous tower PC you see in the pic. There were issues with the 1.0 version and I did the firmware update last night that's said to quiet it down some but didn't get time to test it out.
Also this card is known for it's coil whine. Some have it real bad and others not. Mine does a little but it's not real bad but any coil whine whatsoever annoys me. So I really don't like this particular card.

At least the CPU fans are super quiet. A different video card would do this a lot of justice, my 6800 GTX is quieter than this. I would compare it by saying that with the PS4 running a game for an hour and this system in a game for an hour, The video card is the only thing I can hear and it's a different tone than the PS4 and a bit louder...the tone or frequency probably makes it seem louder and I don't consider the PS4 as quiet anyway.

I also should mention the audio in this sounds pretty darn good. It's a RealTeck chip...not sure which one offhand but it uses SoundMaster software..kinda like Creatives SMB or whatever it's called. they use Wave's brand audio software...they make the "maxxbass" psychoachoustics. I had this in my car audio system at one point, it really does work well and makes it seem like you have a lot more bass without stressing the speakers. I think this virtual surround sounds better than Creative's solution. Compared to my older X-FI titanium Fatality card, I think this sounds great but I'm not an audiophile so don't take my word on it.

 

[Blue_Max]

Nice! I saw this bad-boy in my local shop and didn't check into it further... pity the price is so high, but good engineering went into it!