Lenovo 3000 J105

Lenovo had a real chance to tap into the consumer market that IBM was neglecting, but the Lenovo 3000 J105 budget desktop is really only well suited to a basic productivity machine for corporate customers.

4/13/06 – Lenovo's first budget desktop computer system introduced into the US market comes equipped with the AMD Athlon 64 3200+ processor. This is a fairly strong processor found in a desktop PC computer system that should power most applications without much problem. This is matched up with 512MB of PC3200 DDR memory that is about standard for a budget desktop.

The storage for the 3000 J105 is well below average for this market segment. It only comes with an 80GB hard drive that is roughly half of the normal sized unit for a budget system. Lenovo also only supplies a CD-RW/DVD combo drive while most systems feature a full DVD burner. A lot of this stems from IBM's legacy of being a corporate computer supplier where data storage is not as much of a requirement as for consumers.

Graphics are typical of most budget desktop systems. The 3000 J105 uses the S3 UniChrome integrated graphics. This is fine for 2D applications but it lacks any significant 3D performance. Thankfully the 3000 J105 does have a graphics card slot for upgrading, but it uses the older AGP interface that is losing favor in the industry.

The one bright spot for the Lenovo 3000 J105 is the Windows XP Professional software. This is a step up from the XP Home version, but is also shows that Lenovo is still targeting the business consumers with basic productivity systems rather than the average home user.