Assembly and Finished Looks

Naturally, the Ryzen CPU fits nicely into the socket of the motherboard, but things really start coming together visually once you place the CPU cooler and the memory as well.


Once all the bits and pieces are inside the MB500 chassis, with all the colors lightning up perfectly and the various components sporting the same camouflage pattern, the whole system looks absolutely cool. It is one thing to see individual TUF-branded parts across various brands separately, but once it all comes together, you almost don't care what components are in there. It simply just looks cool. Having this kind of theme you can basically purchase and put together is pretty spiffy.


Naturally, the LED-equipped case fans light up in the front to join the lighting elements of essentially every single component with the exception of the PSU and GPU. You may coordinate them all through the motherboard software. To do so, we have equipped the system with an additional 8-way RGB header splitter. The CPU lighting, which is actually aRGB and thus not pin-compatible with RGB, is run to an internal motherboard header through the Cooler Master controller via USB. This allows you to tell the Cooler Master app in Windows to pass control over the lighting to the ASUS app. A bit complicated, but you will have a beautifully synced, absolutely cool TUF Gaming Alliance mainstream gaming system.

Value and Conclusion

Most motherboard vendors out there try to offer their own gaming sub-brands, and try to get various component manufacturers onboard, which is the make-it or break-it factor, along with the required diligence of all involved parties to utilize the brand. ASUS is the brand that has managed to onboard not just a single brand in every component category but multiples, and even got them to offer a range of products for the consumer to pick from.

The second important element of the right product type both in quality and performance also holds true nicely across all the products we got to put the system together, while some brands not investing as much effort into the branding than others is fine, as the user once again has the choice to opt for a different manufacturer if they want more of that TUF camouflage on a specific component.

Both these pillars make the TUF Gaming Alliance a surprisingly potent guide for mainstream gamers, who will be rewarded with not just the performance one would expect from the segment, but also with that cohesive look you won't be able to replicate any other way. Consider it like collecting all pieces of an armor set in an RPG: it looks the coolest when it all comes together.

In that sense, the ASUS TUF Gaming Alliance with all its partner brands, like Cooler Master, Apacer, and Teamgroup, can confidently say: mission accomplished.