PC Gaming has become a mainstream contender with the adoption of tools like Steam and Origin which make gaming easy and fast. Now that gaming software has been refined to the point where PCs can be operated as easily as consoles, hardware makers have been jumping on the trend with slick compact gaming PCs. ASUS’s PC gaming division, Republic of Gamers (ROG), has announced the ROG GR6 ultra-compact desktop.
The ROG GR6 may sound like the name of an international treaty, but in fact is a compact Window PC designed with gamers in mind. Simplicity and ease of use were the driving factors behind the design of this computer which is evident by its compact form factor and the pre-installed software. Typically, bloatware is an issue for most PC users, but ASUS aims to make gamers happy by pre-installing Steam on the ROG GR6 to get gamers up and gaming faster. The PC also comes with one year of Kaspersky Anti-Virus to keep gamers safe from viruses and malware.
While this all sounds great, ASUS is competing against two very different types of customers. On one hand gamers looking for a no-nonsense gaming solution would be drawn to consoles like the Xbox One or PS4. On the other end of the spectrum sits custom built PCs which are becoming more and more popular. ASUS needs to make the ROG GR6 both streamlined and simple while keeping costs down even though they are using the latest hardware.
Even though this PC comes in a small box, the hardware truly packs a punch running 5th gen Intel Core i5, 8 GB of DDR3 RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M. While these are not the absolute best in desktop hardware, they are pretty high up on the scale. ASUS also goes into extreme detail when describing the fine tuning which they did to deliver amazing audio and heat dissipation in such a lean box.
While the ASUS ROG GR6 looks like an amazing piece of computer hardware engineering, it may be a hard sell. Today, consumers can design and build their own dream gaming computers from sites like Newegg or TigerDirect in an afternoon. The ideal customer for this slick gaming PC is probably gamers who are new to PC gaming or who gaming very casually.