Today, we have the Lenovo 3000 H200 series PC with us. The Lenovo 3000 H series is primarily targeted at the consumers looking for a budget PC. It comes in three different configurations starting from Rs. 25,000 right up to Rs. 35,000. We have the top-most product in that range.
Well, let's hop over to the review.
Well, let's hop over to the review.
Lenevo, most probably, became famous after it bought over the entire PC and laptop manufacturing business from IBM. It is number one PC maker in China and also hopes to do the same trick over here. Budget PC makes up for the majority sales in the Indian market. This sector generally is a very difficult for the branded PC makers to capture, due to lower profit margin and absolutely no-cost for the operating system. Almost 99% of assembled PCs get bundled with pirated software and hence the end consumer doesn't have to bear the cost. Lenovo adopted a different stance this time and decided not to bundle any software with the H200 series of PC expect for MS-DOS. Users can decide if they want a licensed copy of Windows or even an alternative operating system such as Linux. They have provided a driver CD for Windows OS.
The Lenevo 3000 H200 comes in a complete package with a 17" Flatscreen CRT, Multimedia keyboard, speakers, etc. We received everything except the monitor.
The Lenevo 3000 H200 comes in a futuristic-looking micro ATX cabinet. It has matt-silver finish with glossy black borders.
On the front side, the optical disc drive is covered by a bezel, which opens and closes with the movement of the optical disc tray. One can put a maximum of two optical drives in the machine. The third bezel is concealment for two USB ports and Audio IO.
The power, reset button, power LED, and hard disk indicator LED is located on the top of the cabinet. They have also included a handle on the top, which makes carrying it around a breeze.
On the left side, there's a ventilation right above the area where CPU is installed on the motherboard. This helps in giving fresh air to the CPU heat sink for more effective cooling.
On the back side, we can see an 80 mm fan being used for blowing out hot air. It has all the necessary connectors and also includes an internal modem.
The Interiors
The cabinet was impressive from the outside, but same can't be said for the inside. The power and IDE cables were all messed up. Removing or adding an optical disc drive is exactly not easy as it looks. One has to remove many screws to do that.
Upgrading stuff on this one will be a bit of hassle.
The Specifications
Intel Pentium D 820 Processor
Foxconn 8657MF-Series Motherboard
512 MB DDR 400 MHz
Segate Barracuda 160GB SATA 7200 RPM
TSSTcorp 16x DVD-RW
Obviously, Lenovo won't claim the individual part's brand, as they become the OEM for Lenovo. The following is the bundle along with it.
Infinity Stereo Speakers
Anti-Bacterial Keyboard
Ball Mouse
17 Inch Hi-Bright Flat CRT
1GB Memory Stick
Lenovo 4430 Color Inkjet Printer
The Benchmarks
We performed the usual PC Mark and SiSoft Sandra benchmarks for it. Due to the lack of a dedicated graphic card, we omitted the 3D Mark series or any gaming benchmarks. Anyways, this machine is not targeted for gaming.
PC Mark 2005
SiSoft Sandra 2007
Well, the performance was decent enough for an office environment. Don't try heavy multi-media on this one, even though it comes with a dual core processor. Another thing to note down that this machine doesn't come with any OS preloaded. So, it's up to the user to install it. So, one needs to consider the cost of the OS as well.
An Athlon 64 based machine could give more performance without any increase in cost. But Lenovo is strictly tied to use Intel processors. Besides, Intel brand name has much more value in the corporate and enterprise field.
Final Words
For a price of Rs. 35,000, it is a fantastic deal for a Lenovo PC. The reliability of a branded PC along with the price of an assembled machine is what Lenovo 3000 H200 is offering. The only downside is the complete lack of OS. Even a freely distributed Linux OS would have been a good option. Other than that, it has everything a SOHO PC needs, i.e. Printer, DVD Writer, etc. Overall a good buy and don't give it a miss in case you are planning to buy a budget PC. The same PC is available in lower configuration up to as low as Rs. 25,000.
