ASUS Samurai
Custom-cooled and overclocked for premium gaming performance
For those craving higher-end gaming performance, the Samurai is ASUS’s mid-range option in its new custom water cooled line and comes overclocked out of the box. Our test machine was built by ASUS, but you can get the same machine (or one customised to your spec) from a range of certified resellers. The Samurai uses the capable ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming, nestled inside the rather roomy In Win 909 case. Almost completely clad in tempered glass, it’s a beefy, hard to move fingerprint magnet, but it does do a fantastic job of showing off the custom hardware.
The buzzing robotic heart of the system is an Intel Core i5-6600K CPU that normally boosts from 3.5GHz up to 3.9GHz. To squeeze out extra performance, the processor has been overclocked all the way up to 4.5GHz, and then stability tested. Gaming capabilities are provided by an ASUS STRIX Ge Force GTX 980, which also comes factory overclocked. To avoid a meltdown, the Samurai has a totally custom Bits power water cooling system. Both the processor and graphics card get a cooling block, with a large rear-mounted radiator dumping the excess heat outside the case. The high-end cooling array is somewhat overkill considering the system spec, but it does look great, and provides a little extra headroom to squeeze even more performance from the system without overheating.
The Samurai has 16GB of Hyper X Savage RAM (dual 8GB DIMMs) running at 2666MHz with CL13 timings. Ultra-fast storage is handled by a 240GB Hyper X Predator M.2 SSD, and there’s a secondary 2TB HDD for general storage.
We put the Samurai through a range of tests, from CPU through to GPU intensive tasks. The system performed very well, and is more than capable of handling modern games with all the details cranked to maximum. It’ll happily handle many titles at above 1080p, but some may need the detail levels pulled backed a little. Under a heavy gaming load, the Samurai is quite audible, but under normal conditions it’s barely above the ambient background noise.
The In Win case looks great, but in some respects is a weak point of the system. It’s pricey in itself, and while the middle of the case mounting system is great for cooling options, accessing the rear ports on a motherboard can be tricky. Just getting set up requires removing the side panel, and even then the access is restricted by the water cooling and cabling.
The ASUS Z170 Pro Gaming includes all the features you might expect, such as Gigabit Ethernet, Supreme FX audio and even USB Type-C. The back panel also has another four USB 3.0 connections, dual USB 2.0, PS/2, USB 3.1, 5x 3.5mm audio jacks and S/PDIF.
The Samurai is a tricky beast to asses objectively, as it’s a system aimed at users who want a unique look and build, not just performance innards. You can get all these parts and build on yourself for less, but for those who don’t have high-end DIY skills, the Samurai is tested, overclocked, and ready to go.