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
Top Comments
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. :-)
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.
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
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https://download.lenovo
Ha ...someone beat me to it.
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)?
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.
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?
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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)?
https://download.lenovo
And it has a warranty. Very hard to build a comparable PC for less.
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 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).
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?)
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?)
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