You can get the TUF Gaming T500 with one of two mobile CPU flavors: a 13th Gen Intel Core i5-13420H for $999, or the Core i7-13620H for an extra $300. (The latter is the version we tested for this review.) Both models include 16GB of DDR5 RAM and 1TB of SSD storage. Most important, both configurations sport a desktop-style discrete GeForce RTX 5060 Ti card.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
When you peek inside the T500, you’ll find a setup something like the interior of a typical gaming laptop, were you to crack one open, with the placement of heat pipes off an integrated CPU. The RAM is under a lid on the motherboard, in the form of two SO-DIMM laptop-style modules in slots parallel to the board. (The board is upgradable to 64GB via two 32GB modules.) Unlike most prebuilt gaming desktop PCs, you don’t get options to swap out most other components, like the motherboard or power supply. Why? Much inside is proprietary to this machine, barring the M.2 SSD, the memory, and the GPU. Even the cooling system for the CPU is an unusual heatsink-and-fan combination mounted in the rear exhaust position on the chassis.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
All that amounts to a design that really limits what you can upgrade with the machine down the road. For one thing, a 500-watt power supply unit (PSU) will limit your upgrade choices for GPUs in the future, and the specialized motherboard connector that the PSU here uses means you can’t just plonk in an ordinary socketed Mini-ITX motherboard with a 24-pin power connector later. Because of that and the inability to upgrade the CPU, I worry about the long-term staying power of this system compared with others at around the same $1,300 that offer more traditional desktop builds. At least you can upgrade the memory via the SO-DIMM slots.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
So what about the unusual chip combo? I’m not against the idea of using laptop components in a desktop for efficiency; a desktop case offers better cooling than a laptop, maximizing the performance you can get from the parts. Likewise, performance isn’t hindered by the lower power draw from a 500-watt power supply. Don’t expect to game in 4K, but the Asus TUF Gaming T500 runs games at 1080p very well at high settings.
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
As for exterior aesthetics, Asus’ TUF Gaming line leans heavily into the serious tacti-cool gamer aesthetic, but there is something about the T500’s compact 18.9-by-9.5-by-20.1-inch case I can’t help but find cute, like a kid wearing a grown-up’s clothes. The machine takes up very little space, and the front-panel design and menacing yellow glow from its RGB grew on me (which is changeable via the Asus Armoury Crate app). A recess on the front panel hosts a pair of USB Type-A 5Gbps ports and a single USB-C of the same speed, plus a headphone/mic jack. (I’d have liked to see a 10Gbps USB-C here.)
(Credit: Joseph Maldonado)
Around back, you’ll find a small spray of USB ports (four USB Type-A, oddly all 2.0, so mostly good just for input gear or printers) and an Ethernet jack. You also get video outputs (HDMI and DisplayPort) for the integrated graphics on the Intel CPU, should you remove the GeForce card. Otherwise, you’d plug your display into the GPU’s own outputs.
Our review sample had a 1TB PCI Express SSD in one of the mainboard’s two Type-2280 M.2 slots for SSDs. A third M.2 slot houses a Wi-Fi 6/Bluetooth combo card.
