Slickdeals is community-supported.  We may get paid by brands for deals, including promoted items.
Heads up, this deal has expired. Want to create a deal alert for this item?
expired Posted by whenry83 • Jun 22, 2024
expired Posted by whenry83 • Jun 22, 2024

Costco Members: Lenovo IdeaCentre 3i Desktop: i5-14400, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD

$415

$600

30% off
Costco Wholesale
282 Comments 109,962 Views
Visit Retailer
Good Deal
Save
Share
Deal Details
Costco Wholesale has for their Members: Lenovo IdeaCentre 3i Desktop (90VT0065US) on sale for $399.99. Shipping is $14.99.

Thanks to Community Member whenry83 for sharing this deal.

Specs:
  • Intel i5-14400 10-Core (6P+4E) / 16-Thread Processor
  • 16GB DDR4 3200MHz Memory
  • 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive
  • Integrated Intel UHD 730 Graphics
  • Wi-Fi 6 (2x2) and Bluetooth 5.1
  • Wired Keyboard & Mouse
  • 260W Power Supply
  • Windows 11 Home
  • Ports:
    • 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C (Support Data Transfer and 5V @ 3A Charging)
    • 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
    • 2x USB 2.0 Type-A
    • 1x VGA Out
    • 1x RJ-45
    • 1x HDMI-Out 2.1
    • 1x Headphone/Microphone Combination Jack
    • 1x Microphone Jack

Editor's Notes

Written by SaltyOne | Staff
  • At the time of this posting, our research indicates that this is $160.01 lower than the next best available comparable prices starting from $574.99. -SaltyOne
  • Rated 5 out of 5 stars from customer reviews.

Original Post

Written by whenry83
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Community Notes
About the Poster
Costco Wholesale has for their Members: Lenovo IdeaCentre 3i Desktop (90VT0065US) on sale for $399.99. Shipping is $14.99.

Thanks to Community Member whenry83 for sharing this deal.

Specs:
  • Intel i5-14400 10-Core (6P+4E) / 16-Thread Processor
  • 16GB DDR4 3200MHz Memory
  • 1TB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State Drive
  • Integrated Intel UHD 730 Graphics
  • Wi-Fi 6 (2x2) and Bluetooth 5.1
  • Wired Keyboard & Mouse
  • 260W Power Supply
  • Windows 11 Home
  • Ports:
    • 1x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-C (Support Data Transfer and 5V @ 3A Charging)
    • 4x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A
    • 2x USB 2.0 Type-A
    • 1x VGA Out
    • 1x RJ-45
    • 1x HDMI-Out 2.1
    • 1x Headphone/Microphone Combination Jack
    • 1x Microphone Jack

Editor's Notes

Written by SaltyOne | Staff
  • At the time of this posting, our research indicates that this is $160.01 lower than the next best available comparable prices starting from $574.99. -SaltyOne
  • Rated 5 out of 5 stars from customer reviews.

Original Post

Written by whenry83

Community Voting

Deal Score
+83
Good Deal
Visit Retailer
Leave a Comment
To participate in the comments, please log in.

Top Comments

Mine arrived today and after some quick testing here are my initial impressions.
Size: This thing is tiny (photos below).
Performance: I installed my favorite video and RAW image processing software and put it through some quick paces. It performed very well on all tasks, navigating and rendering files and effects more rapidly than my 6 month old ThinkPad X1 Carbon with an i7-1365U processor and 32GB RAM. This is out of the box with the installed 16GB RAM. I haven't set up multiple monitors yet but am eager to see how it does.
This little desktop is cool and silent. There are benefits to small power supplies and no GPU.
Power cord is short -- about 5 feet long.
It's definitely not designed with mods in mind (but we knew that). You need to use a screwdriver to open it up.
The 3.5" SATA HD cage is very accessible and adding a one will be a piece of cake.
Upgrading RAM will be a more labor but not hard. The RAM slots are under the 3.5" drive cage, which means you have to remove the side and front panels, unplug the HD from the motherboard, unscrew the HD cage and lift it up, install the new RAM stick, and then put everything back.
This model is new so there weren't any YouTube videos I could find. Here are some photos: Image 1 [ibb.co] Image 2 [ibb.co]. The size of the HD cage should give you an idea of how small the desktop is.

EDITED: Removed the bullet about the rear audio out. I found it. :-)
Here is what I was able to glean from the specs (corrections are welcome):

HDMI Out is likely limited to 1080p max resolution is 3840x2160@60Hz (4K@60Hz);
The RAM is single stick (16GB x1);
There is one empty RAM slot (2 slots total);
There are no PCI-e expansion slots;
There is room for one extra hard drive.
Smokin' deal. This is a fast machine in 2024.

This is not a 'basic' desktop unless your criteria is 'gaming GPU graphics', in which case, yes, get something else; the 260W PSU won't allow adding big PCIe GPU muscle. I see no clear way to even add PCIe cards, which is a bit of a surprise. The website makes no reference to this in the ports and slots section, and I can't find the manual.

For everyone else, this is a cheap, fully ready to go screaming fast machine with fully current CPU - at around $200 less (plus Costco returns, warranty) vs. almost anywhere else.

281 Comments

Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.

Pro
Jun 23, 2024
4,255 Posts
Joined Feb 2010
Jun 23, 2024
turns2stone
Pro
Jun 23, 2024
4,255 Posts
I believe this is the most robust user guide available:
https://download.lenovo.com/pccbb.../UG_en.pdf

Quote from danjayh :
I would guess it does not. I looked through the user guide, the marketing materials, the datasheet, and anything else I could find in Lenovo psref, and none of it mentions PCIe slots of any kind. I found a video of this machine's predecessor on YouTube -- same knockouts, no slots on the motherboard. Anyone who buys this hoping for a PCIe slot will probably be disappointed.
Although there is room/space for a 16X PCIe slot on the motherboard, it is not populated, per this user review image from Best Buy:
Last edited by turns2stone June 23, 2024 at 07:36 AM.
Jun 23, 2024
5,767 Posts
Joined Mar 2008
Jun 23, 2024
dclive
Jun 23, 2024
5,767 Posts
https://download.lenovo.com/pccbb.../UG_en.pdf User Guide

Ha ...someone beat me to it.
Jun 23, 2024
74 Posts
Joined Jul 2011
Jun 23, 2024
minidragon
Jun 23, 2024
74 Posts
Is this online only or can you get it in the warehouse?
Pro
Jun 23, 2024
9,636 Posts
Joined Nov 2011
Jun 23, 2024
deelseaker
Pro
Jun 23, 2024
9,636 Posts
Quote from TangoBrother :
Thanks, bestby has a similar model. MB picture is posted in reviews.
Quote from turns2stone :
Although there is room/space for a 16X PCIe slot on the motherboard, it is not populated, per this user review image from Best Buy:
Even if there were a PCI-e X16 slot, you would need a low profile (half height) card. That limits your chices very severely. Then if you do find a low profile card, you will realize that either it is low-performance or is too long to fit in this case. And if it did fit, the PSU will be too underpowered.

I don't know why so many people are talking about a GPU upgrade here. Why try to fit a square peg into a round whole? With RTX 4060-equipped desktops available for $850 or less, how much cheaper would upgrading this one would be (even if an upgrade were possible)? Scratchhead
2
Jun 23, 2024
263 Posts
Joined Oct 2014

This comment has been rated as unhelpful by Slickdeals users.

Pro
Jun 23, 2024
2,645 Posts
Joined Mar 2008
Jun 23, 2024
fis
Pro
Jun 23, 2024
2,645 Posts
Quote from jdsmn21 :
I think this would be a perfect machine for you. I would add a second 16gb memory stick, bringing it up to 32gb. Adding memory is an easy upgrade - slide a panel off, and push the RAM stick into a slot.

Based on your usage - you would see minimal benefit by choosing a more expensive PC with a dedicated GPU. I would go with this in a heartbeat.
Quote from dclive :
Would you be ok with one screen being HDMI and one VGA? If you can live with that, 2D graphics and general Windows use and most non gaming use on this will be screaming fast.
Thank you both for responding. Yeah the limited video out is a little shocking. I'm using 1 HDMI and 1 VGA currently with my 7-year old Dell XPS, so I could do that but if I ever wanted to upgrade the monitors I guess I'd be fussing with adapters.

BTW when I bought that desktop I thought I was buying more PC than I needed (460W, i7-7700, 1050ti GPU, 32GB RAM, and I moved Windows to SSD). It was OK for a while but never blew me away and is really crawling these days. Thus my concern about whether this will be enough PC.

My much newer laptop is an i7-1365U with 32GB and Intel Iris XE graphics. The laptop is a 100-times better performer for photo and video work but I wouldn't say it flies, making me wonder if my expectations for photo and video rendering are just too high.

I guess my 2 questions are:
1) Would this perform better or worse than the laptop?
2) If I spent a bit more (such as for a light gaming desktop with DDR5) would I get noticeably better performance?
Pro
Jun 23, 2024
2,645 Posts
Joined Mar 2008
Jun 23, 2024
fis
Pro
Jun 23, 2024
2,645 Posts
Quote from LostWallet :
4 product photos of the front. 0 of the back. Costco.
Here you go [lenovo.com]

Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.

Pro
Jun 23, 2024
4,255 Posts
Joined Feb 2010
Jun 23, 2024
turns2stone
Pro
Jun 23, 2024
4,255 Posts
Quote from deelseaker :
Even if there were a PCI-e X16 slot, you would need a low profile (half height) card. That limits your chices very severely. Then if you do find a low profile card, you will realize that either it is low-performance or is too long to fit in this case. And if it did fit, the PSU will be too underpowered.

I don't know why so many people are talking about a GPU upgrade here. Why try to fit a square peg into a round whole? With RTX 4060-equipped desktops available for $850 or less, how much cheaper would upgrading this one would be (even if an upgrade were possible)?
Understood. Since the version I own does have a PCIe slot, I stuck a Thunderbolt 3 add-in card in there and use it with an eGPU and/or directly connect it to a USB-C monitor.

https://download.lenovo.com/pccbb..._setup.pdf
Pro
Jun 23, 2024
4,255 Posts
Joined Feb 2010
Jun 23, 2024
turns2stone
Pro
Jun 23, 2024
4,255 Posts
Quote from Master_of_None :
What is going on here? I have never seen such a big push for old tech! DDR4 3200Mhz, VGA, and single HDMI are dead-end giveaways, so $400 is too much. At most, this should be $299.
Just the retail price on the CPU/SSD/RAM alone is >$299.

And it has a warranty. Very hard to build a comparable PC for less.
Jun 23, 2024
5,767 Posts
Joined Mar 2008
Jun 23, 2024
dclive
Jun 23, 2024
5,767 Posts
Quote from fis :
Thank you both for responding. Yeah the limited video out is a little shocking. I'm using 1 HDMI and 1 VGA currently with my 7-year old Dell XPS, so I could do that but if I ever wanted to upgrade the monitors I guess I'd be fussing with adapters.

BTW when I bought that desktop I thought I was buying more PC than I needed (460W, i7-7700, 1050ti GPU, 32GB RAM, and I moved Windows to SSD). It was OK for a while but never blew me away and is really crawling these days. Thus my concern about whether this will be enough PC.

My much newer laptop is an i7-1365U with 32GB and Intel Iris XE graphics. The laptop is a 100-times better performer for photo and video work but I wouldn't say it flies, making me wonder if my expectations for photo and video rendering are just too high.

I guess my 2 questions are:
1) Would this perform better or worse than the laptop?
2) If I spent a bit more (such as for a light gaming desktop with DDR5) would I get noticeably better performance?
To judge CPU performance, google the name of the CPU + "passmark" and you'll get a clear set of numbers (single and multi core) that you can judge relative performance. That's the best way to understand CPU compute performance of different CPUs.

To judge overall software performance, you need to understand if your software uses the GPU for special tasks; if so, there may be value in getting a machine that can house a discrete GPU. But that is an edge case for most work today.

I would not spend a penny more for DDR5, much less hundreds of dollars more. Is it faster? Sure. But not by enough to matter (relative to $ spent).
Jun 23, 2024
11,543 Posts
Joined May 2005

This comment has been rated as unhelpful by Slickdeals users.

Jun 23, 2024
5,767 Posts
Joined Mar 2008
Jun 23, 2024
dclive
Jun 23, 2024
5,767 Posts
Quote from smartdeals :
only 2 ram slots, pass...
You need > 64GB? For what, exactly?
Pro
Jun 23, 2024
2,645 Posts
Joined Mar 2008
Jun 23, 2024
fis
Pro
Jun 23, 2024
2,645 Posts
Quote from dclive :
I would not spend a penny more for DDR5, much less hundreds of dollars more. Is it faster? Sure. But not by enough to matter (relative to $ spent).
Thanks again. I placed the order. It would be a pain to set up then return, but at least Costco gives me that option.


I hate switching PCs. It's a hassle, but I should upgrade more often, it's so cheap. I always wipe my old ones and sell them and it shocks me what people pay for them. I've sold 10 year old PCs for $200 (why?)
Jun 23, 2024
14,493 Posts
Joined Nov 2019
Jun 23, 2024
Lilyly
Jun 23, 2024
14,493 Posts
Quote from fis :
Thanks again. I placed the order. It would be a pain to set up then return, but at least Costco gives me that option.


I hate switching PCs. It's a hassle, but I should upgrade more often, it's so cheap. I always wipe my old ones and sell them and it shocks me what people pay for them. I've sold 10 year old PCs for $200 (why?)
so they can harvest your personal info or naked Picts. you think your wiping is good enough? only Hilarys hammer can destroy the hard drives.
7

Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.

Jun 23, 2024
26 Posts
Joined Nov 2017
Jun 23, 2024
Zeleboba
Jun 23, 2024
26 Posts
Even though price is good , you give up too much on future upgradeability for my taste - case, mb, cpu fan, psu and even disk are the usual suspects, usually you get all cheapest components except cpu. I bought a bunch of pre-builds as well as built my own pcs, and building your own always seemed a better decision once you considering an upgrade later. But for some people pre builds will be a good choice because of warranty and not having to build anything, just consider the limitations.
Last edited by Zeleboba June 23, 2024 at 09:00 AM.

Related Searches

Popular Deals

View All

Trending Deals

View All