HP Elite G9, Ryzen 5 8600G, 128GB, 4TB SSD

A RAM monster with a weak heart. 128GB of DDR5 and 4TB of storage in a tiny box, but the integrated graphics and mid CPU make it a one-trick pony.

The Ryzen 5 8600G is fine for everyday work. Six cores, 12 threads, boosts to 5GHz. It'll chew through spreadsheets, browser tabs, and light dev work without breaking a sweat. But that 128GB of RAM is the real story here. Our database puts it in the 99th percentile for memory, which is absurd for a machine with a CPU that ranks in the 41st percentile. The integrated Radeon 760M is the weak link, sitting in the 8th percentile for graphics. Don't expect to game on this thing beyond indie titles or very old stuff at low settings.

The Mac Studio M3 Ultra absolutely destroys this thing in raw performance, but it costs way more and runs macOS. The Lenovo Legion and MSI Aegis are gaming-focused towers with real GPUs, so they're better for anything graphical. The Dell Aurora ACT1250 is a closer match for office work but with a stronger CPU. Honestly, the Elite G9 only wins if you need massive RAM in a small footprint and don't care about graphics.

At $2,600 USD, this is a tough sell unless you specifically need 128GB of RAM in a tiny box. You're paying a premium for memory and storage while the CPU and GPU lag behind. If you need that much RAM for VMs or data work, fine. Otherwise, you can get a much faster machine for the same money.

The HP Elite G9 is a weird one. It's a small form factor office PC absolutely stuffed with RAM and storage, 128GB of DDR5 and a 4TB NVMe drive, but paired with a mid-range laptop processor and integrated graphics. The spec sheet reads like someone ordered the wrong parts and just went with it. For the right person, that's a killer combo. For everyone else, it's a head-scratcher.

If you want to play games or do any serious GPU work, this isn't it. Go get a Lenovo Legion or MSI Aegis with a real graphics card instead. If you just need a fast office PC, you're paying a huge premium for RAM you'll never use. A cheaper machine with 32GB would feel just as snappy for everyday tasks.

Buy this if you're running memory-hungry workloads like virtualization, large datasets, or heavy multitasking in a space-constrained office. Skip it if you want to game, edit video, or do anything GPU-intensive. The RAM and storage are fantastic, but the CPU and GPU hold this machine back from being a true all-rounder.