Asus ROG Huracan: Box of tricks or flypaper?
Small, compact and yet enough gaming power: Asus squeezes a lot of hardware into a small case with a capacity of just 13 litres and also cools it thanks to a tricky design. I found out for you just how much this achieves.
If you rely on undersized cases when building a PC, you can expect minor or major losses in processor and graphics card performance due to the suboptimal cooling performance. Innovative solutions are therefore particularly in demand for gaming notebooks - as Asus has demonstrated with the Zephyrus.
Asus is also pursuing a similar approach in the area of compact gaming PCs. But I'm sceptical, as Asus' innovation also offers a gateway for my housefly at best.
May I introduce; the housing of the Asus ROG Huracan can be opened halfway on the right-hand side during operation, whereupon the compact gaming PC automatically upclocks itself and provides additional performance. How much exactly will be revealed by the test. I tested the small gaming tower in my living room and had a lot of fun finally being able to play on the big TV away from the PS4 Pro again.
Despite its small dimensions of 37.20 x 12.90 x 36.60 cm, the Huracan weighs in at 8.3 kg. But that's no wonder, because Asus has packed a lot of technology into the small box:
- Intel Core i7-8700
- Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070
- 16 GB RAM (SO-DIMM, DDR4-2666)
- 256 GB SSD (Micron 1100, M.2 PCIe 3.0 x4)
- 1 TB HDD (WD Blue, 7200 RPM, SATA 6 Gb/s)
- DVD burner (Lite-On DA8AESH)
- ESS Sabre DAC / audio amplifier (32-bit, 384 kHz)
- Windows 10 Home
Why Asus has only installed a DVD burner in the age of Blu-ray and 4K leaves me puzzled. The same goes for the fact that Asus includes a wired keyboard and mouse with the PC. After all, anyone who buys a gaming PC will hardly want to play with "normal" peripherals.
Design and connections
On the outside, the Huracan looks like a typical gaming PC. In other words; angular design, configurable RGB LEDs on the front and light show on the inside (when the side cover is open). Asus itself also talks about sharp creases, which are supposed to symbolise the battle scars of a warrior. With a lot of imagination, I can see them too.
No shortage of connections. On the front, there are connections for headphones and microphone as well as three USB ports (3.1, one of which is Type-C). Six USB 3.1 ports are installed at the rear. There is also an RJ45 port, a line-in socket, a line-out socket and S/PDIF. Incidentally, the device has two mains connections. Matching the two external power supply units (230 W and 180 W), which Asus delivers screwed together into a single block.
A DVI, two display ports and two HDMI connections are available for monitors (or your TV).
CPU
Intel's Core i7-8700 was launched in 2017. It is a 64-bit hexa-core desktop microprocessor designed for high-end performance. Based on the Coffee Lake microarchitecture, it is manufactured using Intel's improved third-generation 14nm++ process. The processor employees at a clock frequency of 3.2 GHz (Turbo Boost of up to 4.6 GHz) with a TDP of 65 W. The chip supports up to 64 GB RAM (dual-channel, DDR4-2666). It also comes with Intel's UHD Graphics 630.
Graphics card
Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1070 offers great performance at a moderate price. If you can even speak of moderate prices for graphics cards at the moment. And of course, as always, the performance depends on the cooling (more on this under Performance).
The GTX 1070 was launched on the market in summer 2016. Depending on the system, it performs 14 to 18 per cent slower than a GTX 1080. The base clock of the GTX 1070 is 1506 MHz. It has a boost of 1683 MHz, has 8 GB of VRAM and a memory clock frequency of 8 Gbps (GDDR5). The maximum power consumption is 180 W.
Performance
As already mentioned, the side cover can be opened. Or, depending on your needs, it can be magnetically fixed in various positions.
If you leave the side cover closed, the Asus ROG Huracan is ideal for office work - it barely makes an audible noise. If, in addition to Word and Excel, employees are also working with Photoshop or InDesign, it gets a little louder. Then I fix the side cover so that only a small additional gap is open and the PC purrs again.
The PC only offers its full performance when the side cover is fully opened (yes, fully opened actually means halfway open). I'm a little worried about the housefly that's circling around. Well, anyway, the PC automatically increases the clock rate as soon as you open it up for gaming. Let's see how much power this version (G21CN-CH021T) of the Asus ROG Huracan delivers for around 1850 francs.
3DMark Fire Strike
I'm damn curious to see if the magnetic side cover makes a big difference. That's why I'm testing the Huracan with the cover closed for the time being. This achieved a score of 14,642 in the DirectX benchmark for gaming PCs. It achieved roughly the same number of points as the gaming notebook Asus ROG Zephyrus with Nvidia GTX 1080 (score of 14,876).
If I run the benchmark with the page cover fully open, a score of 15,145 is achieved.
This means that the PC runs 3.43 per cent faster (and slightly quieter) with the side cover open.
Cinebench R15
Cinebench R15 from Maxon is based on the 3D software Cinema 4D and can test the performance of PC systems across platforms.
I am also testing with a closed case for the time being. I achieve 130.03 fps in the OpenGL test. The CPU achieves a score of 999.
Full power for the second round. The ROG PC now achieves 131.12 fps when rendering. This corresponds to a performance increase of 0.83 per cent compared to the closed case.
The increase in the CPU score comes as a small surprise. With the side cover open, the PC now achieves 1207 points. An increase of 20.82 per cent.
The graphics card hardly benefits from the special case design. But the processor definitely benefits from the lateral fresh air supply.
AAA title: Far Cry 5
When playing Far Cry 5, I use my 4K TV with 3840 x 2160 pixels and activated HDR.
In the vast majority of scenes, the game can be played smoothly with ultra graphics quality. The game's internal benchmark also shows an average of 38 fps with these settings (minimum 33, maximum 48 fps). Nevertheless, I rarely felt a slight frame drop, which is why I downgraded the quality to high. This gives me a good feeling when shooting, even in hectic scenes.
When I tested Huracan with high quality using the game's internal benchmark, I measured an average of 40 fps with the cover closed (minimum 34, maximum 51 fps).
With the cover open, the benchmark shows an average of 41 fps (minimum 35, maximum 51 fps). A small performance increase of 2.5 per cent.
Conclusion
By the way, I already caught the housefly after the 3DMark tests. It leaves a few question marks. I'm not sure whether the PC could attract any insects with its light show in the dark and absorb them. But as this hasn't happened in the past two weeks, I assume that I don't need to install a fly screen and that the insects are more likely to avoid the PC.
Other than that, Asus really impressed me with the ROG Huracan. Although I was sceptical at first, the design with the hinged side cover has proven its worth. And not just in terms of the solid workmanship:
While this only gives the Nvidia GTX 1070 a minimal performance boost of a few per cent, or just one frame in Far Cry 5, the CPU benefits all the more according to Cinebench R15 and delivers a power increase of over 20 per cent. The PC also runs slightly quieter with the cover open.
Since the PC is very compact, it may also be a candidate for the next LAN party. Perhaps the LEDs will be more popular there than they are with me. A PC doesn't have to look pretty for me. But it does have to impress with plenty of performance, and this is definitely the case here. This is proven not only by the smooth 4K HDR gaming with AAA titles, but also by the score of 15 145 in Fire Strike.
Well done Asus! But next time, please install an optical drive that isn't just compatible with old-fashioned DVDs. <p
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Martin Jud
Senior Editor
martin.jud@digitecgalaxus.chI find my muse in everything. When I don’t, I draw inspiration from daydreaming. After all, if you dream, you don’t sleep through life.
