Asus is prepping a line of compact gaming PCs at 'budget-friendly' prices

Asus is planning to roll out a new desktop line under its Republic of Gamers banner—ROG Strix GL10CS—and with the launch comes the promise of affordability. It's a point Asus attempts to drive home multiple times in its announcement. The only problem is we have no idea what any of the configurations will actually cost.

"The PC gaming renaissance is expanding the community to include more everyday players with broader interests, and we’re welcoming them into the Republic of Gamers with our most accessible desktop to date. The new ROG Strix GL10CS focuses on the fundamentals to enable exhilarating gaming experiences at affordable prices," Asus says.

It's an interesting pitch, given that the ROG brand has typically been associated with enthusiast products rather than lower priced ones. In this case, Asus is pitching an ROG desktop line that "has the essentials you need and the performance you crave at a price you can actually afford."

As to the actual hardware, configurations will come with either an Intel Core i7-8700 or Core i5-8400 processor with 8GB of DDR4-2666 RAM (upgradeable to 32GB). For graphics, Asus is tapping four graphics cards from Nvidia: GeForce GTX 1030 2GB, GeForce GTX 1050 2GB, GeForce GTX 1060 3GB, and GeForce GTX 1060 6Gb.

On the storage side, Asus is pushing 128GB, 256GB, and 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD options. However, Asus says a 1TB HDD (7,200 RPM) will be available as well, with optional Intel Optane Memory to speed things up.

The GL10CS will feature the usual assortment of connection options—USB 3.1 and 2.0 ports, onboard Wi-Fi, audio ports, a GbE LAN port, and and HDMI output.

On paper, it's a capable selection of hardware options for gaming at 1080p. We'll have to see how it all pans out, and what the prices actually end up being. Asus plans to start selling the GL10CS in the first quarter of next year.

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Paul has been playing PC games and raking his knuckles on computer hardware since the Commodore 64. He does not have any tattoos, but thinks it would be cool to get one that reads LOAD"*",8,1. In his off time, he rides motorcycles and wrestles alligators (only one of those is true).