ASUS built a desktop gaming PC around a mobile CPU — it's an interesting, if flawed, idea

The T500 is a gaming PC unlike any I've ever tested. While it comes with a desktop-class graphics card — in the case of my review unit, an NVIDIA RTX 5060 Ti — it relies on a mobile processor and RAM installed on a specialized laptop motherboard.

ASUS designed it as a way to offer "lower power consumption than a typical desktop machine" while avoiding some of the performance drawbacks due to the constraints of laptop hardware design.

It's certainly an interesting idea, although one of my biggest complaints with many prebuilt gaming PCs has always been a lack of upgradeability; the T500 solves none of those issues and, if anything, causes more problems than it solves.

ASUS TUF Gaming T500 Review

Image 1 of 4

Design & build quality ⭐⭐⭐½

I'm no stranger to ASUS TUF Gaming products, and the T500 follows the usual industrial-esque aesthetic that suggests additional durability. Love it or hate it, it certainly makes a bold impression.

Indeed, ASUS says it meets MIL-STD-810H certifications for things like drops, extreme temperatures, and vibrations.

The case is custom-made to fit tightly around the internal hardware. The front panel, with its stylized plastic covering and built-in lighting, has limited air intake vents on either side. There are dual USB-A 3.2 (Gen 1) ports at 5Gbps, one USB-C 3.2 (Gen 1) port also at 5Gbps, and a 3.5mm audio combo jack.

It's nice to have USB-C on the front of the PC, but Gen 1 at 5Gbps seems rather outdated at this point.

The side panel has a raised tempered glass pane that's slightly tinted, surrounded by more of the TUF Gaming branding. Below the pane, there are some cutouts for extra airflow.

Aside from a bit of venting on the bottom of the case for the PSU, there's no other venting for air intake on the PC. It sort of makes sense when you consider the CPU is designed for a thin laptop, but there's still a chunky GPU in there that needs to keep cool.

Unfortunately, the tinted glass panel is the only one that's easily removable with thumb screws. The side panel covering the back of the motherboard is riveted into place.

The back of the PC has four expansion slots, with two used for the RTX 5060 Ti. The custom motherboard features DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 1.4, RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet, 7.1 channel audio, and four USB-A 2.0 ports.

The PC seems like it's built well, with what I'd consider average cable management. The non-modular PSU certainly adds a lot of unnecessary cabling, but it's mostly hidden away below the GPU.

Upgradeability ⭐⭐½

ASUS uses a custom motherboard that accepts a mobile CPU and RAM. While you can easily access the SODIMM RAM — there are two slots available, but ASUS only fills one on the 16GB configs — the CPU is permanent. You'd have to replace the entire motherboard, if that's even possible, should the chip fail.

What would most likely happen if the CPU failed out of warranty is a complete trashing of the PC, aside from the GPU and storage.

Even the CPU's cooler is a custom piece that uses heat pipes to direct CPU heat to an air-cooled block mounted on the back of the PC. Good luck replacing it should it fail.

The 500W 80+ Platinum PSU from LiteOn is classic OEM fare, with a rectangular shape that won't be easily replaced, either.

Basically, you can upgrade or replace the GPU, the SSD (there's a second free M.2 slot on the board), the RAM, and the M.2 Wi-Fi card. I'd consider everything else off the table unless you're an experienced PC builder, and in that case, you already know that this isn't the PC for you.

Performance & cooling ⭐⭐⭐

Image 1 of 4

The compact case and lack of system fans had me worried about the T500's cooling potential. The CPU has a dedicated cooler that exhausts out the back of the PC, but the heat created by the GPU is mostly free to fill the chamber.

I ran a 10-minute system stress test to check heat and power. Unfortunately, the CPU throttled up to 18% while in Turbo mode, dropping to 0-2% throttling after that. So, no matter what, the chip is going to throttle.

The maximum operating temperature for the Core i7-13620H is 100 degrees Celsius — the chip topped out at 96 degrees Celsius but leveled off at about 88 degrees Celsius in my stress test.

I next ran some benchmarks to check performance and system noise. Running DOOM: The Dark Ages resulted in the most noise, at about 55.4dB. That's about the same volume as a quiet office. Testing Black Myth: Wukong, system noise hit 55.3dB. It seems that ASUS has put a cap on fan speeds to keep the PC under a certain level of noise.

However, there's an awful rattle that starts up when the fans reach a certain speed. The ticking is enough to make me want to unplug the PC, and I can't figure out exactly which piece inside is making the noise. Not good.

Here's a look at the results from my benchmark testing. Note that I tested at a 3440x1440 resolution with relatively high in-game settings. There's plenty of room to crank things down to achieve higher frame rates, especially if you're at a more reasonable 1080p resolution.

I also ran Cinebench 2024 to test the CPU's productivity abilities. In multi-core, it hit a score of 858, putting it roughly on par with a Ryzen 7 5800X. In single-core, it hit a score of 107, which again is quite close to the Ryzen CPU.

Elsewhere, Wi-Fi 6 is fast and reliable, and I had no problems connecting accessories with Bluetooth.

Value ⭐⭐⭐

The ASUS TUF Gaming T500 model I tested runs for $1,299.99 at Best Buy. As usual, I put together a similar build on PCPartPicker to see what sort of price I'd pay if I built a system myself.

With an Intel Core i5-13600KF CPU, an MSI B760 Gaming Plus motherboard, 32GB of G.Skill Flare X5 DDR5 RAM, a Crucial P3 Plus 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD, and the same ASUS Dual RTX 5060 Ti (16GB) GPU, you're looking at spending about $1,150. Add a case of your choice, and you're close to hitting the same price that ASUS asks.

Of course, the PC you assembled yourself would be upgradeable in the future, and it also wouldn't suffer from the same thermal throttling as the mobile Core i7-13620H.

ASUS also sells a more affordable version of the T500. For $959.99 (at the time of writing, discounted to $899.99), you can get an Intel Core i5-13320H CPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, an NVIDIA RTX 5060 GPU, and 1TB SSD.

Value isn't terrible, but it's not great, either. It's about what I'd expect from a prebuilt system.

ASUS TUF Gaming T500 review: My final thoughts

✅You should buy this if ...

• It's available at a steep discount.

You should not buy this if ...

• You're expecting a PC that's easily upgradeable.
• You want a CPU that doesn't throttle.
• You have some experience with PC building.

ASUS says it designed the T500 for gamers who want lower power consumption than a desktop but better performance than a laptop.

However, with a mobile CPU that throttles, a desktop GPU sucking up just as much power, and a severe lack of upgradeability, the T500 doesn't really offer any benefits over alternatives.

Unless the T500 is seriously discounted, I recommend instead opting for the mobility of a gaming laptop or the true power of a real desktop gaming PC. This sort of hybrid setup is a neat idea, but it's not something I'd ever tell a friend to buy.