HP EliteDesk 8 G1i 2024, Core Ultra 5 235T, 32GB, 512GB SSD, Jack Black

The HP EliteDesk 8 G1i is a compact business mini PC with 32GB of DDR5 RAM and Thunderbolt 4. It's great for office work and light dev tasks, but the integrated graphics are a serious limitation. Worth buying if you find it near the USD 1,400 mark, not the USD 2,200 end.

The Core Ultra 5 235T is a 14-core chip that lands in the 72nd percentile for CPUs in our database. That's solid, not spectacular. The 32GB of DDR5 RAM is the real standout here, sitting in the 84th percentile and giving you plenty of headroom for multitasking. Storage is a 512GB NVMe SSD, which is about average, and the integrated Intel Graphics are a weak spot at the 37th percentile. Port selection is strong at the 80th percentile, with Thunderbolt 4, Wi-Fi 7, and a healthy mix of USB-C and USB-A. For a mini PC, that's a lot of connectivity.

Against something like the Apple Mac Studio M4 Max, the EliteDesk gets absolutely demolished on GPU and CPU performance, but it also costs a fraction of the price and runs Windows 11 Pro with vPro. The Lenovo Legion Tower 5a Gen 10 and ASUS ROG GM700 are gaming machines, so they're in a different universe for graphics but way bigger and louder. For pure office productivity in a tiny footprint, the EliteDesk holds its own. It's not trying to compete with those machines, and that's fine.

Pricing is all over the place. We found listings from USD 1,396 to USD 2,267 across seven US vendors, which is a USD 871 spread. That's a huge gap for the same machine. If you're paying over two grand for this, you're getting fleeced. At the lower end, around USD 1,400, it's a reasonable deal for a business mini PC with this much RAM and connectivity. Shop around before you commit.

The HP EliteDesk 8 G1i is a tiny desktop that punches above its weight for office work. It packs an Intel Core Ultra 5 235T, 32GB of DDR5, and a 512GB NVMe SSD into a 1.35kg box you can tuck behind a monitor. HP is clearly aiming this at businesses that want AI-ready hardware without a tower taking over the desk.

It's not a gaming machine, and it doesn't pretend to be. The integrated Intel graphics put it in the bottom half of our database for GPU performance. But for spreadsheets, browser tabs, and light dev work, this little box has real chops.

Gamers and anyone doing video editing or 3D work should look elsewhere. The integrated graphics are a hard bottleneck, and you'd be better off with a machine that has a dedicated GPU. Also, if you need more than 512GB of storage out of the box, you'll be adding drives immediately.

This is a business machine, full stop. If you need a quiet, compact desktop for office work, remote management, and lots of browser tabs, the EliteDesk 8 G1i is a solid pick. The 32GB of RAM and Thunderbolt 4 are the highlights. Just don't expect it to do anything graphically demanding.