Lenovo recently announced a new line of low cost ThinkCentre desktops. Powered by AMD processors, the M75e comes in tower or Small Form Factor (SFF) designs starting around $500.
These are aimed at the mainstream corporate user, where common enterprise management and security features are needed and cost is a concern. Most users don’t need the latest Intel Core processors and six independent displays, making the much less expensive AMD chips an attractive option.
The base model of the M75e, in tower or SFF form, comes with a single-core Sempron processor and 2GB RAM at the $504 price point. The most expensive processor upgrade only adds $130 for a quad-core Athlon II chip and since a dual-core Athlon X2 will run $80, the quad-core is quite a value.
Lenovo was also thoughtful enough to include four DIMM slots, even though this is an entry level box, supporting up to 16GB DDR3 RAM. You do have some room to expand the rest of the components as well, with two internal hard drive bays (only one bay on the SFF), a PCI-e x16 graphics slot, two PCI-e x1 slots, and a good old PCI slot for good measure.
Overall this desktop is a great alternative to the pricier Intel systems, sacrificing few features between the chassis and offering far more day to day value. Users who run more intensive programs that would benefit from the Intel Core processors’ strengths, like video/audio encoding, might be better suited for an M90 or similar system, but the usual browser/office apps will hum along just fine with AMD.
Source: [Lenovo Files]
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