Asus Tytan CG8890: the ultimate gaming PC?

Posted on 17 Dec 2012 at 11:25, by Kat Orphanides

 

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The PC also has an 802.11n wireless adaptor card. Although we generally recommend using a wired connection for desktop PCs, it's nice to have the option, although it only supports the 2.4GHz band. At the back of the case you'll find a pair of eSATA ports and ten USB ports. Four of these are USB3, while one of the USB2 ports can be switch to function as an ROG Connect monitoring port to allow you to carry out live overclocking and monitoring of the PC via another computer. The PC's front panel has another two USB3 ports, two USB2 ports and a card reader which support SDXC, Memory Stick Pro, MMC and CompactFlash cards. There's also a hot-pluggable hard disk caddy that's hooked up to one of the motherboard's internal eSATA3 ports and a Blu-ray rewriter driver.

After all that lot, there's room inside the case for another two 5 1/4in drives, an externally facing 3 1/2in drive and a couple of internal 3 1/2in drives. We were surprised to find that the dull grey metal interior of the case doesn't quite live up to its spectacularly over-the-top external design. That said, all the edges are properly finished, even though the massive number of cables and components makes the interior a little cramped to work in. We liked the handy drive rails and mounts, too.

The mouse and keyboard are as high tech as the rest of the PC. The GX900 laser mouse is a bit too large for comfortable use if you have very small hands, but we appreciated the easily accessible resolution switch and side buttons. You can also adjust the mouse's weight by adding or removing individual 4.5g weights, but the mouse felt a little too light for its size, even with all the weights installed. We've no complaints about its accuracy.

We were delighted to find that the Tytan comes with a switched keyboard, which connects to a PS/2 port on the back of the PC, so you don't have to expend a USB port. The keyboard's brilliant to type and game on. It even comes with some bright orange replacement key caps you can use if you have trouble finding WASD under normal circumstances. Our only complaint about this heavy, well designed peripheral is that the Windows key is incredibly small, which is a little inconvenient given how often you need it when using Windows 8.

With top-notch peripherals and some of the best components money can buy, this spectacular system makes a great stab at being the ultimate gaming PC. Given the choice, we’d opt for a more modest case and a different mouse, but there’s little else we’d change. What are the must-haves for your perfecting gaming system?