ASUS G11CD G11CD-US008T Gaming Desktop (Intel Core i7, 8GB RAM, 1TB HDD, NVIDIA GTX960)

I'm not going to tell you not to buy this, or any other ASUS product.I will tell you to pay very close attention to what you're buying.I've had this computer a little over a year now. It has performed very well in that time, though its duties did not require much disk access.The two cons, as far as function, are this:1) It's slow, because the OS resides on the hard drive rather than an SSD. In fact, my very old i3 Lenovo desktop, I5 laptop, and my anceint Core 2 Duo tablet runs circles around this high speed i7 system, and that's because they all run the OS off SSD's. Even a cheap 258gb SSD is enough for the OS and several games.2) The wifi has poor reception. There are no external antennas, which means you may end up moving the entire tower around just to get a signal if it's weak.I'll be installing a Samsung 850 EVO in a couple weeks, and I've recently moved it close enough to my router to used wired networking, which I'm happy to say is very fast.Due to the apparent sudden death of my Lenovo, this system has graduated from my Special Project PC to my Home Theater Casual Gaming PC, which required opening the case for another hard drive and a TV tuner.Now I know why they put that "Warranty Void if Removed" sticker on there, and why I caution folks to know exactly what they're getting.I found a very small motherboard in there, giving me just two RAM slots, one PCI-e 16 and one PCI-e 1. This means expensive RAM and very limited expansion.The power supply looks like it's some cheap junk as well. There is a pretty ASUS sticker on it, but I can put that same sticker on a spare tire and that wouldn't make it a high quality power supply.Installing the hard drive reminded me of the Bad Old Days of squeezing drives past unwieldy bunches of cables and trying to navigate a sheet metal maze with tiny screws.I think that Lenovo spoiled me.I can't blame ASUS, since I should have paid more attention to what I was buying, but frankly I expect more out of a gaming rig, and ASUS, after owning their G75 laptop...which died after 4 years, by the way.While I'm disappointed by some of the shortcomings, I can't call this a bad PC. An SSD will turn it into a speed demon, and I'm enjoying a better picture and faster DVD ripping. The games I intend to play have been around for years, so there's no need for the latest/greatest CPU or video card.I can't help comparing this to my Lenovo, however, which is 6 years older and not advertised as a "gaming PC" nor is it considered an enthusiast machine. The ASUS is.The Lenovo is much easier to upgrade, has higher quality parts, and a much higher quality case, is slightly quieter (The ASUS is very quiet), and is more upgradeable.The ASUS has a faster CPU and a much sexier case.Still, with an SSD and a bit more RAM this thing is going to be plenty fast enough for me.If you're playing the latest games, or you need more slots, you may want to look elsewhere.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~UpdateThe Samsung 860 EVO SSD has indeed made this system much, much faster.I upgraded the DVD drive to a Blu Ray, and installed the TV tuner.There are only four SATA plugs, so I'm maxed out on four drives including the Blu Ray. Two of the plugs are under the video card, which means it has to come out before you can access them. Even though the TV tuner isn't bulky, it just barely fits, and it and the video card had to come out AGAIN because I accidentally unplugged an antenna cable from the WiFi, which is a mini PCI card right where a regular PCI-e card would go...for some reason. I mean really, why essentially force me to have WiFi built in, when I could get another PCI-e card slot that could do something I need it to do? It's like they sabotaged it for folks like me. Not the end of the world, but very annoying.Getting the front panel off wasn't a ball of laughs, nor was getting it back on, as the cute little LED things kept falling off.Now that it's back together, with a clean OS install and the SSD and other goodies, it is a very acceptable tower for not-gaming and not-enthusiasts.There will be no more upgrades, and this will be the last ASUS tower I buy.Next time I'll build my own, just like I used to do. It's not fun for me, but at least I get what I want, without the silly nonsense that leaves me scratching my head.Sorry ASUS, but you've lost another star here.

I got this system in December and have been using it for a couple of months, primarily for playing Counterstrike and Grand Theft Auto 5. Here's my experience so far:-I immediately upgraded the video card to GTX 970, because I had one on hand from another system. In doing so, I voided the warranty by removing the sticker that covers the side panel (oh my!). I did not use the 960 included with this system. I'm sure it's fine, but I had the 970 so I upgraded.-GTX 970 or 980 are about the max you can go for GPUs, as the power supply is 500W. Don't even think about AMD GPUs. Again, the 960 included is probably very good based on reviews.-Dual graphics cards are not an option with this system. There's no room on the board, and the 500W power supply won't support it.-There are two RAM slots. One has the 8 GB DDR4 memory included with the system. The other is empty, making an upgrade to 16 GB easy (if you want to void your warranty by *gasp* opening the side panel to perform an upgrade).-Performance with the stock setup plus my replacement of the GTX 960 with my 970 is very good in both Counterstrike GO and GTA 5. Everything ultra in CS GO gets me <>170 FPS and a solid 60 FPS in GTA 5 with most settings on high or very high running at 1440p.Overall I am happy with the system, but am disappointed that ASUS plants the "no upgrades" sticker on the hatch. I matched this system with a 27" 1440 monitor, and it all looks great. Would I buy it again? Maybe. I'd like a bigger power supply and more expandable board, but you can find those if you want to spend more. If you want a good out-of-the-box setup that you don't want to upgrade, you will get one with this. For the money I think this is a decent gaming system.

Well, I see from other reviews that there is an anti upgrade sticker. I guess I missed that, because I ordered another mem stick at the same time as the computer and before turning this on for the first time, I put in the other stick and my Vertex 3 SSD for games. I have had this about 2 weeks now and it is way better than the ROG-GR8 which is currently RMA'd. FPS in Fallout 4 and Skyrim and Far Cry Primal is steady at 60, somewhat lower when switching to menus and other scenes in Skyrim. I have a 2560x1080 34" monitor and it looks great with this machine. I was thinking about a PCIe SSD but there is no connection on the MB for that, (rats) minus 1 star. I also can't find a manual that is specific to the MB at ASUS or anywhere for that matter. I could only reach 1 SATA connection for my SSD, they are mostly under the video card and I am not ready to upgrade that. The GTX 960 works pretty well and no complaints since I am 1080 bound anyway. On the whole it is a good solid machine and I expect to use it for some time.// Here it is 11 months later still using this after adding 8more gigs RAM for 16 total and a GTX 1070 video card. I have had several Win 10 updates in the year and this still gets stuck once in a while, EDGE does not seem too reliable, but Chrome works fine with it, so I suspect not a machine problem, just Windows. I also see the exact same specs are selling for $200 more than a year ago, with my additions it is roughly the same now. Hard to get rid of the generic 960 card, had to give it away rather than sell it. (it worked OK though) but who wants OK? ASUS makes a big deal about the lights, pretty useless is my opinion. Can't see internal unless you have the case open and that kind of defeats the temp controls.