ASUS - TUF T500 Gaming Desktop - Intel Core i5 13420H - 16GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 8GB - 1TB SSD - Eclipse Gray

Good gaming pc and work computer also nice small form factor fits well on a desk

THIS… IS the Asus Tuf T500 equipped with an intel i5 13240H, 16gb of ram and a 5060. With decent specs, a small form factor, and only one case fan… lets take a look at the T500 and how it stacks up to the competition. Opening the box, this PC is not only a small form factor, but a decently light weight. At around 20-25 pounds, this pc is gaming console size while retaining a sleek gaming pc design which I really like. The case has an extension on the front bottom of the case that is not present in the rear, meaning that the T500 does tilt backwards. That being said, it is sort of a unique style that I don’t hate. There is also some well done customizable case RGB, with the front panel having a gamer / asus style rgb with an addressable RGB strip on the interior of the case. The lighting does a good job both illuminating the interior and exterior of the case while giving it a potent but not over the top gamer aesthetic. I think Asus has done a really good job balancing out the aesthetics and quality of the case, while still allowing the inside to look good enough to want to look at. Speaking of looking, looking in the glass window makes it instantly apparent that this gaming computer is an odd ball to say the least. Instead of a normal CPU cooler, there is a single large heat pipe that is attached to the CPU socket that runs to a radiator on the rear of the case. This is also where you will see the single 90mm exhaust case fan, the only fan that comes in this PC.. which raises a few issues. In my test, the T500’s 13250H regularly passed into the 90c territory, and would often idle in the high 80’s when gaming. While this design does keep the T500 whisper quiet, and I mean near silent, it does come with thermal throttling. Throttling was less notable in GPU heavy games at 1080p, though, when switching to CPU heavy games such as call of duty, fortnite or valorant told a different story. The longer I gamed, the worst my clock speeds got… and inevitably the worse my pc performed with a degradation in FPS. So gaming was good at best, though easily getting and maintaining over 100fps in most titles at 1080p with some settings adjustments. Asus made some choices that didn’t help out too much though…The single channel 16gb DDR5 ram is one example, as I would expect dual channel ram in a gaming focused PC. Speaking of ram, it's mobile (laptop) ram… but this is also a mobile (laptop) sku intel core i5. Asus has essentially created a hybrid PC with the specs being mostly laptop in a pc case with an actual discrete 5060. While that is not inherently a problem, laptops can really churn out fps, Asus didn’t do a lot to optimize this PC to this case. While the single 90mm case fan is one example, the CPU being soldered onto the motherboard is another example. Meaning that there is no upgrading this CPU… and if it dies, you need to replace it and the whole motherboard assembly. But with a 330w psu, I don’t think ASUS plans on you upgrading too much on this computer either. That being said, there is room for one.. Maybe two extra fans on the front of the case and two fan headers should you want to add some more case fans. There are several open spots for some ease of life upgrades such as extra M.2 slot, sata for SSD/HD, and you can always upgrade your ram, but you are restricted to one dim slot. Overall, this PC is unique and while it does have its downsides, it also has some nice features such as the platinum plus efficient PSU, several ports for storage upgrades and enough USB ports to do just about anything you'd want to do. I think that the T500 is easily the better choice over a console, and depending on the sale, is priced accordingly. That being said, this PC lives in a weird space where it can easily outdo consoles but… for just a little bit more money.. you could build or buy a full fledged PC. But I don’t hate this pc and aside from the need for a couple of case fans, I have had a lot of fun as it is a truly capable gaming PC. While I am not happy with the thermal performance, a few case fans can easily solve my only real issue with the T500… So it is hard not to recommend this PC as it stands knowing that its biggest flaw is easily solved. Until next time :)

Great gaming pc my son was happy it was his birthday gift

Great gaming computer for the price. Graphics and response timing are spot on

I appreciate the industrial design of this desktop -especially the front panel. The case comes in a mini tower form factor that takes a very small footprint. The glass display and subtle RGB lighting look nice but, in my opinion, also shows how basic the inside looks. While there is an attempt to make the appearance uniformly black, the stickers, green cable ties, color cables, and white connectors detract from it. It would have liked the SSD slots to have the same cover as the RAM, use black connectors, and sleeve the cables. Thankfully, the glass panel is removable, so some aesthetic customizations can be made (if you are like me). To my surprise, the included keyboard and mouse, while rather basic, feature full RGB lighting. There are plenty of I/O ports located on the back and front, including USB-A 2.0. USB-A 3.2, and strangely only one USB-C 3.2 in the front. There are also DisplayPort 1.4 and 2.1 as well as an HDMI 1.4 available for monitor hook-ups. The Wi-Fi 6 (why not 6E or 7?) is consistent and reasonably speedy without an external antenna and Bluetooth works as expected. This pre-build offers decent specs but has limited upgradability. This model comes with a single stick of 16GB of memory running at 5200MHz and can be expanded up to 64GB. I would have liked 2 sticks running in dual channel instead. A 1TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD is installed, and an empty slot is available as well. The motherboard features an i5-13420H CPU laptop-class (yes, laptop!!) processor which is soldered in and cannot be upgraded. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 GPU can arguably be replaced, but the 330W power supply severely limits the options. Basically, this is an “as-is” PC, but I still think it has a decent lifespan. Now, I must say that I am rather impressed with the performance of this mini tower. The T-500 is marketed as a gaming desktop, so I am focusing on that. The entry-level RTX 5060 8GB VRAM graphics card, in conjunction with the 16GB RAM, works rather well with this laptop-class CPU. I did not notice any obvious bottlenecking while running synthetic graphic tests. I was pleased even more when I played graphic-intense AAA games. Sure, I had to curb my expectations, but playing at 1080p and 1440p at max settings yielded stable 60-120 frame rates (without raytracing) in most games. I had to play around with the settings and use frame-generation DLSS 4 if I wanted more performance or raytracing. 4K gaming is not even an option here -unless you’re into retro or simple games. The temperatures did reach a high of 92c (CPU) and 78c (GPU) during stress tests and intense gaming, but regularly stayed below 60c average. The CPU is cooled well enough by a single heat pipe and one exhaust fan. Overall, I would consider the T-500 an excellent and reliable mid-tier, entry-level 1080p/1440p gaming PC that does not take too much space or breaks the bank.