ASUS V500MVC-BSI716ITB-CB, Core i7-13620H, 16GB, 1TB SSD, Black

A compact i7 desktop that's great for office work and terrible for gaming. Buy it for the small footprint and 1TB SSD, not for the graphics.

The Core i7-13620H is a laptop chip in a desktop body, which sounds weird until you see the 180W power supply. It sips power and stays quiet, but don't expect desktop-class sustained performance. The 16GB of DDR5 is fine for most people, and the 1TB SSD is roomy. The integrated graphics are the weak spot, landing in the bottom half of our database and making this a non-starter for anything beyond light photo editing or old games.

The V500 sits in an awkward spot. The HP OMEN GT22-3080 and Lenovo Legion Tower 5a Gen 10 both offer dedicated GPUs for not much more money, making them far better choices if you ever want to game or edit video. The Dell Tower Plus EBT2250 is a closer match for office work, but Dell's reliability track record in our database is stronger. If you just need a small, quiet machine for email, documents, and web browsing, the V500 works. If you want any graphical horsepower, look at the OMEN or Legion.

Pricing is all over the place in Canada, ranging from CAD 1,200 to CAD 1,500 across two listings. At the low end it's a reasonable deal for a compact i7 machine with a 1TB SSD. At the high end you're paying too much for integrated graphics. Shop around and don't pay more than CAD 1,300 for this thing.

The ASUS V500 is a compact desktop that nails the basics for everyday work. You get a 10-core Intel Core i7-13620H, 16GB of DDR5, and a 1TB SSD in a small tower that won't eat your desk. It's not a gaming rig, and the integrated Intel UHD graphics make that painfully clear, but for home office and general multitasking it's a solid little machine.

If you're looking for a gaming PC or anything that needs real graphics power, this isn't it. Go get an HP OMEN GT22-3080 or Lenovo Legion Tower 5a instead. If you want a machine you can upgrade over time, the 180W power supply and integrated graphics will frustrate you. This is a buy-it-and-use-it-as-is machine for office work and web browsing.

The ASUS V500 is a competent everyday desktop for people who need a compact, quiet machine for office work and web browsing. The i7 and 1TB SSD are genuinely nice at this size. But the integrated graphics and middling reliability scores mean it's not the best value unless you find it at the lower end of that CAD 1,200 to CAD 1,500 range. For most buyers, a small form factor PC with a dedicated GPU or a more reliable brand will be a smarter long-term bet.