Desktop computers

[elhota]

Which desktop computer would you recommend for price vs performance vs reliability:

1. Lenovo Thinkcentre M Series Tower equipped with:

- Intel Pentium Gold G5400 processor

- 8 GB RAM

- 1 TB hard drive

- $455

2. Acer Aspire equipped with:

- Intel i5-8400 processor

- 8 GB RAM

- 2 TB hard drive

- $499

The Lenovo is supposedly more for enterprise/business use while the Acer is more for home use.

[Korth]

I'm a firm proponent of build-it-yourself over branded prebuilds. Even if you get a local computer store to build it for you (assuming tech nerds from a place like Mike's Computers, not sales dorks from a place like Best Buy or Walmart).

Lenovo, HP, Compaq, Dell, Acer... all kinda junk in my opinion. Can't argue with corporate dominance and billions of dollars revenue - and each of them does indeed build some good stuff - but they get you on propriety lock-ins and corner-cutting trivial inconveniences galore. Their machinery is always especially frustrating when it's finally time to upgrade something - want another storage drive or faster graphics card and you'll also have to upgrade the power supply, cooling, half the cabling, and maybe also the whole motherboard.

Computer hardware is fiercely competitive so every little market niche is saturated and things basically price themselves... Meaning that you get exactly what you pay for. So why not get more bang for the buck by paying less for the brand.

I'm willing to bet a decent computer shop can offer you a machine with better specs at the same price point. Doesn't hurt to show them your short list and ask them if they can do better. 

[ty_89]

For reliability I would say it's very hard to know I would say though that Lenovo does have an excellent track record for durability and repairability and for basic stuff like that the pentium could do well

[elhota]

I use it mainly for internet surfing, video streaming, and business applications like Word and Excel.  Will there be a noticeable difference in speed between the i5-8400 and Pentium g5400 for these applications?  My main concern also is reliability/durability.  I wonder if the Lenovo will be more durable than the Acer since it's meant for corporate/business use, whereas the Acer is more for personal/consumer use.

[ty_89]

The pentium g5400 only has 2 cores and 4 threads as for the i5 8400 has 6 cores and 6 threads I would say that the one with the i5 8400 would be the way better deal for more tasks that use multicore preformance and that you should stay away from the pentium

[stonechucker]

I've had experience with both Acer and Lenovo desktops, and laptops.  Lenovo bought the desktop and laptop division of IBM a number of years ago, so I've used the IBM units also.

In my experience, Lenovo's are great PCs, and yes, geared to a business/enterprise setting.  Saying this, I loved my personal Lenovo ThinkPad and used it only until my girlfriend's cat knocked a coffee on it and ruined it.  I had 6 years on that device.

I've also had luck with Acer laptops, but the desktops never seemed to be reliable in the enterprise for my employer.

[will13am]

I actually have the Acer desktop.  I added a SSD for the system drive and repurposed the HDD for data.  It has been going pretty strong so far.  The two CPUs are pretty equal for single core performance.  The i5-8400 is twice as fast on multi core benchmarks as it has way more cores.  On reliability, I have never had issues with Acer products.  I have this one desktop and 3 laptops.  Personally, I would go with the Acer.

[elhota]

Did your workplace have Lenovo desktop computers or laptops?  What sort of problems did it give you?

[Car]

Levono... My workplace mainly uses that brand and my last laptop is that brand. For what its worth I've never met a Levono computer that didn't give me trouble. I'd recommend going with any other brand. Surprisingly slow compared to different brands with the same or similar specs.

Well that's my opinion , hope it's of some help. ☺️

[TheGx]

According to this link:

https://browser.geekbench.com/processors/2336https://browser.geekbench.com/processors/2336

The i5-8400 is rated 4798 compared to the G5400 rated at 4138, and since I not expert at computers I would guess that means the i5-8400 is faster and newer and that explains why it is $40 more expexsive.  Since the difference in price is $40, your choice is to spend bit more for bit newer, or save $40 since there not much difference anyways.

As to your question about reliability vs performance, I would guess that reliabily would be about the same for both machines, but performance of the i5-8400 is better by about $40 or better by the rated speed scores of 4798 compared to 4138.

I seems that the 2 machines are pretty similar, I'd suggest saving the $40 and getting the Lenovo, since if you don't know much about computers you probably won't notice difference - and there are probably way more expensive options that you could choose that would make you notice a difference, compared to a $40 price and performance difference.  Plus, in a year or 2 they'll be more advances in technology, so that if you but new again you'll wonder why you spent $40 more than you had to before anyways.