HP EliteDesk HP 800 G1

The HP EliteDesk 800 G1 is a cheap, tank-like refurb for basic office work. It's got a snappy SSD and plenty of storage, but the decade-old processor and terrible integrated graphics make it useless for anything demanding. Only worth it if you can snag one at the very bottom of its price range.

That i5-4590 is a decade old, and it feels like it. For firing up Excel, answering emails, or running a point-of-sale system, it's totally fine. The 16GB of RAM helps keep multitasking smooth, and the SSD makes boot times snappy. But the integrated Intel HD Graphics 4600 is the real bottleneck here. It technically supports dual 4K monitors, which is great for a spreadsheet warrior, but our gaming score of 18.4 out of 100 tells you everything you need to know. This is not a machine for fun.

Stacked against a modern Apple Mac mini M4, this HP looks like a relic from another century. The Mac mini will run circles around it in every single task while sipping power. Even a more comparable refurb like a Dell Optiplex 7070 will give you a much newer Intel 8th or 9th gen chip for a similar price. And if you want tiny, the Minisforum DeskMini or wo-we Mini PCs are the size of a sandwich and vastly more powerful. The only reason to pick this HP is if you find it for under $200 and absolutely need that internal 3.5-inch drive bay.

Pricing on these refurbished units is all over the map, with a wild spread from $200 to nearly $5000 across vendors. Let's be real, anything over $250 for this machine is a rip-off. At the low end, you're getting a functional, warrantied Windows 11 PC for pocket change, which is hard to argue with for basic tasks. Just make sure you're buying from a seller with a solid return policy and not getting hosed on the price.

The HP EliteDesk 800 G1 is a refurbished office workhorse that refuses to die. It's packing a 4th-gen Intel i5, 16GB of DDR3 RAM, and a dual drive setup with a 256GB SSD for boot and a 1TB HDD for storage. HP built these things like tanks, and this one comes with Windows 11 Pro, a keyboard, and a mouse, so you can basically plug it in and get to work. Just don't expect it to do anything flashy.

If you need to do any photo editing, video work, or gaming, look elsewhere immediately. The integrated graphics are one of the worst we've seen for modern tasks. Also, if you want a small, quiet PC for your living room, this 6.35kg beast is a terrible fit.

This is a single-purpose machine. Buy it if you need the cheapest possible Windows 11 box to run a cash register, act as a terminal for remote desktop, or handle basic office drudgery. It's a beige box that does beige box things reliably. Anyone else should save their pennies for something newer.