Lenovo 3000 J200 Budget Desktop PC

The Bottom Line
Lenovo seems to have once again forgot the consumer oriented focus by producing the Lenovo 3000 J200 as more of a low cost business PC than as something to be used in a home. There is almost no reason this should be considered for a purpose outside of a business.

Pros

* Excellent Lenovo Product Support

Cons

* Small Hard Drive
* DVD Burner Not Standard
* Lacks FireWire

Description

* Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2140 Processor
* 1GB PC2-5300 DDR2 Memory
* 80GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
* 48x CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive
* Intel GMA 950 Integrated Graphics
* HDA 7.1 Audio
* v.92 56Kbps Modem, 10/100 Ethernet
* Six USB 2.0 Ports
* Vista Business

Guide Review - Lenovo 3000 J200 Budget Desktop PC

When Lenovo purchased IBM, they kept the ThinkCentre for business systems and introduced the Lenovo 3000 J series desktops as a consumer alternative. The latest 3000 J200 models seem to have lost that focus.

The Lenovo 3000 J200 is powered by an Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2140 processor. This is a decent processor for a low cost system, but is a step below the Core 2 Duo models in terms of performance and efficiency. The one gigabyte of PC2-5300 DDR2 memory is typical of most budget desktop systems but it restricts the level of performance with the newer Vista operating system.

Storage is probably the weakest area of the Lenovo 3000 J200. It only comes with a paltry 80GB of hard drive space. This may be fine for a business desktop that deals just with productivity software, but it is tiny compared to the average 300GB of space from most other budget desktops. To make matters worse, Lenovo ships the system with a 48x CD-RW/DVD combo drive. Sure, it can playback DVDs, but cannot record to the format. The cost difference between a CD-RW/DVD drive and a full DVD burner is almost non-existent these days.

Graphics aren't that far off as every budget system tends to use an integrated graphics solution. The Lenovo 3000 J200 uses the Intel GMA 950. This is fine for standard 2D applications but lacks any performance for 3D and doesn't have the improved video playback features of the new X3100. A PCI-Express slot is available for an after market graphics card.

At least Lenovo has one of the highest rated support groups in the industry to back up this product. There is pretty much little reason for consumers to look at this system over much more powerful and feature packed desktops available on the market.