Typically, purchasing PC parts separately and assembling your own desktop would be our only recommendation, but on Cyber Monday 2022, we could not help but notice the ASUS Strix G15 pre-built. Do not confuse the model name with the one belonging to the gaming laptop, as this one costs $1,199.99 on Amazon and features impressive hardware for the price.
For starters, you get an Intel Core i7-12700F, which features 12 cores, out of which eight are performance cores, while the remaining four are focused on power efficiency. Since this CPU features the ‘F’ letter at the end, it means that the chip needs to be paired with a dedicated GPU since this one does not feature integrated graphics. Luckily for you, the pre-built provides a 12GB GDDR6 RTX 3060, along with 16GB of DDR4 RAM and 1TB of expandable PCIe 4.0 M.2 NVMe SSD.
Running out of the box is a licensed copy of Windows 11, but you can revert it back to Windows 10 if you are aware of the process. The front I/O offers one headphone, and one microphone input, plus a single USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port, and a single USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C port. At the back, you have the following.
- One RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet port
- One HDMI 2.0a port
- One DisplayPort 1.4
- Five Audio jacks
- Four USB 2.0 Type-A ports
- One USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C port
- Two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A ports
The pre-built gaming PC also offers a wired keyboard and optical mouse, but if you own better-quality peripherals, we recommend that you use those instead. Since all the parts are standard, you can upgrade the components in the future if you feel that a particular part is causing a performance bottleneck. Overall, for $1,199.99, this is a deal worth checking out, especially if you want to enjoy ray-traced games at 1080p.
