ASUS S501MER-DS504, Core i5-13400, 16GB, 1TB

The ASUS S501MER-DS504 is a basic home office tower with a solid i5-13400 CPU and 16GB of RAM. But the integrated graphics and terrible port selection hold it back hard. At $800, it's a tough recommendation unless you just need a simple, no-fuss desktop for everyday tasks.

The i5-13400 is a solid little workhorse. Ten cores at 2.5GHz base clock will chew through office tasks without breaking a sweat, and 16GB of RAM gives you enough headroom to keep a few dozen browser tabs open without things grinding to a halt. The 1TB SSD is about average for this class, but it's fast enough that boot times and app launches feel snappy. The weak link is the integrated Intel UHD Graphics. It's fine for pushing pixels to a monitor or two, but the gaming score of 10.3 out of 100 tells you everything you need to know. Don't expect to play anything more demanding than Solitaire.

Stacked against the competition, the S501MER sits in an awkward spot. The Dell Desktop ECT1250 and Lenovo Legion 90YA003GUS both offer better overall packages for similar money, especially if you want any kind of graphics capability. The HP OMEN GT16-0364 and MSI Aegis ZS2 are gaming-focused machines that blow this thing out of the water on GPU performance, though they cost more. And the Apple Mac Studio M3 Ultra is in a completely different league, both in price and power. The ASUS's only real edge is that it's a simple, familiar Windows tower for people who don't want to think about specs.

At around $800 USD, this ASUS is a tough sell. You're paying for a competent CPU and decent storage, but you're also getting bottom-tier port selection and graphics that can't do much beyond basic display output. For the same money, you can often find towers with a dedicated GPU or at least better connectivity. If you catch it on sale, it's more palatable. At full price, it feels like you're paying a premium for the ASUS name without getting premium features.

The ASUS S501MER-DS504 is a straightforward tower PC aimed at getting work done, not winning benchmark wars. You get a 10-core Intel i5-13400, 16GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, which is a perfectly reasonable combo for spreadsheets, email, and the occasional video call. It runs Windows 11 Home out of the box, so setup is basically plug it in and go.

But this is not a machine for everyone. The integrated Intel UHD graphics mean gaming is a non-starter, and the port selection is one of the worst we've seen. If you just need a reliable desktop for a home office and don't plan on adding a bunch of peripherals, it does the job. Just know what you're signing up for.

Skip this if you need any kind of graphics performance, whether that's gaming, video editing, or even driving multiple high-res monitors smoothly. Also skip it if you rely on lots of USB devices or external drives, because the port situation is genuinely bad. And if you want something that'll last for years without feeling dated, the mediocre reliability score and lack of upgrade headroom make this a risky long-term bet.

This is a machine for someone who needs a basic desktop for email, documents, and web browsing, and nothing else. If that's you, and you can live with limited ports and no gaming, it'll serve you fine. But most people should spend their money elsewhere. The weak port selection and integrated graphics are hard to ignore at this price point.