Lenovo IdeaCentre 5 Desktop: RTX 3060, i5-12400, 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD Expired

So major difference between the $999.99 deal
https://slickdeals.net/f/15990475-costco-lenovo-ideacentre-5-gaming-desktop-12th-gen-intel-core-i7-12700-geforce-rtx-3060-windows-11-999-99

- 512 SSD VS 256 SSD
- i7-12700 VS i5-12400

Is that it?

Why is this being downvoted ?!

Model: 90T00002US
Processor: 12th Gen. Intel Core i5-12400
Graphic Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
Memory (RAM): 16 GB
SSD Size: 256 GB
HDD Size: 1TB
Wireless Networking: Wi-Fi 6

Full Spec [lenovo.com]

You are just about borderline to build one for this price....

CPU: $180
MOBO: $90 ($70 in microcenter iwth cpu bundle)
GPU: $379
RAM: $50
SSD: $40
HDD: $40
CASE: $40
PSU: $40

Total: $840

Deal is horrible. There's 11 and 12th gen i7 with 3070 for $1000. Well worth the extra $150.

Can you link to a 12th gen i7 with 3070 for $1000 pls?
Thx

Since when does CoolerMaster make 80Plus Platinum 500W PSUs though?

Are you mistaking it for a Bronze?

Amazon has them for $1000 time to time. I honestly would wait for Black Friday. I got mine here.

Skytech Shadow Gaming PC Desktop – Intel Core i7 11700F 2.5 GHz, RTX 3070, 1TB NVME SSD, 16G DDR4 3200, 600W Gold PSU, 240mm AIO, AC Wi-Fi, Windows 10 Home 64-bit https://a.co/d/hzJgDdA

You are linking to a 11th gen 3070 (currently priced at $1500) which is still a great system but 12gen i7 is a lot better. CPU mark from 12gen i7 (12700F) vs 11gen is 50% higher.
While I appreciate the input I myself have not seen any 12th gen i7 with a 3070 desktops for $1000.
I have searched slickdeals and I would think it would be posted here if there is such a deal. Could not find anything even remotely close to the price.

serverbuilds.net is a fantastic site! Very useful and great information.


If you don't need it, I'll take it! Old spindle (hard) drives are affordable and great for storing media, pictures, etc. Use the SSD for the Operating System & programs requiring faster data access; use hard drives for everything else. My system has a 1TB SSD and 2 hard drives, and I can barely hear the hard drives.. probably because I have too many loud fans in the system.


This Slick Deal system (Lenovo IdeaCenter 5 Desktop) would be a good starting point for a starter Plex build. The i5-12400 processor [intel.com] supports Quick Sync Video, which means (if you pay for the Plex Pass) that you could utilize hardware transcoding. This would allow you to quickly convert media from the source to most destination formats with minimal CPU impact, as the hardware acceleration doesn't impact CPU performance very much at all. I highly recommend ensuring any CPU or Plex server you purchase supports hardware transcoding. There will come a time when you need to play content on a device that cannot play the stream at its native bitrate/format, which means transcoding is required to convert the stream into a format the player (client) can display on the TV, smart phone, tablet, etc. And when you have hardware transcoding support, this process happens much faster and with very little CPU overhead.

However if you are going to play 4K streams, you should play at native 4K! And in that case I think this CPU would be fine for that.. the question then becomes, how is your internet speed and where will you be consuming the content? If it will be 4 4k streams within your house, and you have reasonably speedy internet (perhaps 400mbps or higher) then it should work fine. I think challenges will start popping up if someone remote (outside the house) would try to view a 4K Plex stream. Then there are questions about the other person's internet connection and the connection between their house and yours. It gets complicated pretty quickly. You may find this reference on Plex 4k streaming helpful: https://www.rapidseedbox.com/blog...-streaming

Another consideration is, where will your Plex media be stored? This server comes with a 1TB hard drive, which is a good starter size for content. But if you plan to have tons of 4k content, that will require a lot of space & you may wish to add another hard drive (perhaps 4TB or 6TB), so you have a bit more space. And then the question of data redundancy comes up. You don't want to put everything on a single hard drive, because if that hard drive dies, you lose all your content! So you need to think about data redundancy/resiliency. In that case the idea of a NAS (network attached storage) server makes good sense, as you could configure this as a NAS with drive resiliency (to allow you to recover from data failure) and then install Plex on it. The server builds link above is a good place to learn more about how to build a NAS. After reading that you may decide it is better to build your own server. Or maybe this Lenovo is good enough for you and you could add a couple of hard drives (if the case has space for them!) and then use this for your NAS. I tried checking Lenovo's website and couldn't find this specific model, so I have no idea how many hard drives would fit in the case.

It all depends on how much you want to do and what your goals are. Then you know what your build needs to look like (how many drives, how fast a CPU, etc.) and could better determine if a system like this Slick Deal would work, or if you would like something more customized. Have fun, whatever you decide!

I'm wondering which is better between this Lenovo PC or this iBUYPOWER Pro Gaming PC Computer Desktop SlateMR 281a (AMD Ryzen 5 5600G 3.9 GHz, Nvidia Geforce RTX 3060 12GB, 16GB DDR4, 500GB NVME SSD, WiFi Ready, VR Ready, Windows 11 Home) https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09XJRN...ct_details