Lenovo ThinkCentre Neo 30s 2023, Core i5-13420H, 16GB, 256GB SSD, Black

A competent office drone with a storage capacity from 2015. Fine for email, terrible for anything else.

The i5-13420H is a laptop chip stuffed into a desktop chassis, and honestly, it handles office work fine. 8 cores and 12 threads will chew through browser tabs and Office apps without breaking a sweat. But that 256GB SSD is a real head-scratcher. We're talking 14th percentile for storage, which means you'll be playing the 'what do I delete today' game within a few months. The 16GB of DDR5 RAM is about average, nothing to write home about.

Stack this against the Apple Mac mini M4 Pro and it's not even close, the Mac mini absolutely demolishes it in performance while costing similar money. The Dell Tower Plus EBT2250 gives you more expandability if you need a traditional tower. And if you want any gaming capability at all, the HP OMEN GT16-0364 or ASUS ROG GM700TZ-BS978 are in a completely different league. The ThinkCentre only wins if you specifically need a small, durable business box with VGA output for legacy monitors.

At $900 USD, this is a tough sell. The EUR pricing is all over the place, ranging from EUR 1,158 to EUR 1,774 across three listings, which tells me some sellers are really hoping you won't shop around. If you're in Europe, the EUR 1,158 listing is the only one worth considering. But even then, you're paying a premium for the ThinkCentre name and that Windows 11 Pro license.

The Lenovo ThinkCentre Neo 30s is a business desktop that knows exactly what it is, and it's not trying to impress your gamer friends. This is a compact, no-nonsense workhorse built for spreadsheets, email, and the occasional video call. The one thing to know? It's a solid office machine with a surprisingly weak storage setup for the price.

If you're looking for a home PC that can handle gaming, video editing, or anything beyond office work, this isn't it. Go get a Mac mini M4 Pro for raw performance or a Dell Tower Plus for expandability. And if you need more than 256GB of storage without immediately cracking open the case, look elsewhere entirely.

Buy this if you need a reliable, compact office PC and you find it at the lower end of that EUR range or under $800 USD. Otherwise, the Mac mini M4 Pro is the better computer for the same money, and the Dell Tower Plus gives you more room to grow. The 256GB SSD alone should make you pause, upgrading that day one adds cost and hassle.