Asus TUF Gaming T500: An Unorthodox Desktop Design
Asus has put something rather unorthodox into the gaming desktop equation with its new TUF Gaming T500. It looks, externally, to be quite a standard, if aggressively styled, gaming tower. But peer inside, and you'll find a very unstandard approach.
A Beefy GPU Confronts an Unusual CPU Choice
The headline-grabber here is the graphics card – you can get this computer to include a serious Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060 Ti with 16GB of GDDR7 memory. That's a full-fledged desktop GPU that can handle some serious gaming. But the processor it's based on. well, it's a surprise.
Instead of a typical socketed desktop CPU, Asus has chosen to solder an Intel Core i7-13620H laptop processor onto a custom motherboard in the higher-end models. Yes, a 2023 laptop processor (with six performance cores up to 4.9GHz and four efficiency cores) is in charge here in this desktop case.
The Big Catch: Upgradability Takes a Hit
Though the i7-13620H would presumably still offer respectable performance for mid-tier gaming today, this option comes with an enormous drawback: upgradability is essentially non-existent. You cannot simply swap the CPU out down the line with a faster, newer one. The motherboard is proprietary, RAM is in SO-DIMM form, common to laptops, and even the CPU cooler is custom. Replacing the core components would literally mean swapping the entire motherboard, CPU, RAM, and cooler system.
Other Specifications
In addition to the essential parts, TUF Gaming T500 offers:
- Support for SO-DIMM RAM to a maximum of 64GB.
- Storage with 512GB or 1TB SSD capacities.
- Expansion slots: one more M.2 slot and two SATA ports for extra storage.
- Standard desktop-type graphics card support (mercifully).
- Connectivity: Front panel has USB-C (5Gbps), 2x USB-A (5Gbps), and headphone jack. Rear panel has 4x USB-A 2.0 ports and Gigabit Ethernet.
- Case Dimensions: Approximately 14 x 11.7 x 6.1 inches.
Pricing and Availability
Asus TUF Gaming T500 is priced at approximately $1,299 in the US. The base model has an Intel Core i5-13420H, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5060, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. Availability and pricing details in other regions, like Europe, have not been announced yet.
So the TUF Gaming T500 presents an unusual blend: a capable desktop GPU hampered by a non-standard, non-upgradeable laptop CPU platform. It's certainly one of the stranger pre-builds on the market today.
You can view more configuration details on the Asus product page.
