- Solid Warranty
- No DVD Burner
- Smaller Hard Drive
- Integrated Graphics
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Dual Core Processor
- 1GB PC2-4200 DDR2 Memory
- 160GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive
- 48x CD-RW/DVD Combo Drive
- Intel GMA 3000 Integrated Graphics
- Intel HDA Audio
- Gigabit Ethernet
- Six USB 2.0 Ports
- Windows XP Professional OS
3/27/07 – Lenovo wants to break into the US market with its name and brand, but with products like the ThinkCentre M55e they will continue to be seen as a company catering to businesses and not to individual consumers. Just take a closer look at what they offer in this mainstream desktop.
It doesn't start looking too bad when they provide the Core 2 Duo E6400 dual core processor and a full gigabyte of memory to go with it. This is pretty much a standard setup for a mainstream consumer desktop PC. The processor is even a step up from what most offer. The problem is that is just doesn't stay like this with the rest of the parts.
Storage is well below what other companies offer in even less expensive systems. The 160GB hard drive is on the small side considering that most companies offer drives in the 250GB to 320GB range. The big problem is with the optical drive. Lenovo only puts a 48x CD-RW/DVD combo drive instead of the more common 16x DVD burner. This is something that is even standard on most basic budget desktop PCs.
Graphics don't fare too much better than storage. The system only comes with an integrated Intel GMA 3000 graphics processor. This is fine for your day to day work and limited 3D, but it isn't really sufficient to power the Aero interface. Lenovo gets around this problem by bundling the Windows XP Professional operating system instead of the new Vista.
All of this wouldn't be so bad if the ThinkCentre M55 were priced below other mainstream systems, but this system is as much or more expensive than PCs with similar hardware or even ones with more features. This leaves it as something that corporations could use but consumers would be better off elsewhere.
