Asus' Small Form Factor ROG G20 Desktop Is Powerful, Quiet, Striking

Asus is known for its motherboards, graphics cards, and laptops, although sometimes the company also makes desktops. Today, Asus is announcing its ROG G20 gaming desktop, which is a small form factor PC with a lot of horsepower inside. As with all of its ROG desktops, Asus has custom-built a case, so you can rest assured that if you have one, you've got a fairly unique system on your hands (if that's the kind of thing that floats your boat).

The G20 will come in various configurations, but for now, let's look at the most powerful variant. You can spec the machine to carry up to an Intel Core i7-4790 CPU (Non-K, since the motherboard is an H97 board), a GTX 780 graphics card, 16 GB of DDR3-SODIMM memory, up to a 3 TB hard drive and up to a 256 GB SSD. Also present is a slimline optical drive.

Of course, powering such a machine in a small form factor isn't necessarily easy. Therefore, the unit comes with not one, but two power supplies. While a system configured with a GTX 745 graphics card will only come with a single 180 W adapter, the top-spec system with a GTX 780 will come with the same 180 W adapter plus an additional 230 W unit. The system is also so efficient that, according to Asus, it will consume just 20 W under idle operation.

However, the hardware inside the system is not what makes this system shine – it is the combination of that powerful hardware with the small form factor. (That, and the case's 8-million color LEDs.) The case measures 104 x 340 x 358 mm, giving it a tiny footprint and a size of just 12.5 liters. As far as small form factor gaming systems go, 12.5 liters is tiny by any standard. The case is also designed to cool the system silently, with Asus quoting a 25 dBA idle noise level.

I/O connectivity is handled by four USB 3.0 ports, four USB 2.0 ports and eight-channel HD audio out, along with Gigabit Ethernet and two power jacks. Display outputs depend on the installed graphics card.

We've reached out to Asus for info on pricing.

Follow Niels Broekhuijsen @NBroekhuijsen. Follow us @tomshardware, on Facebook and on Google+.