My mom runs her own business from home and has been using a 9 year-old HP Pavilion with a 4th generation Intel Core i3 processor. Needless to say, it was time for an upgrade. Of course, she would never do this upgrade herself -- that what "tech support sons" are for, right? When I saw this new ExpertCenter D5 model from ASUS, I knew it would fit the bill perfectly. For word processing, email, and other day-to-day productivity tasks, this tower will provide more than enough power for years to come. It's certainly not meant for hardcore video editing or similarly heavy workloads, but it is loaded with modern hardware and connectivity that will be a big upgrade for business users stuck on older machines.
=== PROS ===
- This is a sleek-looking tower. ASUS has three sizes of towers, with this being their largest. But it is still very light and compact, measuring less than 7 inches wide and about 16 inches tall.
- Build quality and cable management are very good for this mid-level tower. As you can see in the attached photo, cables are neatly zip-tied and there is plenty of room inside the case for proper airflow.
- This model is equipped with an Intel i5-13400 processor, which is an excellent mid-level processor with ample power for virtually any productivity task.
- There are plenty of modern and legacy ports included. The front has 2x USB 2.0 Type-A ports, 2x USB 3.2 Type-A ports, a headphone jack, and a microphone-in jack. There is also an SD card reader and event a smart card reader for government and military personnel with Common Access Cards or similar. The rear has an ethernet port (1 Gigabit), 1x HDMI 1.4, 1x VGA, 1x DisplayPort 1.4, 2x PS/2 (old-school mouse and keyboard ports), 3x audio jacks (mic in, line in, and line out), 2x USB-2.0 Type-A, and 2x USB 3.2 Type-A.
- I was amazed at how quick and easy it was to set up this machine. With most pre-builts, I have to spend at least an hour removing bloatware, declining software or anti-virus trials, and agreeing to countless "terms of service" pages. Not with this computer. ASUS has left out almost all the bloatware and trials -- the only potential exception being the "MyASUS" app which requires an ASUS account for product registration and driver updates.
- The ExpertCenter D5 has a built-in Wi-Fi 6 card and includes an external antenna, allowing for maximum signal strength. I ran a few speed tests and saw results of over 750 Mbps download on my 1 Gbps internet plan.
- The machine is whisper-quiet. Even under the relatively heavy loads of installing software and performing updates, the CPU fan and power supply fan are barely audible.
- The motherboard has some flexibility for upgrades. There is a second M.2 slot for an additional SSD as well as a PCIe 4.0 x16 slot. There are also two PCIe 3.0 x1 slots for things like sound cards, networking cards, and USB port expansions. I also see at least two SATA 6 Gbps ports, but I'm not sure if there is anywhere inside the case to mount 2.5" SSDs.
=== CONS ===
- ASUS has included two sticks of relatively fast DDR4 RAM (3200 MHz), but only 8GB total (2x 4GB sticks). This is probably enough for most users, but I wish they would have future-proofed the machine by including a minimum of 16GB. Luckily, this is a pretty cheap upgrade.
- Amazingly, there is not a single USB-C port anywhere on the system -- another hit towards future-proofing. Yes, USB-C adapters are cheap and readily available, but this is the first machine in several years that I've seen without a USB-C port.
- The 300W power supply will limit the upgradability of the PC. You're probably not going to be able to add a high-end GPU.
- There is contradictory information on the actual specs of this model (D500TEC-I5512). Originally, the Best Buy listing page said that this machine came with Windows 10 Pro. However, it actually includes Windows 11 Home (it looks like the listing has finally been corrected). Additionally, some product images on both the Best Buy listing and the ASUS website show that this model includes an optical drive, but it does not. As such, you'll want to pay close attention to the reviews and the product listing so you can make an informed decision. As of today, it appears that the specs and features on the Best Buy listing are correct.
=== OVERALL ===
I set up this PC for my mom about a week ago and she has been using it to run her business ever since. It is a massive upgrade over her old system and I'm confident that it will last at least another 5+ years based on her daily workflow of emails, web browsing, word processing, and Zoom calls. It is an excellent workstation for these types of business uses. There are a few questionable design choices, such as the measly 8GB of RAM and the lack of USB-C ports, but these are fairly minor issues. Power users who need a dedicated GPU and maximum upgradability will want to look elsewhere. But for anyone else in need of a day-to-day productivity/office PC, the ExpertCenter D5 is a great choice.