ASUS TUF T500 Gaming Review

The Asus TUF T500 Gaming Desktop is a solid 1080p gaming PC for around $1,000. Its NVIDIA RTX 5060 GPU delivers great performance, though the Intel Core i5-13420H CPU is a bit underwhelming for heavy multitasking. It's a good pick for budget-focused gamers who want current-gen features.

If you're hunting for a gaming desktop around a thousand bucks, the Asus TUF T500 is a solid contender. It's built around an Intel Core i5-13420H processor and, more importantly, an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 graphics card with 8GB of VRAM. Paired with 16GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, it's a setup designed to handle modern games at 1080p without breaking a sweat. We see it priced between $960 and $1030, which puts it right in the sweet spot for budget-conscious gamers who still want decent ray tracing and DLSS support from a current-gen GPU. It's not the flashiest rig, but the TUF branding promises some durability, which is always a plus.

The star here is the RTX 5060. In our database, its GPU performance lands in the 68th percentile for gaming desktops, which means it's comfortably above average. You're looking at smooth 60+ fps gameplay in titles like 'Cyberpunk 2077' at high settings (with DLSS on, of course). The CPU is a bit more of a mixed bag, sitting in the 30th percentile. The Intel 13420H is an 8-core chip, but its base clock of 2.1GHz suggests it's a mobile-derived part. It'll handle gaming just fine, but don't expect it to be a multitasking monster or a streaming powerhouse. The 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSD are adequate starting points, though both rank below the 50th percentile, so you might want to upgrade down the line.

For around a grand, the TUF T500 delivers where it counts: gaming. You're getting a modern RTX 5060, which is the main reason to buy this. You could spend less on a system with last-gen parts, but you'd miss out on DLSS 3.5 and better ray tracing efficiency. The trade-off is that corners are cut elsewhere—namely the CPU and base RAM/storage. If your budget is rigidly $1,000 and gaming is the sole priority, this represents a sensible allocation of funds.

This sits in a crowded field. The HP Omen 45L often packs a more powerful desktop CPU like an Intel Core Ultra 7, which is better for productivity, but you might pay more for a comparable GPU. The Dell Alienware Aurora R16 is a direct competitor with similar specs but often carries a brand premium. If you can find a Lenovo Legion Tower 5i or MSI Aegis R2 near the same price, compare the CPU and GPU combo closely; they might offer a better-balanced desktop processor. The Asus ROG Strix models are this PC's flashier siblings, with better specs but a much higher price tag.

Skip this if you need a PC for serious content creation, streaming while gaming, or CPU-intensive tasks like video editing or coding compilations. The mobile-derived i5-13420H will hold you back. Also, if you're tight on space, look elsewhere—this isn't a compact system. In those cases, consider a desktop with a more powerful standard desktop CPU, even if it means an older GPU model.

Should you buy it? If you want a no-fuss 1080p gaming machine with a current-gen GPU and have about $1,000 to spend, yes. The Asus TUF T500 makes a smart compromise, putting most of your money into the graphics card. Just go in with realistic expectations: this isn't a future-proof multitasking beast. It's a focused gaming rig that will play today's (and likely tomorrow's) games very well at 1080p. If you also need to stream, run heavy simulations, or just hate the idea of a mobile chip in a desktop, you should look at alternatives with stronger CPUs.